YouTube is dynamically returning to the fight against Ad Blockers, causing reactions and concerns in the user community.
In an effort to boost its revenue, YouTube has long been trying to convince its users to upgrade to its premium tier, which costs $14/month. Failure to do so will result in viewers watching ads, with YouTube even testing intense testing with up to eleven ad-skipping options, though the subsequent backlash led the company to end that experimental approach. As for people who continue to use workarounds like ad blockers, the streaming had some other plans, including, but not limited to, slowing down load times.
YouTube now appears to be reinstating this particular campaign against ad blockers, as Reddit NightMean noted. Many other users in the thread agree, with some even reporting that they mistakenly believed the slowdown was due to reduced Internet. Loading times, it is reported, improve significantly when the ad blocker is disabled.
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The folks at 9to5Google tested this out for themselves and experienced slow previews and reported that even full-screen or theater mode wasn't possible, requiring a page refresh. Additionally, the site found that some of the previews refused to load properly in this state.
However, I haven’t had the same misfortune, suggesting that this new wave of ad block restrictions may be limited to certain regions for now. At the same time, a similar issue appears to be affecting at least one YouTube Premium, which may or may not be related. In a statement in November, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed that some users with ad blocks may be experiencing “suboptimal viewing,” referring to slow loading times on the platform. It’s possible that YouTube is starting to expand this behavior to more users. While a few lucky users may be able to bypass this new restriction, YouTube will likely find more ways to convince users to disable ad blockers or pay $14 per month for Premium.
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YouTube's fight against ad blockers has intensified in 2023, with the platform testing several new methods to prevent their use. The first experiment took place around the Google I/O period in May, where users saw a banner inviting them to disable the ad blocker (allow ads) or try the Premium subscription.
Then we discovered a more aggressive three-failure policy, disabling the video player after three videos. This was replaced a few weeks later by a timer that served a similar purpose. It was pretty obvious then that YouTube had yet to figure out a way to convince users to adopt the Premium subscription or to get them to disable software .
While slowing down loading times may be a way to annoy users enough to make them switch, only time will tell if the company will succeed in its long-term battle against ad blocking software.
Information source: androidpolice.com
