From PC World: Nobody likes watching ads on YouTube, including yours truly, and most people don’t seem ready to fork over $14 per month to disable them. So it’s no surprise that YouTube is often a primary target for ad-blocking tools. DuckDuckGo, positioning itself as the anti-Google, is now proudly quacking that its own browser blocks YouTube ads out of the box.
“The free DuckDuckGo browser now blocks most video ads, including on YouTube,” said a PR message in my inbox this morning. The blocking system is on by default—no extra extensions or settings changes required—in the latest build for desktops and iPhones. Android users will get the update soon, but can already enable it manually. I checked on my Samsung phone, and sure enough, “YouTube Ad Blocking” is right there on the main Settings page.
The ad-blocking system is baked right into the browser, but it’s “powered by open-source lists from uBlock Origin,” which has its own complicated history with Google and the Chrome browser. DuckDuckGo’s browser is based on open-source Chromium.
This is an interesting move from DuckDuckGo. The company has been capitalizing on the fatigue that some users feel towards “AI” features being crammed into every product, especially Google Search, which is now dominated by Google’s Gemini auto-generated content.
View: Full Article
