Popups and advertising

[Gary Childress]

I have Malwarebytes and use its popup blocker. It seems to do an excellent job eliminating pop-ups. Now YouTube is giving me a notice that if I don't allow their pop-ups, then I can only view 3 videos at a time, and then I'll be cut off or something.

Did YouTube recently change its methods for funding itself or something? You used to be able to visit YouTube without any hassles.

[FlashDangerpants]

MWB runs a browser agent that tries to block only the ads on YT. Google counters by detecting the agent and forcing the video to reload, but this time blocked by a more aggressive ad gateway. MWB will presumably update their browser guard feature to work around this soon, and Google will move onto some other target.

If you want to opt out of that pattern, the standard advice is to switch to Firefox with an extension called uBlock Origin, which works differently using a function that has been taken away from all the Google Chromium powered browsers (which is all of them, even the Microsoft one). The details beyond that are lost on me

FF with uBO also ignores all the adverts on this site. Bit mean really.

[Gary Childress]

MWB runs a browser agent that tries to block only the ads on YT. Google counters by detecting the agent and forcing the video to reload, but this time blocked by a more aggressive ad gateway. MWB will presumably update their browser guard feature to work around this soon, and Google will move onto some other target.

If you want to opt out of that pattern, the standard advice is to switch to Firefox with an extension called uBlock Origin, which works differently using a function that has been taken away from all the Google Chromium powered browsers (which is all of them, even the Microsoft one). The details beyond that are lost on me

FF with uBO also ignores all the adverts on this site. Bit mean really.

In the end, the Internet is designed first and foremost to serve advertisers. Whatever faults or vulnerabilities that result for the average user from that goal are just "collateral damage" that we must all accept as unavoidable.

[FlashDangerpants]

MWB runs a browser agent that tries to block only the ads on YT. Google counters by detecting the agent and forcing the video to reload, but this time blocked by a more aggressive ad gateway. MWB will presumably update their browser guard feature to work around this soon, and Google will move onto some other target.

If you want to opt out of that pattern, the standard advice is to switch to Firefox with an extension called uBlock Origin, which works differently using a function that has been taken away from all the Google Chromium powered browsers (which is all of them, even the Microsoft one). The details beyond that are lost on me

FF with uBO also ignores all the adverts on this site. Bit mean really.

In the end, the Internet is designed first and foremost to serve advertisers. Whatever faults or vulnerabilities that result for the average user from that goal are just "collateral damage" that we must all accept as unavoidable.

Or just use an open source browser that has a security plugin so you can avoid all that stuff. Your choice, if wallowing feels better then go for it.