In order to combat ad blockers, Google seems to “artificially” block the loading of YouTube videos, but not on all web browsers.
Five seconds is how long some Firefox and Microsoft Edge users say they have to wait before they can load a YouTube video. Google claims that this is part of its intention to fight against ad blockers, but Chrome seems to be spared.
YouTube no longer messes with ad blockers
YouTube has started to seriously block ad blockers, in order to push users to upgrade to the paid subscription of the service. An understandable approach on the part of the company which must remunerate the content creators who depend on the platform.
But on Reddit, a user recently shared a video showing weirder behavior from YouTube when the site is used on Firefox and Microsoft Edge. As you can see, changing the “user agent” allows you to see that a delay of 5 seconds is applied before loading a video, but not with the Chrome browser…
Credit: vk6_ on Reddit
Other Reddit users have noticed slower loading of videos, again on Firefox and Edge. By looking at the JavaScript code of the YouTube client, we see a piece of code that could correspond to the implementation of this delay.
For our part, we were unable to reproduce the problem on Edge, for a simple reason: we did not have an ad blocker installed on the browser. Indeed, YouTube made an official statement on this subject, specifying that the “problem” is indeed linked to the use of an ad blocker:
“To support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and enable billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube, we launched an effort to encourage viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. Users with ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing regardless of which browser they use. »
That has the merit of being clear. In its battle to combat ad blocking on videos on its platform, YouTube has started a cat-and-mouse game, sometimes causing the blockers in question to be installed.
But the effectiveness of such a hunt for adblockers should not be underestimated. Like Netflix which now limits account sharing, YouTube could lose users, but gain profitability. As a reminder, YouTube Premium is now billed at €12.99, for a single user.
On the same subject: Does YouTube have the right to block your ad blocker?
Source :
Android Authority
