Source: Joe Maring / Android Central
What you need to know
- A simple URL trick can allow you to bypass all ads on YouTube.
- The nifty workaround was first posted on the r/webdev subreddit.
- It requires you to add a period after the .com in the video URL.
While Google recently expanded its Premium service to 14 more markets earlier this week, what if you wanted to avoid all ads on the platform...for free? No, I'm not referring to adblocking extensions — though they certainly are one avenue to do that — or any other complicated workaround, for that matter.
Instead, as a Redditor recently discovered, avoiding ads on a YouTube video is quite literally as simple as adding a period to the video URL. Period. That's it. So, for example, instead of going to youtube.com/video, all you have to do is change the URL to add a period after the .com and before the forward-slash as follows: youtube.com./video. And voila! Your video will no longer display ads.
As the illustrious u/unicorn4sale explains:
It's a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there's no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS - and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn't contain the extra dot
Even better, this trick works not just for YouTube but also for many other sites that have paywalls. The same Reddit thread cited The New York Times' paywall as yet another example of a website whose URL is not normalized.
And the trick works both on the desktop and on mobile devices, although for the latter, you will need to request the desktop version of the site for this trick to work.
Alas, you should probably enjoy the nifty little workaround while it lasts. Given how much publicity this has gotten. YouTube — and many other websites, for that matter — will probably be fixing this oversight sooner rather than later. Until then, enjoy your ad-free utopia.
YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium not only lets you access YouTube without ads, but it also gives you unfettered access to the company's YouTube Music library, as well as access to YouTube's original content. Besides, you also get background play on mobile devices and can download videos to watch them online.
Pixel Pass could beat Apple One, but doesn't play to Google's strengths
We should learn more about Google's new subscription bundle / phone upgrade combo package during the Pixel 6 event. It should be a pretty great deal that competes with the best Apple has to offer, but Google probably should have done things differently.
Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5i review: The best Chromebook's shadow clone
You could be forgiven for looking at the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5i and mistaking it for the most popular and best-valued Chromebook on the market today. The Flex 5i has very few differences this year, which makes it a solid laptop — that you probably shouldn’t buy right now.
Want to live again? Well hurry up, you've only got 7Days!
7Days! is a tense text-based adventure game through life and death. Kirell's soul hangs on the razor's edge between life and death. If she can complete a special task given to her by Charon within seven days, then she can be resurrected. How far will she go to live again? That's up to you!
Protect the inside of your home with these indoor security cameras
Home security is a topic people are paying ever more attention to these days, and we've got a round-up of the best indoor security cameras on the market today to help you secure your home.