Business YouTube looks to be testing server-side ad injection to counter ad blockers

YouTube’s crackdown on tools that block advertising continues with server-side ad injection.


The developer of SponsorBlock, which is a crowdsourced extension to skip sponsored segments, shared today that “YouTube is currently experimenting with server-side ad injection.”

At a high-level, this should mean that the ad is now part of the video that’s being streamed to your device instead of being delivered separately to the desktop web or mobile client. That current approach allows ad blockers to intercept and not show the advertising. Going forward, the ad should be indistinguishable from the video.

In the case of SponsorBlock, “all timestamps are offset by the ad times.”

For now, I set up the server to detect when someone is submitting from a browser with this happening and rejecting the submission to prevent the database from getting filled with incorrect submissions.

Server-side ad injection is a broader problem for full ad blockers, which YouTube has been working to counter through various means in the past year. After browser extensions, Google targeted third-party clients, which are popular on mobile. As always, users are encouraged to subscribe to YouTube Premium.

This is currently still in testing, with some users already encountering the problem. However, it’s not yet widely rolled out. YouTube will presumably not detail what’s happening behind-the-scenes, but it would be interesting to know how the insertion is handled and what changes YouTube had to implement to its ad-serving infrastructure.

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[Mitt Doggy Dogg]

i don't care if they inject it into my fucking veins. I'm not watching ads.

Thats a horrifying thought, imagine a future where ads are literally injected into your veins.

 

[Rei is Shit.]

One step closer to private trackers for youtube videos.

 

[AssignedEva]

We'll find a way, and in any case I can still make a script that will blank the video and mute the audio when the ads play.

From the sounds of it, the ambition is the server will bake the adverts into the video. But towards the end of the VHS era these things developed:

If you can get a VCR to recognise adverts and fast forward through them, you can absolutely get a computer to do it. Might mean you need to let a plugin watch the whole video and cache it before you watch it, which would be a pain, but I simply can't see a scenario where they'd successfully force people to watch adverts.

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

Yeah, they're testing it. ON ME, FOR FUCK'S SAKE. I have never seen that many ads in fucking years. So, I will use freetube until more competent people develop a workaround for this bullshit. I am not giving greedy poojeets and their megacorporate overlords any of my time or money, because fuck them.

 

[AnotherPleb]

It won't be long until YouTube Red doesn't block ads anymore.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

Google used to have a company motto. Not anymore

 

[SIMIΔN]

Google used to have a company motto. Not anymore

"The goyim goreh* know shut it down!!!"
*Hindi/Punjabi plural for whitey.

 

[Damocles_Sword]

I am going to look at this as though I am an advertiser:
I would not want my ads being shoved in front of people in a way they cannot avoid. It will not make people angry at YT or at least not just at YT it will make them angry at my brand.

Not a great plan.

but that's not how advertisers think. They see us as cattle and they get a thrill from making people's day just a bit more miserable. I got one of the unblockable ad's yesterday and it was 1:22 of a guy with those shitty tiny hands putting on pomade. I closed out my youtube tabs and have no intention of going back to that site.

 

[9gfuwegw9j9]

this is dumb. if you know the full timestamp of the video you can just seek forwards

 

[Faceless Whore]

FYI this was posted in Happenings and is also being discussed in the YouTube thread.

this is dumb. if you know the full timestamp of the video you can just seek forwards

The ads can be injected in random places each time the video is viewed so this won't work.

 

[Sniperwoof]

I just got an unskippable ad for HIV meds that can your poz load undetectable.

Pretty on brand for YouTube's audience.

 

[cybertoaster]

but I simply can't see a scenario where they'd successfully force people to watch adverts.

They only need to force 90-95% of the viewers to watch them. Right now of those on mobile and TV I'll say 90% watch the ads because they can't be arsed to install apps like revanced or don't like the UX of apps like newpipe, then you have the ones on ios who afaik can't do shit since its all walled garden.

And then there's PC/browser of which I would guess only the 50% that still can't figure out an adblocker is watching ads, that's the group this is targeting.

 

[Ghost of Biden]

Do some discrete noise processing and it should be easy to avoid in the beginning until they patch that. You can account for the seam cutting and measure the range within a short time.

 

[MadStan]

I've been noticing this too, it is also to force people onto ad-free subscriptions and it's insane. Why I get ads for fabric softener all the time beats the shit out of me.

 

[JosephStalin]

I use Brave, almost never see ads on YT.

 

[Tinnitus]

I've been noticing this too, it is also to force people onto ad-free subscriptions and it's insane. Why I get ads for fabric softener all the time beats the shit out of me.

I would say it's for softening the chicken meat.

No wonder you're supposed to bleach the chicken before seasoning it. Who knows what other bullshit YouTube is planning on doing next.

 

[Baraka Obama]

I'm not sure of the exact implementation but couldn't you just modify the hls or dash manifest contents in a browser extension monitoring the network traffic via response handling?

This is assuming they aren't doing something more sophisticated to verify the ad was watched before proceeding.