Originally Published 6 months ago — by Hacker News
The article discusses the ongoing battle against Google's anti-adblock measures, the limitations of browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and the broader issues of web standards, privacy, and market dominance. It highlights efforts to bypass restrictions, the importance of using alternative browsers like Firefox and Brave, and criticizes Google's monopolistic practices, advocating for more diversity and political action to address these issues.
Google denies that recent YouTube slowdowns are related to its ad blocker detection efforts, attributing the issue to recent updates in Adblock and Adblock Plus extensions. Users have reported delays and difficulties accessing features when using ad blockers, prompting suggestions to update the extensions or consider a YouTube premium subscription. Google's efforts to discourage ad blockers have included tests such as onscreen pop-up messages and a three-strikes policy, reflecting its commitment to protecting its ad revenue.
YouTube's recent browser slowdowns, initially attributed to its ad blocker crackdown, are now said to be unrelated to its efforts by the company. The slowdowns have been linked to a bug in the popular ad blocker, AdBlock, affecting YouTube and other websites. YouTube has clarified that the issue is not a result of its ad blocker detection and is offering troubleshooting tips for affected users.
A recent update to Adblock and Adblock Plus has caused severe performance issues on YouTube, slowing down video loading times, thumbnail previews, and full-screen transitions. The problem, initially thought to be caused by Google, was later determined to be a result of the ad-blocking extensions themselves. The issue affects users with version 5.17 of Adblock and version 3.22 of Adblock Plus, causing significant slowdowns not only on YouTube but potentially on other sites with dynamically updating pages. The developers are investigating the problem and have requested user feedback to help identify and fix the issue.
