To increase its advertising revenue, YouTube recently decided to ban video playback if you use an ad blocker. But there is an extension that gets around the problem. And it's free!
Anyone who regularly visits YouTube will probably have noticed: for a few weeks now, the streaming platform has been requiring you to watch advertisements before you even start playing a video. And if it is a bit long, the reading is still regularly interspersed with other announcements. These advertising sequences are not new: thanks to them, YouTube finances its services if you use them for free, which is the case in most parts of the world. Only subscribers to the premium tariff, which is billed at 12.99 euros per month, are of course exempt from this – that is actually the main advantage of this rather expensive package…
However, for years it has been possible to avoid these often annoying advertisements by using an ad blocker in the form of an extension (or plugin) that is grafted onto a web browser to add functionality. And there are many extensions (for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and others) that are responsible for blocking the countless ads that appear on websites and especially on YouTube. The most famous are AdBlock, AdlBloc Plus, AdBlock Ultimate. AdGuard, Poper Blocker or even Ghostery.
However, although YouTube has been very tolerant towards them, the platform recently decided to block the blockers. Once one of these modules is detected, a warning will appear on the screen and video playback will not be possible until the blocking is disabled. An understandable decision, as the free service is only compensated for when the advertising is displayed. And YouTube is taking advantage of not encouraging those who don't want to see ads to switch to the paid plan.
In fact, it is now virtually impossible to watch videos on YouTube for free without ads. Admittedly, there are a few workarounds, including using the special YT Siphon extension, which fetches the feed for display on another website. Effective, but not very practical in everyday life.
Fortunately, one ad blocker still evades the platform's new measures: uBlock Origin. This free and open source module is both very easy to use and very effective and exists as an extension for the major web browsers, namely Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and even Safari. Simply install it in the browser and it will work without any adjustments. And for some unknown reason, YouTube hasn't blocked it yet and is removing all ads before and during video playback! Not bad, especially a software module that is still regularly maintained by its original developer Raymond Hill – that deserves thanks.
DOWNLOAD UBLOCK ORIGIN (FREE)
Lightweight and discreet, uBlock Origin absolutely does not interfere with web surfing. Most importantly, it effectively blocks all ads, whether still or animated, on all websites and even trackers, and adds a layer of protection that warns when a link leads to another website. This is not the only advantage of this renowned blocker, highly appreciated by experts, which can be deactivated in an instant if necessary and has many optional functions to refine the settings on specific websites. Suffice it to say, if you try it, you'll embrace it! So of course it doesn't mean that uBlock Origin will stay on YouTube forever, but it's better to use it as long as it is tolerated by the platform if you no longer want to “suffer” from ads on every video!