Was Google Wrongly Accused? Tests Indicate YouTube Video Auto-Skipping to the End Likely an AdBlock Plus Issue
Brook.X
In recent days, some users have encountered an issue while watching YouTube videos where the video automatically skips to the end. Refreshing the page or manually adjusting the video progress bar does not resolve the issue, and only temporarily disabling ad-blocking tools allows for normal video viewing.
Given that YouTube has already implemented various measures to prevent ad blocking by users, this situation was initially thought to be a new strategy by YouTube to continue combating ad-blocking, urging users to disable their ad blockers or subscribe to YouTube Premium.
However, Google released a statement yesterday emphasizing that they have not deployed such measures. Instead, they have been making performance improvements and reliability optimizations to YouTube, which may affect some users using ad-blocking tools.
The development team of the Brave browser conducted tests and found that its built-in ad-blocking tool was not affected. This tool also uses open-source AdBlock rules.
Specifically, the issue of YouTube videos skipping to the end is likely due to some changes made by YouTube triggering a bug in AdBlock Plus, as users of uBlock Origin have not reported this issue.
It's noteworthy that users of AdBlock-Plus previously encountered significant delays when watching YouTube videos, such as needing several seconds to load a video or being unable to play videos in fullscreen. These issues were later proven to be solely related to AdBlock Plus, with YouTube's changes not affecting other ad-blocking tools.
Therefore, it's recommended for frequent YouTube viewers to switch to a more reliable ad-blocking tool sooner rather than later. The rules used by ad-blocking tools are almost identical, built by the open-source community, so switching extensions will not impact the user experience.
In this regard, LanDianNet still recommends using the open-source and free uBlock Origin. This ad-blocking extension offers superior functionality and user experience and can replace AdBlock Plus.
