Google’s war against ad blockers has reached a dramatic new high, as allegations have emerged that YouTube is now imposing a five-second delay on opening videos for users who have ad blocking software installed — but only for anyone using a non-Chrome browser, like Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
This news broke on Monday, after a Redditor discovered slow loading times on Firefox could be removed by changing the browser’s user agent to Chrome. Once YouTube thinks it’s loading on Chrome, the very noticeable five second delay magically disappears. The source of the delay appears to be a single line of code, "www.youtube.com##+js(nano-stb, resolve(1), *, 0.001)", which does nothing except force a five second wait.
It wasn’t long before this news went viral, and forced a response from YouTube. Speaking to Android Authority, YouTube clarified that the delay is due to using ad blocking software.
"To support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favorite content on YouTube, we’ve launched an effort to urge viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience. Users who have ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using."
However, this statement does not explain why it is that the delay can be removed by spoofing a Chrome environment on any browser, especially if that browser already contains ad blocking software. Since Chrome is owned by Google, who also owns YouTube, it’s easy to see how this could land Google in hot water with various governments around the world over anti-trust laws. If Google really is treating other browsers differently than its own browser, then there's a clear reason for investigation here. Some have posited this may be lazy coding that stops the page from breaking while waiting for ads, but it doesn’t explain why this doesn’t apply to Google’s own Chrome browser, and why this wasn’t an issue before Google’s war on ad blockers.
If you’re affected by any of these issues, then solutions are available, including installing custom filters in Ublock, or using an addon to change your user agent.