While Google is intensifying its fight against adblockers on YouTube, developers of adblocking solutions are pushing back.
A recent development introduced a new category of tools that improve the user experience on YouTube: so-called ad skippers.
Unlike adblockers, which block advertisement using filter lists or AI, ad skippers either skip ads, hence the name, or fast forward them.
This new type of extension is designed specifically for video ads.
AdBlitz
AdBlitz is a browser extension for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. It is an open source extension; you can check out its source on GitHub.
One downside to using the extension currently is that it is not available in the official extension stores. While it is doubtful if it ever will make its way to the Chrome Web Store, it could one day land on Mozilla’s add-ons store.
Since it is not available there yet, it is necessary to install the extension using development options.
First Step in all browsers:
- Download the extension from the official website. Just click on the icon of your browser to do so.
- Extract the downloaded archive.
Firefox:
- Load about:debugging in the address bar.
- Switch to “This Firefox”.
- Select “Load Temporary Add-on”.
- Browse to the folder you extracted the archive to and select the manifest.json file.
- Confirm the installation of the extensions.
Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers:
- Load chrome://extensions in the browser’s address bar.
- Toggle Developer Mode on the page.
- Select “Load unpacked”.
- Navigate to the directory you extracted the archive to.
- Confirm the installation of the extension.
Using the extension on YouTube
AdBlitz works only on YouTube at the time of writing. Depending on the browser, you may need to allow it to run on YouTube.
In Firefox, you’d click on the general extension icon in the browser’s toolbar and select the preferences icon of the installed extension. Here you select the “always allow” option while on YouTube.
The extension works automatically from that moment on. In other words:
- Some ads are skipped entirely.
- Other ads are fast forwarded (16x).
While the second option still shows some of the ad, it usually means that the entire ad block is done in a second or two.
The extension works with single video ads and multiple ads that YouTube plays one after the other.
Closing Words
Content blockers like uBlock Origin work well at the time of writing. Ad skippers offer an alternative that may continue to work when Google decides to play hardball.
My advice: keep on using uBlock Origin or other content blockers that work at the time of writing. These are a must-have anyway on today’s Internet.
It is a good idea to keep an eye on ad skippers and their development, just in case.
What about you? Have you tried ad skippers?