The Windows Phone returns from grave as an anti-advert-blocker blocker on YouTube

In a nutshell: The User-Agent is a string of textual content in the HTTP header designed to pick out what browser, tool, and running machine the netizen is the usage of to visit a website. Someone observed that by using turning this mechanism lower back to 2017, it is possible to pressure YouTube to paintings on adblock-powered structures once more.

YouTube these days started out a brand new "experiment" to annoy customers with adblock extensions on their browsers, trying to pressure a full-size range of them to either permit advertising on the website or pay for the YouTube Premium subscription. The experiment grew to become out to be an extremely engaging incentive for finding even greater methods to disable YouTube's new anti-adblocker campaign.

We can verify that the brand new model of Mozilla Firefox at the side of the uBlock Origin extension paintings pretty properly at hiding marketing on YouTube. According to a software engineer and "malware fanatic" referred to as "Enderman" on Twitter/X, the equal end result can be finished through changing the browser's consumer-agent to "Windows Phone," which is rather unexpected, considering that the Windows Phone platform has been lifeless for at least six years.

Microsoft officially pulled the plug on the organisation's sick-fated mobile running system in 2017, just three years after its authentic debut available on the market. The incapacity to look at YouTube films was constantly certainly one of the largest problems with the platform, as Google actively attempted (and succeeded) to sabotage something "reliable" YouTube support Microsoft attempted to enforce in the OS.

Now, Enderman confirmed that the Windows Phone can get its simply revenge against Google and YouTube's unwillingness to help the mobile platform. By using a consumer-agent spoofer to change the browser's identification to Windows Phone, ads are blocked again. The enterprise states the ad-blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service, the software program engineer remarked, but user-agent spoofers in reality do not.

Agent spoofers are broadly available on predominant internet browsers, and Google is even providing its very own legit extension for Chrome. The extension is outwardly focused at customers unwell of "a few archaic website online blocking off" even as visiting intricate websites, however it must work quite properly as a Windows Phone-powered anti-advert-blocker blocker as nicely.

While the user-agent spoofing trick appears to paintings for now, the future of marketing-loose binge-watching on YouTube is usually unsure. Google may want to replace its adblock-detecting techniques to counter Windows Phone's unexpected increase in popularity, or it could even decide to conclude its experiment with out further pushing creative customers to attempt new, creative approaches to fight the renewed anti-adblocker attempt.