Google Chrome Starts Bypassing AdBlock Plus

Reports on Twitter suggest that Google Chrome has started to bypass the popular AdBlock Plus extension. AdBlock and its variants have long been the bane of commercial websites, with drops in revenue blamed directly on advert blocking software. Google in particular has been hit by use of the extension, which prevents pre-roll ads on YouTube, and now it seems the company has found a way to suppress AdBlock’s influence on its video streaming site.

Twitter is predictably abuzz, with multiple reports emerging from AdBlock Plus users that the extension is not working on Google sites while using Chrome:

So YouTube has finally clamped down on Adblock, if Adblock is active on the page, the pre-roll ad will play without a skip option.

— SteeScribbles (@SteeScribbles) September 6, 2015

https://twitter.com/r4rev2/status/640724992930500608

https://twitter.com/Kwebbelkop/status/640164616140681216

The bypass is not exclusive to AdBlock Plus, either, with similar extensions also affected.

The sneakiest aspect of the bypass is that AdBlock users are forced to watch the whole video advertisement, while users without ad-blocking software have the option to skip. It seems that AdBlock considers only the ‘Skip’ button to be an advert.

Google, however, has already been out-thought, with the following fix advised for affected users:

Fixed it.
It seems to be just a Chrome thing. According to Adblock, uninstalling the "YouTube" "app" resolves the issue.

— SteeScribbles (@SteeScribbles) September 6, 2015

While ad-blocking is entirely legal, online commercial entities have been working hard to dismantle the practice over lost revenues. Google alone was reported to have lost $6.6 billion in advertising revenue thanks to ad-blocking software.

Thank you NeoWin for providing us with this information.