![SponsorBlock Logo](https://sponsor.ajay.app/LogoSponsorBlock256px.png)

This is going to be a short post, I really just want to share a cool browser extension that I discovered
this week [SponsorBlock](https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock) by [Ajay Ramachandran](https://ajay.app/).

I watch a lot of podcasts on YouTube in my spare time, mostly US comedy podcasts with all my favourite American 
stand-up comedians. Over the last few years I've noticed a big increase in the number of sponsored ad reads that 
are being spliced into podcast episodes and I absolutely HATE them! I'm not a fan of advertising at the best of times. 
I find it's usually both patronising and infantilising but something about these ad reads really winds me up more than 
ever. I think it's because there is absolutely no effort from the podcast host who is reading the ads. They tell me 
how much they "love" the product and how they use it all the time, but it's obvious they don't use it and couldn't 
really care less about it. I just cannot stand fake-ness like that it really grinds my gears and just guarantees I'll 
never purchase the product! Overtime I've gotten very good at skipping past the ad reads as soon as they start but this 
in itself is still annoying especially when the ad cuts off an interesting conversation. 

But fear not there is a solution. SponsorBlock!

> SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension and open API for skipping sponsor segments in YouTube 
> videos. Users submit when a sponsor happens from the extension, and the extension automatically skips sponsors it 
> knows about using a privacy preserving query system. It also supports skipping other categories, such as intros, 
> outros and reminders to subscribe, and skipping to the point with highlight.

I've installed this extension today in Firefox and tried it out on a couple of my favourite ad-read-filled comedy 
podcasts and it's great! As soon as your YouTube video loads you can see the exact locations of the sponsored ad reads
on the progress bar. It changes the colour of these segments to Green instead of the usual Red. As your video plays and
you reach the start of one of these Green ad segments it simply skips right past it automatically. Awesome!

As I mentioned I installed and tested SponsorBlock on Firefox but it supports all the usual desktop browsers and even 
works on mobile devices, Android and iOS!

If you're sick of all the incessant ad reads check it out honestly it's great!

SPONSORBLOCK

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