[Xeamek]

I don't know how it actually works, but won't website like youtube simply deny you access if it detects that the ad related request timed out? I imagine that browser extensions actually tap into the site's code and somehow go around such detection. But if this is a simple firewall, how will this work against any website that doesn't just default to most trivial "import ad service", but rather actually takes steps to block the ad blockers (Like youtube)?

[nurettin]

I've wondered what-if scenarios like this for a long time. I see them being implemented smaller websites, but never at scale like amazon.com or YouTube where they serve petabytes per second. My conclusion is: it gets so expensive to track and block users at session level that they just let go.

[Kadin]

That's only true if only a small percentage of users actually use that particular ad-blocking strategy. If a significant number of users did, then it would be a real concern.

Although I think YouTube et al see an increasing amount of revenue and viewership coming from apps... and if they could, I suspect they would kill their web sites in favor of apps where they have much more control.