Show HN: DotYouTube – A tiny Chrome extension to block YouTube pre-roll ads

[kylebenzle]

https://github.com/KyleBenzle/DotYouTube

[perardi]

I don’t necessarily mind ads. Gotta pay for content somehow, micro-transactions haven’t worked, and I’m approaching some weird psychological threshold where I just don’t want to see another subscription on my credit card.

But ughhhhhh YouTube advertisements are so bad for me. I constantly get weird ”sexy witch girl” mobile game promos, I assume because I watch competitive Pokémon videos. (Spoiler, algorithm, gay male, don’t care about scantily glad witch girls.) Just grating dumb ads for stuff I definitely won’t buy.

And it doesn’t have to be that way, seemingly. Instagram has me targeted perfectly. I actually find interesting stuff to buy off Instagram ads. That algorithm has me down pat. I don’t find those ads disgusting it all. (Or I get a kick out of the insane Wish ads.)

[londons_explore → perardi]

Google, despite being the biggest player in the ad industry and a leader in machine learning, actually seems remarkably poor at selecting good ads to show.

I think part of that is their data compartmentalizing for privacy reasons (they won't use your Gmail emails to your mum complaining that your drain is blocked to recommend 'magic drain unblocking washing liquid'). It's probably a good thing, but the other platforms don't have any qualms using such data if they have it...

I also think they listen to the advertiser too much... For example, they give advertiser's a lot of control over who sees the ads, which creatives are used, what times of day to show them, etc.

It turns out a machine learning algorithm can do much better than a human at selecting when to show my ad...

[ezoe → londons_explore]

The question is, does showing the precise target matched ads profit the Google more? If not, Google has no incentive to improve in that regard. By showing you ads, Google has already been profiting. All Google need to do is showing you the ads from the highest bidder while it's also not annoying enough for you to leave the web site. The highest bidder's ads tend to be rather nasty. But if you don't stop using the web site because of the ads, Google win.

[londons_explore → ezoe]

The highest bidder will only bid high if those ads work for their business.

Therefore, Google has a direct incentive to make their ads work better for advertisers.

[paulie_a → londons_explore]

Google, Facebook and pretty much all internet advertisers are overrated. All that tech to marginally beat a newspaper ad of the era. Big whoop. There really isn't anything impressive about them.

[ohazi → perardi]

> Gotta pay for content somehow

I'll pay with money, but I'll never pay with my time. You don't get it back. Ad-blocker for me.

[paulie_a → perardi]

Patreon shows that semi micro transactions do work.

But at the end of the day. I'll just pay the 12 dollars to YouTube for the ad free experience and avoid channels that get to heavy handed with sponsors.

I have signed up and paid for a number of third party products and services because of quality, but limited sponsorship

[dominotw → perardi]

how often do you use youtube?

I use youtube every single day so subscription( vs micro tx) make sense to me.

[TekMol]

Looking at the code, this seems to not block ads but redirect the browser to youtube.com. which in the past did not show ads.

As far as I know, this trick does not work anymore.

[kylebenzle → TekMol]

Yep, it appends a dot after ".com". Is it no longer effective for you?

[TekMol → kylebenzle]

No. Does it work for you?

[catalogia]

> A Tiny Extension to Block (Some) YouTube Pre-Roll Video Ads

Or just use uBlock Origin to block (All) the ads, on youtube and virtually all other sites.

[tokamak-teapot → catalogia]

Is there a good solution for mobile? I was thinking of always going via wireguard to home then back out via pihole. I can’t find an ‘out of the box’ way to configure both together though. I have plenty of unused Linux boxes sitting around that could do this, I think.

[bgdam → tokamak-teapot]

If you're on Android, use Firefox for Android and install uBlock origin. You can also install Video Background Play fix add-on to force Youtube to keep playing in the background.

[dastx → bgdam]

You can also use YouTube Vanced if you're on Android

[tokamak-teapot → tokamak-teapot]

Thanks to those who replied. It looks like pi-hole doesn't block YouTube ads on mobile - and any other solutions (blocker, or non-official app) are Android only.

Looks like the best solution might be to use a web browser on iOS - and visit one of these sites:

https://invidio.us

https://www.layluh.com

[kgwxd → tokamak-teapot]

PiHole doesn't block YouTube app ads on any mobile platform but it's pretty great for other in-app ads. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with how the ad data is bundled right in with the regular video stream.

Android Firefox with uBlock Origin has worked perfect for me so far.

[speedgoose → tokamak-teapot]

NewPipe is a YouTube client without the ads and video suggestions.

[Uke → tokamak-teapot]

if you're using android: youtube vanced (https://vanced.app/) blocks all ads without root

[mgbmtl → tokamak-teapot]

ublock origin on Firefox (android) works well.

[katktv]

doesn't ublock origin practically make it redundant

[princekolt → katktv]

Seems YouTube has some checks to see if the ad is running. I'm currently unable to watch videos because I just get a black rectangle, and if I click it it shows an error.

I've found an easy way to bypass this issue though: Click Share > Embed, the preview window is playable. Start playing video from there, put it on full screen, profit!!!

[lordofgibbons → princekolt]

I don't get this issue on either Firefox or Chrome on linux running with uBlock and Privacy Badger. Maybe you're part of the A/B test, and it has yet to be rolled out fully?

[trymas → lordofgibbons]

I'd agree with the parent comment.

Couple weeks ago using ublock origin when browsing youtube would make youtube almost unusable. For me - if I'd have a direct link to video - the video would load and show, but the website itself wouldn't. Basically from user's point of view it was completely blank page with only video showing, no related videos, no comments, no like/dislike or anything. :)

So I needed to turn off ublock origin for youtube and everything came back to normal. I am using pihole though, but it was basically useless for youtube ads.

Though couple days ago, I've turned on ublock origin and youtube was working as usual and it was ad-less.

[chmaynard]

My advice is to forget this nonsense and sign up for YouTube Premium. It's good for the soul, and the ladies appreciate guys who can pay their way in this world.

[tiku]

The weird thing is that one period I almost get no ads, the it starts again.

Anyway the algorithm of yt sucks, I only get the same content. Is there a better index?

[tartoran → tiku]

In terms of exploring music, yes, YouTube’s algorithm is terrible. There’s no real exploration, one keeps on falling into the same tracks over and over again. No matter how obscure a band or musician is eventually I will end up with the same playlists of promoted stuff. Are used to be a bit more random and it was better. I almost always am not interesated into the promoted results anyway

[cordite → tiku]

My neighbors had a baby and now half the time I get diaper ads.

[everdrive → tiku]

You’ve effectively cleared your cookies by visiting the “.com” version. A cookie is set at this site, and you eventually get ads.

[surround]

Context: You can bypass youtube ads by adding a dot after the domain

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23479435

YouTube fixed this a week later

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23581118

[tartoran → surround]

Tried it and it did not work for me. Maybe they closed the loophole?

[JadeNB → tartoran]

> Tried it and it did not work for me. Maybe they closed the loophole?

That's exactly what your parent said:

> > YouTube fixed this a week later

> > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23581118

[ganastor]

https://invidio.us/ works great too.

[gguevaraa → ganastor]

https://layluh.com/ too, except it's a lot more minimal. Basically outline.com for YouTube. (shameless plug)

[the_pwner224 → ganastor]

https://newpipe.schabi.org/ is similar but for Android.

[tartoran → ganastor]

Yes, that is a great service. Not only that he strips the ads you can also listen to the audio only. And it also looks better than YouTube

[stavros → ganastor]

What is that, exactly? There isn't any explanation on the site.

[surround → stavros]

Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube

https://github.com/omarroth/invidious

[satvikpendem]

You can use uBlock Origin to block all ads, and use SponsorBlock to skip ads inside the video itself, such as sponsor promotions, and even intro/end sequences. It really cuts out all of the bullshit in YouTube videos.

[akerro]

µblock does it, don't install 5 things when you can install one.

[aciswhat → akerro]

uBlock Origin != uBlock!

[akerro → aciswhat]

yes

[The_Founder]

Tiny enough to paste the whole thing here. Clever trick to insert a "." after the .com that seems to trick some of the ad targeting. Wonder how many other sites this works on?

chrome.tabs.onUpdated.addListener(function (tabId, changeInfo, tab) {

    if (changeInfo.status === "loading" && /youtube.com/.test(changeInfo.url)) {

        let url = new URL(tab.url);
        if (!url.hostname.endsWith(".")) {

            url.hostname = url.hostname + ".";
            chrome.tabs.update(tabId, { url: url.href });
        }}})