Ad blockers saw record uninstalls in October after YouTube expanded its crackdown on ad blockers, while those unaffected by the clampdown saw record installs
https://www.wired.com/... X: Jake Williams / @malwarejake : YouTube notwithstanding, ad blockers that block ads on third-party sites actually help Google compete for ad dollars in its search results. Joseph Cox / @josephfcox : New: as YouTube is cracking down on adblockers, employees from Google recently spoke at an adblock conference encouraging use of them Shows just how messy Google's involvement is, and how it's impossible to play “play lawyer, judge and jury” all at once https://www.404media.co/... [image] Forums: Hacker News : YouTube's plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers r/technology : YouTube's Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls of Ad Blockers r/technews : YouTube's Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls of Ad Blockers r/Piracy : As YouTube Declares War on Ad Blockers, Google Sponsors Ad Blocking Conference. Ijeff To / Beehaw : YouTube's plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers See also Mediagazer
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Context & Ripple Effects
YouTube had first tested prompts that asked viewers to disable blockers or consider Premium, then moved to a global limit of three videos for affected users. The October data shows that enforcement is now reshaping which blocking tools users keep, rather than simply deterring ad blocking overall.
The split between removals of affected tools and installs of unaffected ones makes this a product-compatibility contest. It also foreshadows the more iterative detection-and-countermeasure battle that followed between YouTube and blocker developers.
First-order effects
Blockers caught by YouTube’s enforcement lost users at a record pace, while tools that still worked on YouTube gained installs.
YouTube gains immediate leverage to push affected viewers toward allowing ads or taking the subscription option previewed in its three-video global test.
Second-order effects
Blocker developers have a direct incentive to alter detection-resistant designs and to distinguish products by whether they continue to work on YouTube.
Users seeking uninterrupted viewing are redistributed among blocker products rather than uniformly abandoning them, weakening the idea that enforcement alone settles the ad-blocking issue.
Third-order effects
If enforcement and circumvention continue to alternate, access to major platforms becomes a recurring maintenance cost for privacy and filtering tools, favoring developers able to respond quickly.
Google’s dual role—depending on advertising while employees encouraged ad-blocker use in the cited discussion—illustrates how platform ad policy can remain internally conflicted as ad blocking becomes more selective by surface.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift from broad browser-level ad blocking to a platform-by-platform contest over ad access, subscriptions, and enforcement resilience.
Ads can certainly be better, and I wish they were. I've experienced similar issues with YT ads. But adblockers are as cut-and-dry as you can get. They block ads, completely. That's why the subject of using adblockers usually turns into a discussion of whether ads are good or …
Once upon a time Google considered adblock rates an important signal for the overall quality of the ads experience. Trying to fight blockers tells me they no longer care about that and: a) they're confident in the strength of their monopoly and/or b) they're desperate for revenu…
but why is this discourse seemingly always reduced to ppl being either flatly for or against the very notion of ads? when realistically what drives ppl crazy is like, YT shoving a 2-hour infomercial into the first 40 seconds of a video, or a streaming service throwing a set of a…
The adblocker discussion is surfacing (again) at a really funny time, as people realize their free stuff either will require a subscription, in lieu of paid advertisements. So, pick your poison. Paid, or free with ads.
Soon someone will design an adblocker that YouTube can't see. And the user vs platform wars will continue. Frankly, it's not that people mind ads. It's how often they are shown and how intrusive they are. Hence the adblocking of banners in the past and now the irritating popu…
Google sponsors an ad blocking conference where 5 of its employees spoke while YouTube has declared war on ad blockers leading to record uninstalls. This is the nature of big tech. The teams in charge of making money are ruthless cutthroats (ads, subscriptions, etc) while every…
New: as YouTube is cracking down on adblockers, employees from Google recently spoke at an adblock conference encouraging use of them Shows just how messy Google's involvement is, and how it's impossible to play “play lawyer, judge and jury” all at once https://www.404media.co/..…