- YouTube is testing server-side ad injection to counter ad blockers, integrating ads directly into videos to make them indistinguishable from the main content.
- This new method complicates ad blocking, including tools like SponsorBlock, which now face challenges in accurately identifying and skipping sponsored segments.
- The feature is currently in testing and not widely rolled out, with YouTube encouraging users to subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.
It’s not that hard at all. Twitch does this already, and they managed to make adblockers for that service.
I think Twitch’s solution is different, isn’t it? I don’t watch enough live to know the details, but I imagine in Youtube’s scenario they’re not surfacing any details about what’s an ad and what isn’t beyond embedding something in the video itself. Otherwise it’s pretty pointless. But hey, I guess I’m rooting for them doing this poorly.