Opera 76 fixes the YouTube ad blocking issue
A couple of weeks ago, I told you that Opera browser isn't blocking YouTube ads. This issue has been quite the headache for users, but the latest update seems to have fixed the problem.
Opera has released a new version of its browser to the stable channel. The update announcement on the company's blog finally acknowledges the ad blocking issue was real. As a matter of fact, it was the only thing highlighted in the article. Opera 76 has fixed the YouTube ad blocking issue.
Interestingly, the post also confirms that the ad blocker was not properly blocking all ads. That kind of explains why I got ads only on some videos, it was random. The release notes for Opera 76.0.4017.177 makes things even more interesting, it reads,
DNA-93554 [AdBlock] Find a fix for blocking ‘new’ YouTube ads
Notice how the 'new' part is in quotes. Some Brave users had reported the ad blocking issue as well. That indicates there's something odd going on behind the scenes. It's good to see that the problem has been addressed by Opera.
Speaking of which, does the ad blocker work? There's only one way to find out. I reset the browser to make it work like a fresh install, and to get rid of all extensions and custom settings. The first part of the test was to use Opera browser with its default settings.
So, here are my observations from using the browser without the ad-blocker enabled. A lot of YouTube videos started out with a video advertisement before getting to the actual content, while some had banner ads that stayed on top of the media. The search results page had an ad banner too. There's nothing unusual about this, this is how the world looks when you aren't using an ad-blocker, and that's what makes it annoying.
Time for part 2 of the test, all I enabled was the option to block ads. I did not toggle the block trackers setting. After watching several videos and restarting the browser multiple times, I can confirm that the ad blocker works correctly. Opera browser blocked all three types of ads (in-video ads, sticky banners, and banners on the results page).
Opera 76 also fixes an issue with the picture-in-picture video playback, you can now control the sound properly in the pop-out.
Did you notice that Opera's blog announcement does not talk about Opera GX? If you read my previous article, you may remember that GX had the ad blocking issue as well. After a bit of searching, I found the change log for Opera GX on the community forums. The post mentions that the same fix for the ad blocker was added in version v75 of the browser. That's Opera GX 75.0.3969.282 to be precise. So, I gave it the same treatment as the regular variant of the browser, and GX seems to be blocking ads just as it should be.
If you're using an older version of the browser, I recommend updating to Opera 76. The installer is available at the official site.
Don't forget to tell us whether the ad blocker is now working fine for you.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.