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YouTube tests server-side ads to make your coveted blocker obsolete (www.yahoo.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

381 comments fedilink hide all child comments

YouTube has been spotted testing server-side ads, which could pose a problem to ad blockers.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I would settle for something that simply turns the screen black and turns audio off whenever ads play. I don't care if YouTube gets paid for it, I just want to decrease the value of ads and prevent myself from seeing them.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I don't care if YouTube gets paid for it

Legally, YouTube have to detect if ads were blocked and and mark the impression as non-billable. They can't charge advertisers for blocked ads.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 months ago (2 children)

They can only tell that something is blocked because the ad wasn't loaded from a server. If it's not loaded, then they can't count it as "viewed."

If the ad is just blacked over, it is still loaded, and they wouldn't know.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If the ad is just blacked over, it is still loaded, and they wouldn’t know.

If it became a common thing, they'd have to add detection for it. Not necessarily to stop people doing it, but to ensure advertisers aren't charged for invalid impressions. Practically every major ad network has adblocking detection; they just don't always make it obvious (e.g. they might silently log it).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

If they were effectively able to detect it they would be able to block you watching the rest of the video.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Well they also infest the client side since they likely developed the main part of your web browser, so they can still know there's a black cover in the DOM.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I already put my phone down on my desk and turn the audio down whenever an ad pops up, they can't tell it isn't being viewed.