Post updated on 6/14 to add a comment from Google confirming the reports about experimentation with alternative ad injection methods.
YouTube reportedly now injects ads directly into video streams to make it more difficult for ad blockers to block advertisements.
The report comes from SponsorBlock, a third-party browser extension that crowdsources data about which video segments contain sponsored content and skips them.
SponsorBlock reports that server-side ad injection will break its functionality, though solutions are coming. Most notably, it will also impact the effectiveness of other ad-blocking extensions people use on YouTube.
Server-side ad injection
Currently, YouTube performs client-side ad injection, where JavaScript scripts and the video player on a user's device load and display ads.
The video stream and ads are separate, and the player is programmed to pause the content and play ads at designated points.
Most ad blockers commonly disable YouTube ads by blocking the JavaScript scripts used to inject the advertisement into the video stream. SponsorBlock works a bit differently by crowdsourcing the information about different segments in a video and allowing users to skip those that are sponsored segments.
"SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension and open API for skipping sponsor segments in YouTube videos," explains the extension's website.
"Users submit when a sponsor happens from the extension, and the extension automatically skips sponsors it knows about using a privacy preserving query system."
Server-side ad injection integrates the advertisements directly into the video stream before the content is delivered to the viewer, so users receive a continuous stream that already has the ads built into it.
SponsorBlock explains that YouTube streams videos using a series of smaller video segments or "chunks," which are stitched together to create a continuous video playback experience.
A manifest file determines the order in which these chunks are played, and when a user clicks on a video, the YouTube server sends a playlist that includes both content and ad chunks.
This approach complicates SponsorBlocks functionality because it offsets timestamps for sponsored content, and depending on the duration of the ads, the offset varies.
At the same time, it creates difficulties for ad blockers, which will be less capable of detecting the ads that are now part of the continuous stream, eliminating easily detectable client-side injections.
Solutions and workarounds
SponsorBlocks says it has resorted to blocking submissions from browsers experiencing server-side ad injection to prevent data corruption. However, this will become unsustainable as YouTube moves to server-side injection at a greater scale.
In the future, the tool will attempt to calculate ad duration through various detectable metadata and YouTube's user interface elements, but the system isn't ready yet.
For ad blockers, potential solutions include developing more sophisticated detection algorithms, leveraging metadata analysis, and using advanced pattern recognition to identify sudden changes in audio/video that may indicate the playback of ads.
BleepingComputer has contacted YouTube to request a comment on its server-side injection plans, and a spokesperson has sent us the following statement:
YouTube is improving its performance and reliability in serving both organic and ad video content.
This update may result in suboptimal viewing experiences for viewers with ad blockers installed.
Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and we've been urging viewers for some time to support their favorite creators and allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. - Google spokesperson
Comments
Mahhn - 5 months ago
Greed kills. Youtube is pulling a David Carradine. Good riddance. it's just like google now, all adds. No content is worth all the adds. I tried to watch a music video a couple weeks ago, 20 min of adds played (I was cooking dinner) before the video would play. Not worth my time at all. BUT - thanks to YT poor choices, I now watch all my content free on pirate sites. Thanks for driving me away YT, its for the best.
Sgtkeebler - 5 months ago
This war between youtube and adblock has me wondering. I wonder if Adblock companies will eventually be able to utilize Ai to make better blocking software. That would be funny to turn Googles Ai against it if it were possible.
NoneRain - 5 months ago
It took a while, huh. I guess the money flow was enough to avoid that for so many years...
doncoyote - 5 months ago
Black hats never sleep.
EndangeredPootisBird - 5 months ago
It's like when governments cut taxes for the rich. They expect economic growth, but it actually results in the complete opposite.
Throwdown - 5 months ago
I pay for a YT subscription and I never see ads. This mostly came about from not wanting ads on my iPhone and wanting to turn off the screen.
fromFirefoxToVivaldi - 5 months ago
I can't imagine using YouTube without SponsorBlock. And it's not even about sponsored segments, it's because with a few additional setting it lets you skip all the useless yapping and pointless intros/outros.
tech_engineer - 5 months ago
I already suffer with iHeartRadio podcasts: they inject ads into the mp3 my podcast player downloads, so I have to skip manually until I pass the ad, but the ad length is more or less fixed +- few seconds: sometimes I go a bit before or after
DyingCrow - 5 months ago
"Pay us or we'll drive you insane shoving ads down your throat"; Is this extortion?
I dunno.
In the meanwhile, content creators trying to make good content and a name for themselves are in the middle of all this f**** ad shoving crap. We don't want to watch s*** ads and use adblockers, content creators don't get a cut on ad revenue and turn elsewhere - sponsors and patreon. YT doesn't realize that this stupid ad war doesn't serve anyone.
I dunno. IF YT helped content creators get relevant sponsors and get a cut of it, let those content creators make their own sponsored segments instead, i think it'd be fine. Directly supporting content creators is a yes.
If i want to watch gun videos and they have an ammo segment, that's fine. If i wanna watch computer stuff and they have a micro center segment, i'm completely fine with it.
Watching some f**** random ad that has no context, that i'm NOT fine with it. I believe that most users watching YT videos have the same stance.
Google has zero respect for YT content creators (unless it's the really big ones), and forcibly shoving ads into their created content makes it even worse. I have zero respect for YT as a platform, and this is pushing it into the negative numbers. I rather support content creators via patreon or donations or whatever, then give YT anything.
Looking at Amazon, for example. Prime no longer covers everything ad free, some content is free with ads. But the vast majority are snippets of other movies or shows, not intrusive, fairly well done and short enough to not be annoying. I don't mind that at all, it's actually useful. Just please, no toilet paper, detergent and s*** like that. And i don't need ads to convince that i need a new truck.
thisismike - 4 months ago
This is going to kill alot of sites and apps that sell themselves on the idea of being able to block youtube ads. I am still using skipvids.com and its blocking the ads, but my other extensions are now failing to block these new types of ads :(
Mr.Tom - 4 months ago
I wonder what all the school teachers will do now to get their content off of YT to try and show to the class off-line? Using ClipGrab, or the ytdownload open source CG uses, how will anyone be able to watch anything anymore from YT off-line? Didn't the public win over that open source YT ripper?
We'll just have to wait to see what the mouse figures out after the cat puts this out in full force..