I don’t think publically available blockers can really win this battle in the end. After all, in the end game Google could just
setup a system that runs a browser
downloads the updates as they come
automatically modify the system so that blockers are detected or they fail to block it
This is possibly even relatively easy with the help of LLMs nowdays.
On the other hand, Google backend code is completely secret and for frontend and protocols they can apply opfuscation techniques, requiring manual updates by blocklist maintainers or adblock developers, taking a lot of time continuously. I suppose LLMs could help here as well, but it’s harder and such attempts could even be detected by Google, because they would need to be tested against their system.
The only solutions I see are to move on from Youtube, have private blockers that don’t become too popular, or tolerate the ads.
I don’t think publically available blockers can really win this battle in the end. After all, in the end game Google could just
This is possibly even relatively easy with the help of LLMs nowdays.
On the other hand, Google backend code is completely secret and for frontend and protocols they can apply opfuscation techniques, requiring manual updates by blocklist maintainers or adblock developers, taking a lot of time continuously. I suppose LLMs could help here as well, but it’s harder and such attempts could even be detected by Google, because they would need to be tested against their system.
The only solutions I see are to move on from Youtube, have private blockers that don’t become too popular, or tolerate the ads.