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YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

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Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you make a good point but I think part of the problem is that it is difficult to get people to pay for something that they have gotten used to getting for free.

It makes no sense to pay for YouTube premium when you can use ad blockers. Which is why google is removing that option.

Unless you want to compensate the creators of the videos. Both Youtube itself and video creators need to be paid for them to keep going.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#332

Is it weird that this makes me want to subscribe to YouTube premium less than before? Feels like I've been poised to give them money for a while, since so many people seem to like the service. Now I feel like they're challenging me to a duel.

> Feels like I've been poised to give them money for a while

Pay for it or don't, but what is this nonsense about being poised (for a while) to maybe someday possibly consider thinking about purchasing the service?

It's $13. (In inflation-adjusted terms that's $7.12 the year I graduated high school.) What in the world are we talking about here? Buy it or don't. What is there to think about?

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#333
I'm not angry at Youtube for blocking ads; I'm angry for Youtube existing at all. It shouldn't have to.

AV content is pretty important to humanity. I want my government to tax me and spend the money on a public video repository.

When some garbage for-profit outfit like Alphabet is in charge of the world's video, I expect ads and garbage content.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#334
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have YT premium and it is easily the best money I spend most months. I'll just play devil's advocate. Maybe people are imagining a pay per view type of experience?

I also pay for YT Premium, but I have a gigantic complaint that it doesn't actually make YouTube completely ad-free. There are still the ads that the content produces insert themselves. I'm not blaming the creators. I get it. They aren't making enough money from YouTube to avoid having to do their own promotions. But that means that YouTube is not giving me what I'm paying for. I'm paying for an ad-free experience an…

You can use sponsorblock. But yeah you shouldn't have to.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in adtech, we're getting into eye tracking for verifying ad viewership on smart TVs. So.. yeah.

I don’t understand. Why would my smart TV have a camera? I’m not going to put on pants to watch TV.

Just like you can't buy a dumb TV with a high-end panel now; eventually, you won't be able to buy a smart TV without a built in camera.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#336
post #279

My big problem with paying for Youtube is I have a workspace account for my personal domain. None of their services inter-operate with workspace services. For example, our Google Home. My wife cannot register her voice with the system because she has a 'google account' not an account on my workspace. Because of this, our Home will regularly deny her the ability to listen to "age restricted" podcasts about cooking (th…

Gsuite for personal use is and has always been very very half baked. To answer your question. I pay for it too but I also ask myself the same question as to why I don't just move my domain to a simpler service that'll host an email. But yes, the solution is definitely having a separate private gmail for those services.

I moved to Outlook with a Microsoft 365 subscription after I found out you could have a custom domain tied to your email (via GoDaddy only, but you can still do it with the right DNS entries) and then made my Google account a free Gmail account.

I got way too sick of getting features months, or even years later, than consumer Google accounts. I wish they would offer a paid tier for Google/Gmail accounts that would allow one custom domain for email.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#337

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

The issue with YouTube is that it’s not a cheaper alternative. I think a lot of people are like me and find it mostly of little value which is why they don’t pay and will probably just stop using it if they have to go through a ton of ads.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#338

Maybe people wouldn't be locking your ads if you didn't have them jacked up to saturation level. I sometimes watch on a console and the number of ads is ridiculous, even worse than broadcast TV. Sometimes you get ads in the middle of songs.

From what I’ve seen YouTube actually has fewer ads than broadcast TV and the ads are mostly shorter. It just seems like they have more because of the timing.

Broadcast TV generally syncs the ads with act breaks in the show. YouTube generally doesn’t seem to do any syncing with the content, so ads can suddenly happen in the middle of someone speaking. That’s way more disruptive.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#339
I would probably pay if it was a standalone service with an easy sign up.

But somehow everything that I have to do through Google makes me cringe the amount of friction I'll have to go through. Unclear whether this perception is justified, as I never even tried to sign up to YouTube Premium (though intended often).

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#340

Youtube Premium keeps raising their prices. I'd be happy to pay less for something that doesn't include Music streaming.

There's a "lite" option for €7/month (instead of €12) which only removes ads, but doesn't include music and all the other stuff. Prices may differ per region; this is what it shows for me.
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