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YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

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Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#591

Post by RoyGBivCap »

nostromo wrote: post #376
miki123211 wrote: post #324

If you're on iOS, I highly recommend Yattee[1], a free Youtube app with no ads, background playback and sponsor block built-in. The way they get around App Store restrictions is by claiming that they aren't a Youtube app. They're technically a video-watching app which is supposed to be used with your own personal server. The server API they require, however, is supported by Invidious[2], an open-source, privacy-prese…

Here's a much simpler approach: use the Brave browser on iOS and use the YouTube website. It blocks all YouTube ads, allows background playback and picture-in-picture, etc. You also get all of your regular YouTube features, like recommendations, etc. I haven't used the official YouTube app since.

Using the Brave browser on iPadOS at least, YouTube will just refuse to served HD content after one video. Enjoy your 4K video downscaled to 360p.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#592

Post by timmytokyo »

kernal wrote: post #291
Panoramix wrote: post #220

The greedy bastards won't even pay taxes. If there was a good alternative I would switch in a heartbeat. I am happy to pay content creators, but paying $12 or $18 per month just so they disable some anti-patterns really rubs me the wrong way.

They paid 11.4 Billion in 2022 and 14.7 Billion in 2021.

So they're effectively paying one half of one quarterly profit each year. Where can I sign up for this tax rate?

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#593

Post by cm2012 »

mcpackieh wrote: post #309

I block ads because they're psychological warfare that corporations wage against me. I don't care how unobtrusive the ads are. I don't care if the ads don't track me. I grew up changing the channel on TV when ads came on, and ripping adverts out of magazines before sitting down to read them. I vote for billboard bans whenever I can. I have zero tolerance for ads of any sort. Advertisers have no morals, they're comple…

In that case, you better either subscribe to Youtube premium or not watch Youtube. It makes me sick when people "exploit" all of these amazing videos people have made on Youtube but refuse to help compensate them for their work by not at least subscribing to premium.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#594

Post by notatoad »

renewiltord wrote: post #333
_gabe_ wrote: post #313

This is just so funny to me. Google has to have the absolute worst PR for any company I've ever seen to make this happen. Somehow, they've duped the general public (at least on HN) into believing they insert the ads into videos. All they need to do is run a marketing campaign about how as a content creator you get to decide when ads play, whether they're unskippable, and how many ads to place in your video. Blast tha…

Part of their value is insulating creators from this. It's like Ticketmaster protects artists from pricing concerns.

and the downvotes on this comment prove it's working. nobody wants to believe that their favourite youtubers are actually the ones who want all these ads, it's much more comfortable to blame the big evil company instead.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#595

Post by RoyGBivCap »

cwkoss wrote: post #120
sircastor wrote: post #115

So YouTube is going to make it impossible to watch without ads. Reddit's communities are going dark because Reddit (essentially) wants more ad revenue. Facebook and Instagram have been plastered with ads for longer than they haven't. And we're just a short hop from ads being "Attention required" with eyeballs tracked. I wonder if there's a possibility that this will shake Youtube from it's dominance.

Reminds me of 'PLEASE DRINK VERIFICATION CAN' copypasta Ads are truly a cancer on human culture, I hope society decides to wage a war on them soon.

Didn't you hear? It's now EAT VERIFICATION SANDWICH: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/get-diablo-4-early-beta-ac...

They're doing another promotion for cosmetics too. And it's not even per sandwich, it's per purchase. So to get them all, you have to have 4 separate transactions.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#596

Post by Zak »

flohofwoe wrote: post #506
mcpackieh wrote: post #309

I block ads because they're psychological warfare that corporations wage against me. I don't care how unobtrusive the ads are. I don't care if the ads don't track me. I grew up changing the channel on TV when ads came on, and ripping adverts out of magazines before sitting down to read them. I vote for billboard bans whenever I can. I have zero tolerance for ads of any sort. Advertisers have no morals, they're comple…

> psychological warfare that corporations wage against me I see them as environmental pollution that affects the mind instead of the body (this also includes offline ads btw, I actually wish there were adblockers for the real world).

This seems like one of the best possible applications for consumer AR. I'd love glasses that would replace display cute animals on top of real-world ads.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#597

Post by yafbum »

lolinder wrote: post #357
mcpackieh wrote: post #309

I block ads because they're psychological warfare that corporations wage against me. I don't care how unobtrusive the ads are. I don't care if the ads don't track me. I grew up changing the channel on TV when ads came on, and ripping adverts out of magazines before sitting down to read them. I vote for billboard bans whenever I can. I have zero tolerance for ads of any sort. Advertisers have no morals, they're comple…

> It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. A man would be annoyed if he found himself in a mob of millionaires, all holding out their silk hats for a penny; or all shouting with one voice, “Give me money.” Yet advertisement does really assault the eye very much as such a shout would assault the ear. “B…

And yet

> It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages."

— Adam Smith

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#598

Post by isaacremuant »

> Premium [...] looks like free users may only be left with the option of sitting through ads

False dichotomy.

Free users will continue to either block their ad practices, stop watching in YouTube, download the videos, etc.

It's my computer/devices. I don't simply consume because YouTube decides to operate at a loss to gain market Monopoly and targets competitors in anti competitive ways.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#599

Post by Faark »

JCharante wrote: post #258
user3939382 wrote: post #230

If Google had the power to implement a device that forced your eyelids open to look at ads they would do it. Their company is user hostile and we should move as far as possible away from their services.

How are they user hostile? It's people who do not want to pay for the service and do not want to watch ads to use the service who are the problem. How else should Youtube make money from those users? They must literally lose money on those users.

I did consider paying. But I also want to do quite a bit of YouTube in private browser tabs. their age gate already makes that quite annoying. I certainly won't pay and still get such blocks...

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#600

Post by nfriedly »

I've had an adblocker in my browser for ages, but I wasn't a big youtube user because it just didn't have sufficient information density for me, even before google put ads in the platform. (Google only stuck ads in YT after they ran all of their competitors out of business!)

Finding Vanced (and now ReVanced) with adblocking, SponsorBlock, and the ability to set the speed higher than 2x made it so that I actually use YouTube more regularly. (Despite the name, SponsorBlock can skip over a lot more than just sponsor segments - intros, outros, recaps, jokes, etc.)

Any time I see YouTube on someone else's device I'm shocked by how awful it's become in it's default state. If I can't watch YouTube without adblock/sponsorblock/etc, I'll probably just go back to not watching YouTube.

The one point where YT has improved over the years is the comment section. Aside from the occasional scammer impersonating the creator and trying to get me to send them money off-platform, the comments don't seem nearly as awful as I remember from 5-10 years ago.

Also, as an aside, I pay for Nebula, and out-of-the-box, Nebula is a far superior experience to YouTube. But, I still think ReVanced has a leg up on Nebula thanks to skipping intros and the like. However, the biggest problem with Nebula is that it just doesn't have as much content that I'm interested in as YT does. It does seem to be improving, though.

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