Privacy-focused company DuckDuckGo announced that its free browser for iOS, Windows, and macOS will now block most video ads by default, including those on YouTube. This new ad-blocking capability is separate from the existing "Duck Player" feature, which loads YouTube videos in a privacy-enhanced player, and instead focuses on blocking ads directly on the YouTube website experience.
The ad-blocking technology utilizes community-maintained filter lists from the open-source tool uBlock Origin, supplemented by DuckDuckGo's own compatibility rules. The move represents a direct challenge to YouTube's ad-supported model and comes as YouTube's parent, Google, has increased its efforts to combat ad blockers on its platform. The feature is enabled by default on the latest versions, with Android support to follow.