while ad blocking has grown in prevalence over the years, for something like youtube I'd figured it was more than counteracted by the shift to mobile / TV (where ad blocking is more complicated)
whatever the merits, this (and google's neutering of extensions in chrome) signals a fundamental attitude shift from ~10 years ago; they're more interested in squeezing margins out of their dominant platforms instead of growth
Yeah, it's true. iOS 9 Safari actually had the ability to play YouTube in the background without paying for that, and in iOS 10 they went out of their way to prevent it. And Apple signaled willingness to go along with WEI back when that was on the table.
Safari + Vinegar is my favorite way to watch youtube on any platform. One minor bug I sometimes notice is that the PiP option stops working between videos until you actually hit refresh.
Agreed about Orion, I keep it around and update it and try it out every now and again but I don’t think the experience is there yet.
It's too bad, the stock Safari in iOS 9 did both those things. Nowadays the rare times I want to watch YT on Safari, I just refresh the page once or maybe twice, which somehow makes it not show an ad.
whatever the merits, this (and google's neutering of extensions in chrome) signals a fundamental attitude shift from ~10 years ago; they're more interested in squeezing margins out of their dominant platforms instead of growth