Google's anti-ad scripts are breaking browsers and privacy plugins. It could get worse because Google controls the ad market, Chrome, and the extension store.

Google’s anti-ad scripts are breaking browsers and privacy plugins. It could get worse because Google controls the ad market, Chrome, and the extension store.

      • PM_ME_YOUR_ZOD_RUNES@sh.itjust.works
        13·
        1 year ago

        I haven’t logged out since they started this push and I don’t get them with just Firefox/uBlock. I was getting them for a bit and they even blocked me completely at one point. But I just cleared my uBlock cache and updated and it’s been working fine.

      • LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml
        5·
        1 year ago

        Yes I am. I even got the pop-ups for a couple days a week ago, but I just closed the pop ups and resumed the videos with no ads

      • vinyl@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        I got those popups while not even being logged in at some points, but just purging the cache on uBlock filters seems to work.

      • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
        279·
        1 year ago

        Opera GX 🤢🤮

        Use a proper browser like Firefox or preferably LibreWolf with a proper adblocker like uBlock Origin. LibreWolf even comes with uBO preinstalled. It also makes many other significant privacy security improvements compared to normal Firefox.

        • TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zipEnglish
          66·
          1 year ago

          Literally say I have uBO on so lol chill. It works fine so I see no need to swap. Been using opera since before it went chromium and it’s been fine so no real need to swap. Haven’t run into issues with being told to use chrome/edge I’ve seen people post on here, haven’t run into issues with having to update uBO or anything for it to work with YouTube so I’m fine. Plus workspaces and CPU/Internet limiters are nice.

          • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
            131·
            1 year ago

            I do actually see a need for you to switch, Opera is one of the shadiest browsers owned by some weird Chinese company. It collects all of your data and sends it right to China, I wouldn’t be comfortable using this, it’s far worse than Chrome or even Edge. They also run really weird ads and marketing campaigns, just use Firefox or LibreWolf, the latter has uBlock Origin preinstalled and it’s pre-configured for maximum privacy. I can only recommend it!

            • TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zipEnglish
              33·
              1 year ago

              I mean I don’t really care if China has my data. Rather them than a US company. Not much china’s government can do about me (and not like I’m gonna be some high priority target for them so, whatever. If they wanted my data that bad they could just buy it from every American company anyways. )

              Understandable though if you don’t want china having your data. I just have mostly given up on caring about it. Someone is gonna have my data anyways.

              • jamyang@lemmy.ml
                1·
                1 year ago

                Don’t fund their army with your data dude. Switch to some Firefox fork ASAP.

              • Fluffery@lemmy.ml
                1·
                1 year ago

                Its not the point of China having your data. Its the point of opera sells that data, and they have it in the first place

          • Dogeek@sh.itjust.works
            5·
            1 year ago

            The problem is that it is chromium based, hence giving Google more power in deciding internet standards (like their web environment integrity API proposed a few months ago)

      • Synthead@lemmy.worldEnglish
        212·
        1 year ago

        Paying isn’t a bad idea if you want to do that.

        Google creeping on your privacy and your right to view HTML the way you choose to is gross and violating.

        These two ideologies don’t have much overlap, and definitely can coexist separately.

        • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
          21·
          1 year ago

          Y’all have a strangely strong emotional reaction to me just informing you that paying for the product works well as well.

          Sometimes you pay for a product and it’s not what you expected or it sucks.

  • walkercricket@sh.itjust.works
    66·
    1 year ago

    Honestly, I think it’s great: if it annoys people enough, they will move out from Chrome and install Firefox (or one of its forks) with good extensions for blocking ads on YouTube. It seems to be the only solution to break the monopoly of Google on browsers. So go Google, I believe in you!

    • drcabbage@lemmy.ml
      303·
      1 year ago

      Nah, most people are dumb, they will just continue to complain and assume there is nothing they can do.

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee
        4·
        1 year ago

        Yeah but even dumb people when annoyed enough will listen to alternatives. Specially when this one is so damn easy. It’s not like editing config files or changing partitions, it’s just using another damn browser.

        • ElNuevo@lemmy.lemist.de
          1·
          1 year ago

          The key is “annoyed enough”. I personally know many people who have never used adblockers and don’t see why they’re necessary.

      • sic_1@feddit.de
        73·
        1 year ago

        Nope it doesn’t. Mine works without any modifications but I heard that it happens occasionally. There are some easy steps to set up FF to work again, should be easy to look up.

        • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          2·
          1 year ago

          I went through the instructions with the removing other extensions and resetting things and pasting filters etc. multiple times but it kept breaking, ended up switching to FreeTube. Maybe they’ve got it by now but I’m going to wait until it all shakes out more, too much hassle.

          Plus if you read the article, you can’t tell how it works overall just because it works for you, because YouTube is treating different groups of users differently here.

          • Player2@sopuli.xyz
            1·
            1 year ago

            I had it pop up a couple times in Firefox, but it went away when I enabled the Annoyances filter in ublock settings. The videos just work now, no problem

    • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
      32·
      1 year ago

      This is a dumb take. Being behind a paywall means it’s not controlled by Google and its ad network.

      Are these webpages and people just supposed to work for free?

        • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
          2·
          1 year ago

          I pay for YouTube and I think people need to stop complaining so much about ads if they’re not willing to support the infrastructure or the creators they likely watch hours and hours of content from.

          I also think Google is charging too much and should decouple music from videos, but that’s another subject.

          • JWBananas@startrek.websiteEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            I also pay for YouTube. I just don’t normally bring it up because it usually results in a lot of rather unpleasant replies.

            It’s fascinating, really.

            Google gets a lot of hate for being a data collection behemoth. The whole “if you aren’t paying, you are the product” thing. And rightfully so.

            And pirates love to say that if companies would just charge a reasonable rate for an easy-to-use service, then they would just pay instead of pirating.

            But when it comes to YouTube, a lot of people seem to want to have it both ways.

      • the w@beehaw.orgEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        404 media in particular do great work. They’re all defectors from Motherboard (vice) and I think supporting them is both worthwhile and worth it.

  • somedaysoon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    222·
    1 year ago

    No problems on desktop with Firefox and uBlock Origins and no problem on my TVs with SmartTubeNext and no problems on mobile with Revanced so far. I have yet to encounter any ad blocking messaging or ads themselves.

    • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I’ll add that ReVanced and FireFox + UBlock are working fine for me still, still need to install STN tho

      I even recently dropped my Premium sub (when they ditched Pixel Pass) so I was kinda expecting retaliation for bailing on em but nothing so far

      • dracul104@lemmy.sdf.org
        1·
        1 year ago

        It’s easy enough. You’ll need to grab an apk for YouTube so ReVanced Manager can modify and install it. That’s about it.

        • thejevans@lemmy.ml
          4·
          1 year ago

          I don’t understand why people are calling grayjay a “better revanced” they have pretty different feature sets and solve different problems.

          • vinyl@lemmy.world
            13·
            1 year ago

            The only different thing about grayjay is the polycentric account instead of having your YouTube account other than that all the features are the same or even better. What is there not to understand.

            • thejevans@lemmy.ml
              3·
              1 year ago

              Grayjay does not have sponsorblock. Grayjay does not sync my subscriptions across my other devices. Grayjay will not have YouTube features as they roll out. Etc.

              Grayjay is basically newpipe (youtube scraper) + casting + centralized, unmoderated comments + other services.

              YouTube Revanced is a patched, debloated version of YouTube itself.

              Grayjay does a lot of cool stuff, but they are different tools for different problems. Youtube Revanced allows users to have a better Youtube experience on their phone without losing any functionality. Grayjay is asking users to change a lot about how they watch Youtube.

              • vinyl@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 year ago

                Nvm on building revanced! There is Revanced Manager, a couple clicks now to download and install, no need to use grayjay now.

        • somedaysoon@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          It isn’t better right now… there is a subscription rate limit and a few other issues. Revanced is far more polished and reliable right now. Grayjay might mature into a better app in the future, but it is far from better right now. I’m subscribed to Rossman, so I tried it when he announced it on the channel… gave it a fair shake, but then uninstalled it. I’ll check in on it every few months, but for YouTube specifically Revanced > grayjay.

  • CaptObvious@literature.cafe
    181·
    1 year ago

    So far a Firefox workaround seems to be copying the URL into a fresh private browser window.

    It may not be enough to matter, but a not-insignificant number of users will simply abandon YouTube if this keeps up.

    • Gestrid@lemmy.caEnglish
      18·
      1 year ago

      Or just use uBlock Origin? It blocks YouTube’s ads (and their adblocker-blockers) right out of the gate. It’s also available on Firefox for Android.

        • Gestrid@lemmy.caEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          Have you followed the instructions in the devs’ Reddit thread? (At the bottom of the thread, they also have a section of instructions for people who’ve already gone through the process of purging their filters before.)

          Also, make sure nothing else (ex. another adblocker, including your browser’s built-in adblocker) is causing issues.

        • dracul104@lemmy.sdf.org
          13·
          1 year ago

          It’s too much of a pain to use for me personally. I really don’t want to spend time figuring out which scripts to enable every time I visit a new site. Adblock I can just turn on and forget with minimum effort.

          • vaionko@sopuli.xyz
            31·
            1 year ago

            I have never had to touch anything on uBlock origin. Well, before this youtube stuff when I sometimes have to manually update a block list when YT gets a new adblocker blocker

            • dracul104@lemmy.sdf.org
              1·
              1 year ago

              I already use uBlock Origin. I haven’t had any issues with it. I was replying to the person who said NoScript was better.

            • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              I never had to touch anything in uBlock Origin, not even once, I just have to remember to check for updates every now and then. I see some people saying sometimes they still get ads on youtube, not sure if it’s youtube testing new targeting, but I’ve never seen ads on YT anyway, I guess I’m not interesting enough to them XD

          • Trihilis@feddit.nl
            21·
            1 year ago

            Download Firefox. Look up “ublock origin firefox” in search engine of choice. Click install. Done!

            It’s that easy…

  • 1984@lemmy.today
    111·
    1 year ago

    FreeTube works fantastic on desktop. No ads and instant playback and high quality. Amazing app.

    • Flying_Hellfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Piped is so slow for me, I’m not sure if it’s a me issue or a host issue. I finally spun up viewtube to test it out since running my own piped instance seemed cumbersome.

      • Gestrid@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Same here. I tried loading the same 13-second video on Piped and YouTube. YouTube played it instantly. Piped took several seconds (probably longer than the video lasted) to start playing.

        • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
          1·
          1 year ago

          To be fair, Piped serves as a proxy, you’re not getting the content served directly from YouTubes’ servers