I mean, Firefox + uBlock Origin + SponsorBlock makes YouTube usable without giving Google more money
To my knowledge, sponsors do not give money to Google, just to the creator. So SponsorBlock isn’t needed.
But I have to admit that some sponsored segments can be obnoxious as hell, so I can understand why one would use it.When I’m using sponsorblock, I sometimes just stop watching if I see a long sponsor section, regardless. If the poster has like 20% of their video used to talk about shilling something, then they’re probably not someone I trust.
Ah, yes, you’re right. If the focus is just on not giving money to Google then SponsorBlock is unnecessary.
However, I also find most sponsored segments obnoxious as hell so SponsorBlock still helps with making the YouTube experience better in general
“I’ve found a workaround”
Workaround (according to article): “First of all, YouTube Premium”
The actual workaround (according to article): “Two words: uBlock Origin. Yes, I know that Google has blocked it from its Chrome Extension store, but there is still a way to get uBlock Origin on Chrome”
Seems like they are being paid by Google. Actual workaround should be to drop Chrome.
My thoughts exactly, what a heap of crap. Tom’s Guide used to be one of the good ones out there, real shame.
What I was wondering though is if they detect browser plugins through some public ID - how difficult is it to change those? In Firefox it’s absolutely trivial, you can simply download the extension, open it as a zip file, and then edit the files inside with a text editor and change the ID.
Haven’t used chrome for years, but extensions used to be javascript files just as well, so I doubt they are that hard to edit. Unless they found a way to block installations from local files and enforce their shop, no idea if that’s a thing.
if they detect browser plugins through some public ID - how difficult is it to change those?
I actually dismissed that one from the get go since there is not confirmation of any mechanism they described in the article. Not going to spend time on technical-looking explanations from someone who calls a whole another extension a “workaround”. Might as well be the case of broken or outdated filters in ABP.
I’m sure if some major site finds a way to know your extensions we’ll see some major unsolvable issues.
I got a question in my head just now.
DNS sinkhole doesnt help with youtube ads but UBO does. DNS doesn’t help with twitch ads and neither UBO does. Why is that youtube doesn’t do the same what twitch does?
On a side note, my ads on twitch are basically “ad is in progress” screen and not an actual ad. And lately YT has couple of seconds with no video in the beginning as if it loads (1Gbit connection) but eventually loads up and plays with no interruptions after.
I don’t work on uBlock or even webdev but it doesn’t take much of a stretch to think YouTube’s servers will refuse to immediately transmit a video stream after the webpage is requested; probably waiting for a typical user to skip 2 30-sec ads.
Imagine using Adblock/Adblock plus in 2025.
Stop using Adblock Plus and start using Firefox with uBlock Origin.
If you’re on iOS, swallow your pride and install Brave and just turn off the crypto features. You’ll thank me later.
Fyi uBlock Origin Lite was recently released on iOS
Stop using youtube and start using peertube. WE DONT FUCKING NEED GOOGLE!
WE DONT FUCKING NEED GOOGLE!
Unless you make extremely popular video with hundred thousands views in the first day, in which case, yeah, good luck with peertube.
That does not apply to most people. Also, peertube is really getting better recently.
Yes even meta noticed that the qualityof videos on peertube is increased, they’re illegally scraping all the content for training their closed source for-profit ai video generator
Illegally? Is training that actually illegal under any current laws?
I mean the content is hosted under a license that doesn’t allow commercial exploitation without permission.
But this doesn’t stop meta because copyright laws don’t apply to them, see the over 2000 porn movies that they torrented
Many iOS workarounds. I’m using Vinegar extension and also the newly released uBlock Origin for iOS. Chefs kiss
Where do you get ublock for ios? Its not mentioned on github or on the site
You could just use plain vinegar.
So my parents use chrome even though I constantly install Firefox and hide chrome. Problem there is they end up with Edge so I stopped doing that. (Didn’t windows get in trouble for this kind of market control in the 90’s?)
So I had Ublock origin on chrome for them but it’s “not supported” anymore and my usual method of ignoring what it says and turning it back on are now failing.
Any help?
You can disable Edge if you don’t want people launching it… “accidentally.” There are a myriad of ways. Most recently I’ve used Edge Blocker, which does what it says on the label. Note that this will cause the opening of any file types associated with Edge by default to silently fail if you don’t reassign them to some other program.
The install Firefox and uBlock origin. Unless your parents deliberately go out of their way to download and install Chrome (and depending how heavy-handed you want to get you could even prevent this by busting them down to a limited user account) they won’t have any choice but to use the correct browser installed on their system. That is to say, the only one.
Oh my. THANK YOU for that edgeblocker! Going to get that on every computer in my home.
Yeah I’m not “the boss” of my parents. My dad was very tech savvy, but he doesn’t have the same memory and cognition as he used to so when I set it up nice he likes it, but any friction sets him off to “solve” the problem… By doing some random totally different thing that doesn’t so much solve the problem as “gets it working, sort of” with a browser he recognizes. Then because there are ads he loses interest and just puts on the 24/7 news cycle. :(
On the off chance that you have not heard that Linux is way more user friendly now, I recommend switching over. Especially if you are able to update the computer frequently.
Thank you. I have heard that, and I’m interested in switch my home computer and “Netflix and YouTube on the tv” computer over.
Any recommendations on where to start with that?
I used Linux as a 11 year old back in… Late 90’s? And it was not user friendly but I was so cool it didn’t matter…
Until I couldn’t get a game other than Quake 2 running on my lan network.
Haven’t checked on it since but I’m overdue and ready.
Beside a big whack behind the head, Ublock Origin Lite is supported on chrome. You lose some features, and it is slower to update, but should still mostly work. Unfortunately, the youtube/ublock fight move quite fast, so results won’t be as good on that front.
If they are technologically inept, reduce their accounts to limited, lock down the admin account. That will prevent them from uninstalling FF/installing Chrome, and if the admin account sets a shortcut on their desktop(s), they won’t be able to remove it. Disable Edge (there are multiple ways to do so), install the necessary extensions on FF, then change FF’s desktop icon and text to “Chrome”.
Problem solved.
change FF desktop icon and text to “Chrome”
The new incognito mode?
Change default browser to Firefox
Change file type associations
Setup a firewall and black access to websites where they’re able to download other browsers. Then change the icon for Firefox to Chrome’s icon. For bonus points, you can probably find a firefox theme to make it look more like chrome.
Or if they just really don’t like Firefox for some reason they could look into trying Cromite. It has worked pretty well for me and actually does better at blocking ads on sites like https://adblock-test.pages.dev/ than Firefox with uBlock origin does.
I added a user script to clear some of the URL trackers just in case I copy links anywhere as it like opera doesn’t use extensions up front.
But on sites like that Firefox w/uBlock with score a 90 for me unless my Pihole is running, and Cromite will score 100 without it. Opera a 75, but I do like Operas interface on Android a lot.
AdGuard and SponsorBlock work fine on Safari on iOS.
People still use Ad Block Plus? Didn’t it start allowing sponsored ads like 10 or 15 years ago?
Hence the part “nobody noticed” in the headline
Article wasted my time. I want it back moe90.
The workaround: Switch from Adblock Plus to uBlock Origin.
ABP has had random issues that break it often for years now. It’s crap.
ABP has also been owned and run by a shady investment firm for the past decade.
Wasn’t adblock plus bought by some ad agency? I thought they were long gone…
I don’t know about that but they do have a program where advertisers can pay them in exchange for their ads being allowed past the block.
The workaround
Quit using YouTube directly and proxy your request through an Invidious instance.
Your requests are mixed in with everyone else’s, ad’s are blocked and most importantly only 1 machine touches YouTube directly and that’s the server hosting Invidious.
Unless the instance owner is a network god, they blacklist the IP address almost immediately (they see thousands of videos watched at the same time from the same IP address, trivial to detect)
Not a solution for most people, unfortunately…
Could you elaborate on why not?
Most people don’t even know what Invidious is, let alone the fact that there are other video hosting sites that aren’t youtube (Vimeo, for one).
Invidious is always breaking, too, and most people will stop using it when that happens.
We are talking about most people, not the absolutely tiny minority of technical users who are aware that such a thing as Invidious even exists.
I wonder what percentage of views are done with a general purpose web browser vs. YouTube apps on phones and TVs. Otherwise, yeah, if you have a web browser it is an option. And since this thread is about browser extensions, I too am wondering what they meant.
You see how often growing youtubers complain about more than 85% of their viewers are not subscribed to the channel, or how just some videos have more views than their main content? The issue is that Invidious doesn’t have the algorithm Youtube provides to everyone, and that not a lot of people really watch their subscribed page.
It’s almost irrelevant to subscribe to a channel, the algorithm anyway pushes whatever it wants ignoring your requests
more than 85% of their viewers are not subscribed
Why would you have an account in that hellhole?
Some of us made Gmail accounts long before Youtube even existed, and still rely on youtube for tutorials and other things of that nature that aren’t found anywhere else.
Don’t be a pretentious dick about it.
I was just thinking that I should host a “how to” peertube instance.
You see how often growing youtubers complain about more than 85% of their viewers are not subscribed to the channel, or how just some videos have more views than their main content?
I actually don’t watch a whole lot of YouTube anymore so I can’t really comment on this here.
The issue is that Invidious doesn’t have the algorithm Youtube provides to everyone,
But isn’t this what people are trying to avoid when it comes to digital privacy? User data being used in less algorithms?
But isn’t this what people are trying to avoid when it comes to digital privacy? User data being used in less algorithms?
Yes. Invidious and other programs, websites and anything else are useful for these kind of things. When you go to another house and in another computer you want to see some video but not affect the watch history of the user that uses the computer mainly. Or just simply watching some video that you wouldn’t normally watch.
But most people who use YouTube actively on their main computer binge-watch. Sometimes they follow creators, sometimes they follow what the algorithm recommends them for the day. Invidious does not have such algorithm, since its a proxy. So, it is really not for everyone.
No uBlock on my phone. :(
Firefox on Android has it.
But if you’re on iOS you’d better speak to Tim Apple about it, assuming he’s finished noshing off Trump.
You can have it on iOS as well. Use Orion browser instead of safari and install UBO from the firefox addons store ;)
I just tried this and I get an alert that unlock isn’t fully available. Seems it can’t access web request API.
I’ll give it a spin out of curiosity. I pay for Kagi anyway. I’m very opposed to Google.
It doesn’t work properly… Orion still really falls short. I use Brave on iOS just because of Adblock and paywall bypass.
Oh, well I haven’t had problems so far with Orion+UBO!
Even YouTube? The last time I tried (a couple months ago) on both mobile and desktop Orion it’s totally unusable, most of the time it just gets stuck on a black screen for 10-60 seconds where the ads should be.
As much as I hate to say it, if on iOS use Brave. You can disable the crypto shit, but it’s got the best adblocking on iOS, and paywall bypass built in.
Never. I hate Brave more than the few ads that get through on iOS with AdGuard or the recently released uBlock Origin Lite.
Why?
It’s Chromium based, has a history of doing sketchy things, and spite.
Spite has been a powerful driver in my most recent software choices recently. I know how it is.
lol chrome
Oh thank god: its only on Chrome
I noticed yesterday and it’s also affecting other sites where Google serves ads, like Reddit.
I don’t use Chrome so whatever they did is affecting Adblock elsewhere too.
Everyone else has switched to Ublock Origin adblocker years ago :) Try it, it’s the only real one
10+years ago since they annouced the whitelisting of adlbock plus around that time.it was around the same time youtube to started drastically increasing thier advertisements.
It’s not on iOS or I would. I use uBlock on my PC.
Just stick with Firefox and uBlock Origin.
dont give them solutions, they want to be angry
Especially since Adblock Plus take payment to whitelist adverts.
Or even better, Librewolf.
Honest question, but what makes librewolf BETTER? In firefox you can easily toggle off the studies telemetry bullshit in the settings. Librewolf is just firefox with those things ripped out right?
I feel like I’m often getting new devices or reinstalling my OSes. I restart from scratch a lot. Going through the steps to harden Firefox becomes tedious. Librewolf starts from where I want to be.
In firefox you can easily toggle off the studies telemetry bullshit in the settings.
They’re abusing the default and making privacy settings require user intervention rather than defaulting to the most private settings and allowing the option of opting in.
It’s abusing consent, so people move to browsers where privacy is the default option.
Blocking abp was the last straw for me, thank you for suggesting librewolf
This is what makes Librewolf better.
Yes. I consider it better because it’s preconfigured for privacy, includes UBlock Origin by default, and rips Mozilla’s telemetry out. So you never have to worry about them sneaking something new in a later update.
I’m more worried about the updates not happening in a timely fashion. Is it just a passion project by a handful of devs, or is there some kind of funding?
Update frequency/latency hasn’t been an issue in the 2 years I’ve been using it.
Sure, but what about in 2 years from now?
I used IronFox for a couple years and it suddenly stopped getting updates, and it took me a few months to realize and switch to something else. I don’t want that to happen again.
I like the idea of librewolf, especially that it’s just a patch set on top of Firefox, but someone needs to maintain that patch set. This would be fine for simpler software, but browsers are complex and I just worry that updates will stall out with little warning.
Certainly a valid concern, but it’s true with any software. I think enough people (techies especially) are using LibreWolf that a lack of updates would be visible quickly.
I’ve been using IronFox since it came out and I don’t think it has been out for 2 years yet… are you thinking of Mull from which it was forked when DivestOS stop being maintained?
Also, I’ve been using Librewolf since its early days too, and their updates are always only 1 to 2 days behind an updated Firefox. I know cuz ai update daily on my Artix Linux machine and have both browsers. Whenever Firefox is updated its usually the same day or a day later that Librewolf is also updated to the same version number.
I get the concern, but honestly the Librewolf devs have proven themselves at keeping pace with the upstream for quite a few years now. Hopefully the Ironfox devs can do the same.
Two years is enough time for Firefox itself to cease to exist. Cross that bridge when you burn it
as I understand their build system is automatic. updates are not, but they have an update checker companion thing, and flathub too can manage that if you install from there
I’m not a contributor to LibreWolf so I can’t speak with authority on it but I can’t imagine that they are so different from Firefox that they wouldn’t be able to just merge 99% of updates from FF with minimal effort.
From looking at the repo, it looks like it’s simply a set of patches that get applied to the Firefox source code. They don’t maintain a fork, just a set of changes that get applied before building.
There’s benefits to us not tweaking privacy settings. TOR explicitly discourages it. You don’t (always) get fingerprinted by a single unique item, it’s through an ensemble of data points that companies can identify who you are. There may be 10% of users with your same font library, and 1% who has the same monitor width, and 5% with the same time zone, and voila, when you multiply those percentages, you get close to one in a couple billion, and they’ve successfully fingerprinted you.
If everyone tweaks their settings from default Firefox, you reveal more information about yourself each time. You may think you’re protecting yourself, but the reality is the opposite, you’re creating a one of a kind browser config. This is where Librewolf can really reign supreme, if we all just use stock Librewolf, no one will be unique, and everyone will be anonymous.
Librewolf doesn’t just block Mozilla telemetry, it also has an easy to understand default for cookies and privacy settings so someone who isn’t a computer expert can rely on the librewolf’s defaults to keep trackers from being able to build a profile on you.
Sadly i have to stop using it. Librewolf has start getting some graphic bug, i also can’t upload pictures to some website (it show just lines). Now i’m trying Floorp.
This is caused by not allowing the website to access your html canvas data. You can fix this in the address bar by clicking the icon on the left of the URL to grant permissions.
To add to this.
This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
Canvas data gives a lot of datapoints that websites can use to fingerprint your browser. This allows them to track you across multiple sites even if you’re blocking ads and pi-holing tracking services.
There is an unavoidable tradeoff between convenience and security/privacy. Privacy features are inherently less convenient than allowing everyone access to everything.
You could disable canvas blocking globally (I’m assuming, I haven’t looked) and the problem would go away, but you’ve then weakened the privacy protections that were built in to the browser.
As much as I like Librewolf as concept and ideology, I can’t keep thinking that if there’s a Firefox 0day, Firefox gets patched first, Librewolf later, and I’m potentially exposed for longer. That’s why I prefer to stick with upstream.
Have you noticed uBlock Origin being a bit hit and miss on YouTube lately? I’ve had it happen a few times lately where the video won’t play, or an ad comes up but doesn’t play. I’ve had to keep refreshing until it gets to normal where it just plays the damn video.
No. It works across all my systems. I never see ads on YT. However…
Videos not loading or playing delayed: That’s a YT feature which they implemented for Firefox users, to annoy them. And to promote Chrome as “the fastest” webbrowser.
I also have dns issues at home… I should fix them already. Sometimes, a page doesn’t load on the first try.
You can try user agent switcher. Sometimes it is detected or causes issues, but if YouTube thinks you are running Chrome then you may get better service.
I experience the same issue. All the elements on the page load extremely slow or sometimes not at all.
I noted an experimental rule in uBO to address delays, but have not tried it yet myself.
Under settings, Filter lists, Built-in, uBlock filters - Experimental
Code has a comment:
! fake buffering on the initial load
I think youtube might have implemented something that prevents the server from delivering the video files until the expected duration of the ad has passed. This idea is completely unfounded, but this is what it feels like to me.
Maybe it is a regional thing? I was watching YouTube 30 mins ago with no issues and haven’t ever had any unless I open a new tab but don’t try to watch until the next day. Then I just need to refresh and it is off to the races.
a b testing
or he needs to update his unlock
Work PC and I have to use edge there with Ghostery (ugh). Was trying to find a decent coding tutorial. Every page load of a video was a playback error that instantly vanished when I hit reload. No problems on FF with uBO today, though.
What about the UI elements? Because they take a long time to load too
Thats fine for me. Just make sure to always “Reject all” on the cookies. If you accept then the whole site sometimes breaks for me.
I sometimes get a popup warning from YouTube that my account will be blocked from viewing videos if I keep running an ad blocker. But the warning goes away after a while and YouTube still works. I don’t see ads except on mobile.
Oddly, they also keep begging me to “return” to YouTube Premium, though I have never paid for YouTube Premium.
Oddly, they also keep begging me to “return” to YouTube Premium, though I have never paid for YouTube Premium.
This is just ‘normal’ commercial psychological manipulation.
Returning sounds better than starting, so a small percentage of people would sign up that wouldn’t have otherwise if it was worded accurately.
If on mobile, try setting it to desktop mode. Also, getting the chameleon extension and pretending you are using chrome can also help.
I am not an expert so don’t quote me here, but I think there are ways of bypassing the agent switcher/spoofer (like chameleon) revealing the true browser you are using… that would actually make you MORE fingerprintable.
I haven’t had any issues like that, it’s been working fine for me
I use different shared PCs at work and this happens every time on the Windows 11 machines. Some ad plays before the video, but disappears when I refresh the page. This doesn’t happen on the Win 10 machines we still have left. In forced to use Chrome there but everything has UBlock Lite enabled.
Yes
The article even links to a guide to get it on chrome
That said though, there is one ad blocker that still works. Two words: uBlock Origin. Yes, I know that Google has blocked it from its Chrome Extension store, but there is still a way to get uBlock Origin on Chrome that our how-to extraordinaire Kaycee has detailed.
Tom’s Hardware, Ad Block Plus, paying for YouTube Premium as a “work around”?
Guys this content was by boomers for boomers
Indeed. Tom’s Hardware for me has for long been one of the most useless tech news sites, mostly just dumb clickbaity ad articles in disguise.
If they would know anything about anything or done some actual research they would point to Firefox with a few relevant extensions that keep YouTube’s fuckery in check. Or the alternative mobile apps. Or stuff like Invidious. But guess they are too mainstream and thus afraid to upset Google in any way.
Guys this content was by boomers for boomers
Tom’s Hardware sold out looong ago, sold in 2007 to some faceless consortium. The original “Tom”, Thomas Pabst, who is GenX and not a boomer btw, has had nothing to do with the site since.
The editor of this article looks to be a millennial btw.
boomer is a state of mind
To gen z, a boomer is anybody older than them
No, author of this article, paying for premium is not a workaround.
more like walking in
It has some real “Ukraine should just stop fighting a losing war” vibes. I wonder how much Alphabet paid them for that article. Probably not much.
