Ah, the battle continues as predicted. Over the past one or two years, a cat and mouse game played out between Google-owned YouTube and content blockers. YouTube implemented various systems to limit or block users with ad-blockers from accessing videos, and the makers of the solutions tweaked their extensions and services to bypass them again.
The next stage of this back and forth battle has just begun, claims Tom’s Guide. According to the website, YouTube has updated its systems on November 7. While the company has not publicly revealed anything about the update, thousands of users flocked to various Internet sites reportedly since then claiming that YouTube was down or not working for them anymore.
Turns out, YouTube did not have an outage but did make changes that blocked certain ad-blockers from doing their works. Most users reported that the YouTube homepage was not loaded at all for them and that videos would not buffer, or take a very long time to start playing.
Especially extensions, like AdBlock Plus, are affected reportedly. However, some extensions or options seem to work still. Brave Browser’s built-in content blocker, for instance, worked just well this morning when I tested it on YouTube.
Firefox with uBlock Origin installed worked as well. It is possible that only some content blockers are affected, or that updates were released already that address the issue.
In any event, it is very likely that this is not Google’s last attempt at blocking users with ad-blockers from accessing videos on YouTube.
Affected users have a few options to address the issue. The first thing they may want to do is disable the content blocker to verify that YouTube is not down. Once verified, using a different content blocker or web browser with integrated content blocker might help.
Now You: do you use YouTube regularly? What do you use to watch videos on YouTube?
FreeTube. Firefox with uBlock Origin is way too slow.
Increasing ads and increasing anti-ad-blockers. Radicalism is often the source of clashes when not of wars. Google’s approach is radical, hence users become radical in their attempt to view decently YouTube videos. I’m convinced that acceptable advertisement would substantially reduce the use of ad-blockers. At the opposite ads grow like a cancer and aim to be force-fed.
Once upon a time… I had a YouTube account, even a Google account. I closed the former when I closed the latter. Genesis.
When I noticed that YouTube had become bloated, slow, and requiring an account, I decided to find an alternative; not an alternative to YouTube itself but to the way I’d access its videos. That led to accessing its videos only in their embedded iFrame format.
Great. Immediate display, no ads. Only problem was videos’ description were of course not included. To resolve that a dedicated button was added to connect to an Invidious instance only to retrieve the videos’ dialogs and comments. Very few Invidious instances survived and among them some will retrieve the descriptions and comments but less easily the video itself …
The concept now is: 1- video via embedded YouTube, 2- Via a working Invidious instance if a whatever YouTube restriction (mainly geographical), 3- Videos’ description & comments via an Invidious instance with a dedicated CSS to display them only (without the video) in a small popup window.
All this is performed with redirecting urls, userScripts and userStyles.
Side-note concerning YouTube AI dubbing: several tools and scripts exist but there is a 4 line UBO filter that does the job and, for those who don’t use UBO, a dedicated userScript. The script didn’t work for me but the UBO filter does, perfectly:
[https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/555043-anti-youtube-auto-dub]
Surviving starts with resistance.
“Once upon a time… I had a YouTube account, even a Google account. I closed the former when I closed the latter. Genesis.”
Can not be done by everybody. I have a small Android Tablet and Google TV streaming box. I have to have Google email to use them. If I cancel a Google account, I would probably be permanently logged out and not be able to use those widgets unless I make another Google account. I know that there are going to be complainers: “Why are you using Google TV?”. Alternatives like Roku and Amazon Fire track and advertise as much as Google. I might as well use Google TV because it has the best interface for my taste and voice recognition can be disabled. So my Google TV at least not listening to me unlike Fire TV or Roku.
@boris, I can understand that as I can understand then starting the moment you use a Google product you’ll need most of the time a Google account. Should I be faced with the same necessities that I’d have a Google account, it’s just that I don’t have them. This said, it is of course possible to have a Google account and restrict it to when it is absolutely required (Android Tablet, Google TV …) and log out & block the myriad of Google 3rd-party connections/cookies in all other areas of our surfing habits, though it’s tougher. uBO of course can do that, at least partially.
Coming back to YouTube, it is as well viewable without a Google/YouTube account when workarounds and especially uBO are active. Of course no YouTube account means no videos and comments of our own.
But you know all that already if I rely on your comments here and on Ghacks.
@Tom Hawack, [https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/555043-anti-youtube-auto-dub]
I also disabled this script because when opening a desktop PC to any address on Youtube – no clip can be started, no matter if and how many times F5 is pressed – the buttons are hidden and no clip can be started in any way, except by disabling this script.
Non-issue for me… long-term FF + uBO user. Never have seen ads on YT, or anywhere else.
These days I use Invidious by default anyway (via the LibRedirect FF add-on, recommended).