Apple's MacBook Pro Touch Bar currently lets users scrub through YouTube ads

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware
In Safari, the Touch Bar on Apple's new MacBook Pro can currently be used to scrub through YouTube videos -- including normally unskippable 30-second pre-roll ads, owners have discovered.




The unintentional feature was highlighted by a number of posters on Reddit. It may be tapping into Safari's built-in HTML5 video player, which doesn't normally appear onscreen when watching YouTube.

Scrub bars are one of the new possibilities presented by the Touch Bar, which replaces the Pro's previous function key setup with a multitouch display that adapts to each running app.

Google and/or Apple will presumably begin working on a way of suppressing the ad-skipping feature, since the former and many video creators are dependent on YouTube ad revenues. Those parties are already coping with browser-based ad blockers.

The first MacBook Pros with Touch Bars began arriving on doorsteps earlier this week, and are only just beginning to hit Apple's own stores. Fresh online orders are being shipped in 4 to 5 weeks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    Shhhhhhh, don't tell Google.
    SpamSandwichtheunfetteredminddoozydozenretrogustonolamacguyjony0cornchip
  • Reply 2 of 14
    Value added! 
    Basically ships with a free subscription to YouTube Red. ;0)
    doozydozenretrogusto
  • Reply 3 of 14
    I'm sure GOOG will try to interfere with this.  Hopefully Apple will not.  This could be a killer feature of the new MacBooks.
    doozydozen
  • Reply 4 of 14
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    Why should Apple do something about this? Google is constantly trying to find ways to make more money on the back of users. YouTube used to work great on iPad with the native video player but now it loads Google's inferior interface. 
    I say screw them. 
    doozydozen
  • Reply 5 of 14
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    Just when I thought television ads were the worst with about 25% regular advertising content (non-embedded) then came the internet with a 15 second ad for every 30 second video and ads plastered along the left and right of everything. And pop ups. And pop unders. And huge ads burning my limited data plan. And ads gobbling tons of CPU resources. And ads requiring a response to "are you sure you want to leave this page?" And ads automatically blaring audio. And ads carrying malware.

    I'm fine with ad-supported sites but it has gone too far.
    doozydozenration alcornchip
  • Reply 6 of 14
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Yeah this won't last long...YouTube will do something eventually, if not pretty quickly. 
    doozydozencornchip
  • Reply 7 of 14
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    I'd guess Google gets paid anyway, so if anyone is harmed it's the company trying to advertise their product/service (big or small) who derives no benefit from it. 
    doozydozen
  • Reply 8 of 14
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    linkman said:
    Just when I thought television ads were the worst with about 25% regular advertising content (non-embedded) then came the internet with a 15 second ad for every 30 second video and ads plastered along the left and right of everything. And pop ups. And pop unders. And huge ads burning my limited data plan. And ads gobbling tons of CPU resources. And ads requiring a response to "are you sure you want to leave this page?" And ads automatically blaring audio. And ads carrying malware.

    I'm fine with ad-supported sites but it has gone too far.
    In a move that some may find surprising given Google's reliance on advertising money they are actually doing something constructive about those annoying and intrusive pop-up and pop-over ads on various websites.
    https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html
    edited November 2016
  • Reply 9 of 14
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    "Google has detected that you're using a new MacBook Pro, and scrubbing through the ads. You will be prohibited from viewing YouTube videos until you purchase and use a Pixel. Thank you for understanding."
    doozydozenjony0
  • Reply 10 of 14
    Google has to monetize Youtube in some way because Youtube takes up a huge amount of storage and processing resources. I can understand why they put ads on everything. Most of the ads I run into on Youtube allow me to skip through them after a few seconds. It's not really hurting me at all. Occasionally I may even look through an entire ad if it looks interesting. Most of them are repeats so I quickly skip through them. I really enjoy watching stuff on Youtube and can spend a couple of hours a day watching science and nature documentaries and computer tech shows and I find it far better than regular TV. I'll take the ads rather than pay for Youtube Red

    I'm sure Google will quickly find a way to block the Touch Bar from bypassing ads. You can bet on that happening.
    edited November 2016
  • Reply 11 of 14
    Given that YouTube has inflicted 5 and 13.5 minute unskippable ads on me multiple times, I say "bring it on, Apple"!
  • Reply 12 of 14
    glynhglynh Posts: 133member
    And suddenly the price of the MacBook Pro doesn't seem quite so bad any more! :)
  • Reply 13 of 14
    I don't mind the 30-50 second ads. Takes a lot more than that to upset me. A lot. In fact, most of them I can skip after a small countdown of about 5 seconds. Not a big deal. I've never had one that was really long that I could not skip.

    What I find to be really silly are those "ads" that run for several minutes. Those aren't "ads", IMO. They are infomercials developed in a way where they start out as what looks like an ad, but they just ... keep ... going. I left one playing in the background one time. Went to go make a coffee and get something to eat. Came back, and it had been going for over 15 minutes, so I "skipped" it.

    Stuff like that reminds me of those ads that try to trick you into thinking they are legit news articles.
    edited November 2016
  • Reply 14 of 14
    Cool!
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