I often see the sentiment that YouTube and adblockers will be forever locked in a cat-and-mouse game. However, for many years now, Twitch has entirely eliminated adblocking on desktop web.
What is stopping YouTube from replicating Twitch’s advertising strategy of embedding ads directly into their videos?
I think this is on their eventual roadmap, somewhere just after not allowing anyone to log in without a verified WEI check for “”““security””“”
Then you can stop all the YouTube rehosting sites like piped by baking in little 1 pixel changes that uniquely identify the account that ripped the video. Netflix and others will do this as well too try to stop piracy.
They’re going to go scorched earth on this, I just know it. The Internet will become as bad as cable was and this is the turning point.
what is a verified WEI check?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity
Google is pushing for websites to implement this software that talks to your TPM (trusted platform) chip on your computer and has it attest to the state of your web stack. Then, the website gets to decide if that’s okay and can deny you access if there’s any “funny business” such as ad blockers installed, or you’re using a browser they don’t like, or maybe even running an os they don’t like. We’ll almost certainly find ways around it for a while, but it’s going to get better (for them, worse for you)
Google gave up WEI, for now at least. They will try again later though. https://securityboulevard.com/2023/11/google-wei-is-dead-richixbw/
Wouldn’t say “dead” just put on the back burner. They’ll get their way eventually just like they did with net neutrality. (Responding to the article headline not you exactly)