Google makes it harder for Adblockers to block YouTube ads in Chrome

It’s no secret that Google makes the majority of its money from advertising revenue, and has done for a very long time. So, when a product comes along to threaten that major revenue stream, it has to find ways to combat it. That’s seemingly what it’s done with AdBlock Plus, a relatively well-known Chrome extension used to block out ads across the internet. This includes the ads shown before and during video playback on YouTube…

Normally, long advertisements give users the option to skip after five seconds or so. With Google’s fix on YouTube in Chrome, that option no longer appears. As reported by NeoWin, it seems Google has found a way to make the ‘skip ad’ option invisible to users with AdBlock installed. In short: It’s essentially forcing users to watch entire advertisements before YouTube videos.

It’s worth noting, Google’s workaround isn’t exclusive to AdBlock, but all similar extensions used to blocked ads on YouTube. Essentially, Google has altered the programming to make ad-blockers see the ‘Skip’ option as the ad, removing that instead of the actual commercial. It’s pretty clever, but has clearly upset a number of ad-haters.

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The only way to stop this from happening is by either uninstalling the ad-blocking extension or by whitelisting YouTube within the extension’s settings. Either way, AdBlock just became a little less useful to those looking to banish all forms of advertising from their digital screens.

This story is just one of a growing number of those showing the current uncertainty surrounding the world of online media. With ad revenue dropping, and more people blocking advertisements out completely, both content creators and the ad hosts are having to come up with new ways to sustain revenue. This is just one seemingly simple trick from Google to help the cause, and it probably won’t be the last time we hear of the king-of-ads working to bypass and neutralize the effect of ad blockers.