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DuckDuckGo's Browser Now Blocks Most YouTube Ads (nerds.xyz) 64

Posted by EditorDavid from the skipping-skipping dept.
Nerds.xyz reports: DuckDuckGo just gave its browser a feature that a lot of people have been waiting for. The privacy-focused browser can now block most video ads on YouTube, letting users watch videos without sitting through the pre-roll and mid-roll interruptions that have become part of everyday life on the platform. The feature is already enabled by default for iPhone, Windows, and Mac users running the latest version of the browser. Android users can turn it on manually... with DuckDuckGo planning to enable it by default in a future update...

To make it work, DuckDuckGo relies on the same community-maintained filter lists used by uBlock Origin, along with some of its own compatibility rules. The company says you might notice a bit of extra buffering before a video starts, but once playback begins, most ads should be gone.
Slashdot reader BrianFagioli argues that the feature raises questions about how creators are compensated when ad revenue is bypassed.

DuckDuckGo's Browser Now Blocks Most YouTube Ads More | Reply

DuckDuckGo's Browser Now Blocks Most YouTube Ads

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  • In the beginning (Score:5, Informative)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Saturday July 11, 2026 @04:57PM (#66233420)

    In the beginning, websites hosted their own ads. Then they farmed them out to someone else to manage, then that was (almost instantly) abused to deliver malware, then people started using adblockers and websites started implementing adblocker detection and refusing to serve people with such protections enabled.

    Nobody seems to be willing to route both the original video and the ads through the same server to seamlessly splice the ads in and make ad detection and suppression more or less impossible.

    • I am guessing that broadcast copyright standards make that impractical and making other content part of the stream also makes someone responsible for such content who does not want to be. Then again broadcast networks would produce much of the adverts they showed and they had contracts with each other to show such content. I imagine a similar environment would complicate the idea of personal video posts quite a bit.

    • In the beginning, websites hosted their own ads.

      In the beginning, there were no ads. Commerce on the Internet was verboten. Google invaded.

      • Cable TV was initially ad free too. And so was Amazon Prime. The slimy advertising folks always find a way to "add value" by disrupting our viewing experience. Except for the people selling "advertising" you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that actually wants to see ads.

      • I was really talking about in the beginning of Internet advertising.

        I do actually recall what things were like before AOL and eternal September. Google didn't start the hire, they just perfected arson.

    • The splicing isn't the problem rather companies are letting people block ads if they put the work in.

      Google could definitely win that arms race if they wanted to. They have vastly more resources after all. But at the same time I don't think they want to risk losing the users. Or worse have them go to a competitor.

      That's probably the real issue. There is still the possibility of competition however remote.

    • Nobody seems to be willing to route both the original video and the ads through the same server to seamlessly splice the ads in and make ad detection and suppression more or less impossible.

      Am I wrong in assuming that ads embedded by the creators would come "through the same server" as the primary video?

      My reason for asking is that on my LineageOS phone I use PipePipe. It blocks all "add-on" ads, so I only see ads embedded by the content creators themselves. But there IS a setting to block even those embedded ads.

      I like creators to receive ad revenue from their direct sponsors, so I no longer enable that feature. But when I DID have it turned on, the embedded ad blocking seemed to be pretty re

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by evanh ( 627108 )

        I know that both TechPowerUp and TechSpot serve some of their ads as articles. They look like news items at first glance. And of course they don't get blocked. Or at lest not by the anti-tracker tools that I use.

    • If the ads were injected straight into the stream, you could skip past them. Because you can skip around in the normal video.

      If the stream says, "allow skipping around... except for this 30 sec here and this 30 sec there", then that tells you exactly where the ads are, and a client-side blocker can trim them out. Or at the least, mute them and replace the image with a big middle finger.

      I would accept skippable ads in the stream. Content creators do that already with their own sponsors.

      It's the unskippab

    • Iâ(TM)m okay with either approach. Adblock filters all ads that are separate origins, and I can just fast forward past the inline ads.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      That's because they need to splice a different set of ads into each stream based on their "customer profiling".

  • Pffft (Score:5, Funny)

    by spaceman375 ( 780812 ) on Saturday July 11, 2026 @05:14PM (#66233440)

    I use firefox under linux with ublock origin and Privacy Badger. I haven't seen any of these ads since people started bitching about them, and I watch youtube almost every day. I suppose this makes it easier for windows & mac users, but they should probably be running their browsers in a vm anyway just to avoid malware.

    • Even better, don't waste time on youtube.

    • Or, don't go to sites that might try to install malware, download stuff from the company that made the stuff, don't click on ads... and you won't get malware.
      (kinda like how I never get any malware or viruses, despite not running anti-virus/anti-malware scanners... just a once every quarter scan with HiJackThis)

  • > Slashdot reader BrianFagioli argues that the feature raises questions about how creators are compensated when ad revenue is bypassed.

    The problem is the adverts are too intrusive. Put up a link to the product and we'll click on it!

    • Agree++. Make them more palatable, or even artistic, and I wonâ(TM)t feel compelled to block.

      As to creator compensation, of course they need it, but they make so little on ad revenue it doesnâ(TM)t matter to block. Support on patreon or wherever they are.

    • In decades of internet I have never intentionally clicked on an advertisement. Maybe a few hyper-linked products out of curiosity, but never bought even one of those.

      If everyone was like me, 1st admitedly the world would be doomed, but then: Advertisements would not be worth anything; Affiliate links wouldn't work to make even a cent; one-click-buy would be dropped due to lack of use; etc. etc.

      The internet is the way it is because people tolerate it. You can blame corporations but in the end they are

      • In decades of internet I have never intentionally clicked on an advertisement. Maybe a few hyper-linked products out of curiosity, but never bought even one of those.

        If everyone was like me, 1st admitedly the world would be doomed, but then: Advertisements would not be worth anything; Affiliate links wouldn't work to make even a cent; one-click-buy would be dropped due to lack of use; etc. etc.

        You're not the only one that acts like this. I think most people are but this fails to understand one of the benefits of advertising: brand awareness.

        Brand awareness is what TV (cable & FTA) and radio sell. They're not always selling you something that you'll go out and buy now, but in 3 months when you need to get a new lawn mower and go to the hardware store, your brain has been preprogrammed into recognising certain brands. That's the real power of advertising. Need a new truck? Over the last 12 mont

      • Half of advertising money is wasted. The trouble is figuring out which half.

    • The ad revenue is pretty bad anyway. Most mid-size or smaller channels weave endorsements into their own content and/or rely on subscribers of some kind.

    • Plus this only blocks Youtubes adverts - these days you often have to wade through the content creators own ads, at least one for the “sponsor of this video”, and then at least one for the content creators own Patreon or equivalent merch site

      Just timed a 9 minute video I was watching while browsing this story - 3 minutes of content creators ads, 6 minutes of content.

      And theres no way around the content creators ads even if you do become a Patreon.

  • I've never seen one. Link, please.

  • I think there are others doing it as well and there are filter add-ons. So who has "been waiting for this" ?

  • Except, come to find out, UNLIKE the rest of the web browser "market", DDG doesn't have a Linux version of their browser. Thanks a LOT, DDG..

  • Since I pay for YouTube Premium, which I think is fair that they offer you a way to just never see any ads. A lot of platforms give you no choice in the matter or worse, they want you to pay and still show you ads.

    So at least for me, with the music bundled it's well worth the $20 a month. Way better value than Netflix provides IMO and I don't have to play the cat and mouse game since YT will respond to this in some way.

    No judge on anyone who wants to block, I'm pretty sure that's baked into their business

  • Firefox + uBlock Origin (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Saturday July 11, 2026 @07:59PM (#66233616) Homepage

    I use Firefox + uBlock Origin , on Linux as well as Android.
    No ads in YouTube at all ...

    And there is a bonus: videos continue to play, even when the tab isn't the on that has focus. Handy for listening to music, while reading.

  • Maybe... (Score:3)

    by paul_engr ( 6280294 ) on Saturday July 11, 2026 @08:04PM (#66233628)
    Maybe brianfagoli should go fuck himself for worrying about ad revenue.
    • I'm a fair guy and would otherwise be with BrianFagioli, but long ago I believe my parents' PC got a virus through scripted ads, despite having paid antivirus software installed. Coming from separate servers, the ads are more-recently served by who knows who. I had to deal with the infection and said 'to heck with that nightmare'.

      Further, if you recall the early days, they just couldn't help themselves, sticking as many ads in your face as they could, everywhere you went. Do you want to know why bro

  • is Brian living under a rock? (Score:3)

    by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Sunday July 12, 2026 @12:46AM (#66233902)

    Slashdot reader Brian Fagioli argues that the feature raises questions about how creators are compensated when ad revenue is bypassed.

    Creators can make sponsored content, they can run their own ads inside their video, they can do patreon, they can paywall their content. Most creators on youtube don't see any ad revenue at all, so I'm not sure Brian's question is in good faith.

    I'd guess what he really wants to know is how google shareholders will be compensated.

  • "part of every day life" (Score:3)

    by diffract ( 7165501 ) on Sunday July 12, 2026 @03:44AM (#66234020)
    not for those of us with uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock

  • It is like, $20 a month and far, far cheaper than cable or whatever. I don't like paying for services, but I don't like dealing with ads even more. If there's an option for an ad-free experience, I will always take that option.

  • Oh wow...sarcastism !! Been blocking 100% of YT ads for years and they playing catch-up.

  • This is bad news, because it will ignite a fierce arms race, with youtube the winners. As long as ad blockers were only for nerds, google could tolerate them, and just wage a low intensity war. But when they become mainstream, expect the nukes to be dropped, including through the criminal courts.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      YouTube may win one battle but lose the arms race eventually because it becomes too expensive.

      Those making adblockers do that as a means to preserve sanity, not many of them makes money from it.

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