Ublock Origin being blocked/disabled in Chrome June 2024.

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Dec 10, 2005
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i always have to shake my head whenever i read "computer people to find a way to make computers NOT act like computers".

Back 2-3 months ago when Google went crazy and essentially broke YouTube, there was about a week where the adblockers didn't work or, more realistically, worked at 50% efficiency. Got a couple of black-screen videos, videos not playing, broken buttons, but within 10-ish days everything was back to normal.

incidentally, i have found a new, *awesome* extension, called SponsorBlock (google it) which identifies (and optionally, auto-skips) the parts of a YouTube video where the 'tuber has their sponsor bit .. you know, the "The romans were very cool. But now let's talk about SQUARESPACE !!" bit.

Google trying to break adblockers has actually improved my browsing experience. lol.

Get yourself SponsorBlock, it's awesome.
Sponsored ads built directly into a video bother me less than Youtube's commercials. YT's often randomly pop up in the middle of dialog, breaking the whole flow of the video. At least from the videos I watch, sponsored ads tend to be near the beginning or end, so it isn't a big deal.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,764
2,279
126
Sponsored ads built directly into a video bother me less than Youtube's commercials. YT's often randomly pop up in the middle of dialog, breaking the whole flow of the video. At least from the videos I watch, sponsored ads tend to be near the beginning or end, so it isn't a big deal.
yeah, i know how you feel. and i got some good news, if this matters to you.

But before i give you the good news let's talk about Squarespace.
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Everyone has unique needs for their website, so there’s one way to know if Squarespace is right for you: try it!

We offer a free 14-day trial so you can explore our platform, begin building a website, and decide if you're ready to subscribe to Squarespace. If you're still not sure or if you need more time, you can extend it or start again later. Learn more about trials.

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Now back to the good stuff. Youtube sponsor revenue is not impacted by SponsorBlock, all you need to qualify is a certain amount of total video views; the contract is to have the ad placed in the video, not tied to any metric - practically everyone skips (manually) the ads anyway - but just being constantly told SQUARESPACE, SQUARESPACE, SQUARESPACE AMAIRTE ? is sufficient to work as an advertisement. You don't think people ready bus stop billboards, do you?
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,456
12,610
126
www.anyf.ca
I don't mind the sponsor bits TOO much, but keep it short. I hate when they go on for like 10 minutes. I tend to skip that. I find Linus Tech Tips has it down pretty good, because it's practically a meme how they segway to the sponsor in some creative ways sometimes, and their sponsor bits are very short like 30 seconds.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,244
10,817
136
i always have to shake my head whenever i read "computer people to find a way to make computers NOT act like computers".

Back 2-3 months ago when Google went crazy and essentially broke YouTube, there was about a week where the adblockers didn't work or, more realistically, worked at 50% efficiency. Got a couple of black-screen videos, videos not playing, broken buttons, but within 10-ish days everything was back to normal.

incidentally, i have found a new, *awesome* extension, called SponsorBlock (google it) which identifies (and optionally, auto-skips) the parts of a YouTube video where the 'tuber has their sponsor bit .. you know, the "The romans were very cool. But now let's talk about SQUARESPACE !!" bit.

Google trying to break adblockers has actually improved my browsing experience. lol.

Get yourself SponsorBlock, it's awesome.
The exact same thing happened to me. I also got the add in to restore the down vote counter. Also I think the while episode made a lot of people aware that ad blockers existed.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,456
12,610
126
www.anyf.ca
It would be suicide for Chrome to actually follow through, I have a feeling it's never going to happen. If by chance they did and people don't want to go back to Firefox there's plenty of options to block at the network level as well like Pihole.
 
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SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
7,424
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It would be suicide for Chrome to actually follow through, I have a feeling it's never going to happen. If by chance they did and people don't want to go back to Firefox there's plenty of options to block at the network level as well like Pihole.
Yeah we all go to Firefox and there goes all that great personal information Google can harvest and resell from our browsing.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
7,724
2,702
146
Hmm, so it sounds like Ublock Origin still works on Chrome for now? Interesting.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,593
11,276
136
It would be suicide for Chrome to actually follow through, I have a feeling it's never going to happen. If by chance they did and people don't want to go back to Firefox there's plenty of options to block at the network level as well like Pihole.

IMO to label it as 'suicide' is as optimistic as it gets, the idea that most people care enough about ads to do anything about it or the idea that most will choose software for idealistic reasons.

IMO the only potential path to reality that your prediction could come true in is that *sometimes* where techies go, users follow. For example, the fall of Internet Explorer. Even then, just like back in the days when IE ruled the roost, there are sites that only work at all / properly in Chromium browsers, and IE largely fell because it didn't perform well *and* had no competition for years. Chrome does perform well, and I'm saying this as a Firefox user.

IMO Chrome would need to completely ban ad blockers and then ads would have to get ten times more obnoxious than they are now for another major migration to occur. Preferably combined with Chrome sitting on its laurels while Firefox revolutionises web browsing again.
 
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