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Did ad blockers survive YouTube's offensive? Letting numbers talk (adguard.com)

submitted 5 months ago by ForgottenFlux to c/technology

158 comments fedilink hide all child comments

TL;DR version:

From June to August, the number of active users of the AdGuard Ad Blocker extension for Chrome dropped by about 8%. But in late August, the trend reversed. The temporary slump in user growth was offset by the increased demand in the second half of the year.

After a brief period of turbulence that lasted about a month, we saw the trend stabilize. And while the daily number of uninstalls was still higher than before YouTube's crackdown, it remained consistently lower than the number of daily installs.

After media reports and YouTube’s own statements implied that ad blockers were doomed, and especially after more and more users started noticing that their ad blocking extensions were not working properly on YouTube, we did indeed see a spike in uninstalls. However, at the same time, the number of installs also increased significantly! It may well be that the way ad blockers’ woes were amplified in the media inadvertently boosted their popularity and helped them woo new users.

The takeaway from all of this is that ad blockers — first and foremost, ad-blocking extensions — were rocked by YouTube’s onslaught, but survived. And, moreover, the interest has rebounded, as is evidenced by the growth in the number of active users.

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[–] zkfcfbzr 8 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I saw the Youtube banner telling me it detected an ad blocker and wouldn't let me watch a lot for about a week. Now it's been over two months with nothing but smooth sailing on μBlock Origin. I'm even back to being able to block Shorts from appearing on my sub feed, where before it seemed like any YT-specific filters would let them detect the blocker.

[–] Sinful 9 points 5 months ago (4 children)

How do you block shorts? Please and thanks.

[–] Z3k3 11 points 5 months ago

I recently found Firefox has extensions for blocking them on your homepage works a treat with app an sponsor block.

Added them the last time my hide for 30 days expired and the option was gone.

Seriously why the fuck would I want to watch vertical videos on my desktop that if I wasn't blocking them would be bookends by ads longer than the fucking video

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I know that the re-vanced app on Android has a setting to remove them. Not sure about desktop.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

There's a set of filters that hides them from your feed and from search results. If I remember tonight, I'll share it when I'm back on my home computer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Here's my list of uBO filters that hides Shorts from Youtube

! Hide all videos containing the phrase "#shorts"
youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has(#video-title:has-text(#shorts))
youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has(#video-title:has-text(#Shorts))
youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has(#video-title:has-text(#short))
youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has(#video-title:has-text(#Short))
! Hide all videos with the shorts indicator on the thumbnail
youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
youtube.com##ytd-rich-item-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
youtube.com##ytd-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
youtube.com##ytd-item-section-renderer.ytd-section-list-renderer[page-subtype="subscriptions"]:has(ytd-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"]))
! Hide shorts button in sidebar
youtube.com##ytd-guide-entry-renderer:has-text(Shorts)
youtube.com##ytd-mini-guide-entry-renderer:has-text(Shorts)
! Hide shorts section on homepage
youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer:has(#rich-shelf-header:has-text(Shorts))
youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer:has(.ytd-reel-shelf-renderer:has-text(Shorts))
! Hide shorts tab on channel pages
! Old style
youtube.com##tp-yt-paper-tab:has(.tp-yt-paper-tab:has-text(Shorts))
! New style (2023-10)
youtube.com##yt-tab-shape:has-text(/^Shorts$/)
! Remove empty spaces in grid
youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-row,#contents.ytd-rich-grid-row:style(display: contents !important)