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YouTube runs experiment addressing users with ad blocker

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SiliconWizard:
Yes, most adblockers still work on the principle that they won't download the resources that they detect as blockable, which saves network bandwidth, but which is always detectable by the server one way or another.
If the browser 1/ doesn't disclose anything about its config or extensions and 2/ downloads the blocked items in the background but just throws them away afterwards while never displaying it to the end-user, that will be impossible to detect remotely and quite simple to implement in browsers.

But the major browser vendors (Mozilla, Google, Apple, MS) will never implement that, they'll get too much pressure not to and you know where the money comes from, they gotta eat.

So that'll leave some stripped-down open-source alternatives, that probably less than 1% of users will use, just as it is now.

NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on October 18, 2023, 11:28:27 pm ---Yes, most adblockers still work on the principle that they won't download the resources that they detect as blockable, which saves network bandwidth, but which is always detectable by the server one way or another.
If the browser 1/ doesn't disclose anything about its config or extensions and 2/ downloads the blocked items in the background but just throws them away afterwards while never displaying it to the end-user, that will be impossible to detect remotely and quite simple to implement in browsers.

But the major browser vendors (Mozilla, Google, Apple, MS) will never implement that, they'll get too much pressure not to and you know where the money comes from, they gotta eat.

So that'll leave some stripped-down open-source alternatives, that probably less than 1% of users will use, just as it is now.

--- End quote ---
I wonder if it might be possible to send TCP ACKs early when it downloads the ads. Some packets can get dropped but you don't care about the content anyways. I suppose there would be the problem of getting too ahead of the server and the scheme getting detected, some adaptive scheme can counter that.

I think stealth adblocking would become a lot more common if there's a good reason to use it.

tom66:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on October 19, 2023, 02:04:08 am ---I wonder if it might be possible to send TCP ACKs early when it downloads the ads. Some packets can get dropped but you don't care about the content anyways. I suppose there would be the problem of getting too ahead of the server and the scheme getting detected, some adaptive scheme can counter that.

I think stealth adblocking would become a lot more common if there's a good reason to use it.

--- End quote ---

TCP ACKs alone wouldn't work, because TCP packets are max 64KiB each.  The average advertiser video is going to be larger than that, and the length is probably not deterministic (due to how streaming video works).  But on a modern connection downloading that in full won't take much time.  There's a bit of DASH going on in the background as well, managing the max bitrate the client can handle. 

Even if Google enforces the "wait N seconds to get your video" I can see the adblockers winning by just showing a "loading" screen.  That would still be better than watching an ad. 

madires:
Google pushes QUIC.

magic:

--- Quote from: tom66 on October 19, 2023, 08:40:36 am ---Even if Google enforces the "wait N seconds to get your video" I can see the adblockers winning by just showing a "loading" screen.  That would still be better than watching an ad.

--- End quote ---
Yes, but honestly I don't bother with adblocking on YT.

If it's a single ad at the beginning, I simply mute sound and wait it out instead of fighting with whatever YT screwed up this time to break adblockers.
If there are ads in the middle, I watch something else if it's an option or go straight to a video downloader. That's a single "loading" screen and then uinterrupted peace of mind.

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