Fadblock, the Friendly Adblock for YouTube, represents an innovative approach to ad blocking, offering an open source extension available for Firefox and Google Chrome users. Instead of outright blocking advertisements, this extension adopts a unique technique; it loads ads and then quickly skips or fast-forwards through them automatically.
According to the developer, the extension enables video ads to load but swiftly skips or fast-forwards them, ensuring minimal interruption to your viewing experience. This process takes less than 50 milliseconds on average, allowing these ads to be quickly bypassed without causing any annoyance.
In practical tests conducted on Firefox and Google Chrome while using YouTube, the extension delivered as promised. It briefly loaded the ad, promptly skipping it to enable the primary video content to load without significant delay. Notably, the Chrome version of the extension is compatible with various Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, and Opera, ensuring a wider application.
What sets Fadblock apart is that it’s not classified as a conventional ad-blocker. It avoids blocking ads outright but rather rapidly navigates through various ad formats, including pre-roll video ads, banner ads, and display ad formats on YouTube and third-party sites that embed YouTube videos.
Moreover, the extension bypasses multiple ad categories, including the unskippable 10-second video ads, the 5-second ads that can be skipped after five seconds, and even consecutive ads displayed before a video begins.
For Firefox users, the extension is available for download and installation via Mozilla’s Add-ons repository, while Chrome and Chromium-based browser users can access it through the Chrome Web Store.