With a post on X, the developer of SponsorBlock, an extension based on user collaboration to skip sponsored parts of videos, revealed that YouTube is experimenting with server-side ad injection in order to definitively combat ad blockers.
In practice, this means that ads will become an integral part of the video stream sent to devices, rather than being broadcast separately as is currently the case on both desktop and mobile platforms. The current method allows ad blockers to intercept and block the display of advertisements, while using new technology the ads will be indistinguishable from the video content itself.
This change would present significant challenges for tools like SponsorBlock, which relies on the precise timing of video content to function properly. “All timestamps will be moved based on the duration of the ads,” explained the developer, adding that he has already set up the server to reject reports from browsers that highlight this change, in order to prevent the integration of incorrect data into the database.
The phenomenon of server-side ad injection is a bigger concern for even the most comprehensive ad blockers, which YouTube has continued to actively combat over the past year, even targeting third-party clients popular on mobile devices.
Currently the technology is still in the testing phase and not all users have been affected. Despite that, large-scale roll-out is expected not far away, although YouTube has not shared specific details on internal management or changes made to its infrastructure for managing ads.
Article source: 9to5google.com
