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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

#761

Post by wiseowise »

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.

Oh no! Maybe reaching monopolist position by anticompetitive means wasn’t such a great idea after all?

> How else should Youtube make money from those users? They must literally lose money on those users.

Cry me a river.

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

#762

Post by mrjin »

Cool. What if I don't use it at all?

I hardly use YT but yesterday, I searched something which turned out on YT. So I clicked it then I was served two ads before I can actually play it. And in just around 5 minutes or so, another ad popped out again. Thus I don't really see why not try blocking ads.

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

#763

Post by throwuwu »

Now that I’m experimenting with blocking YouTube altogether for longer and longer periods of time, I find that I don’t need it at all anymore. I used to heavily rely on it for tutorials but ChatGPT has replaced that; why watch a 30 minute explanation of something that winds up being tangentially related to what you’re doing when you can just talk directly to the documentation and ask follow up questions? Other than that use, everything else on YouTube was just a distraction.

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

#764

Post by nicce »

throwuwu wrote: post #763

Now that I’m experimenting with blocking YouTube altogether for longer and longer periods of time, I find that I don’t need it at all anymore. I used to heavily rely on it for tutorials but ChatGPT has replaced that; why watch a 30 minute explanation of something that winds up being tangentially related to what you’re doing when you can just talk directly to the documentation and ask follow up questions? Other than t…

> why watch a 30 minute explanation of something that winds up being tangentially related to what you’re doing when you can just

In the past there used to be well written blog posts and you were able to read them in 15 minutes and better understand the matter. Now we have to waste 15 mins more of our life to get the same point.

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

#765

Post by mgrandl »

immibis wrote: post #647
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…

I heard the next version of iPhone will be forced to allow sideloading, so you could just install this app without jumping through hoops. Thanks, EU!

It's already on the Appstore, you just need to setup a Invidious or Piped instance to watch YouTube.

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

#766

Post by nicce »

dceddia wrote: post #352
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…

This seems great, and it's open source, too: https://github.com/yattee/yattee And there's a native Mac app! And tvOS! Maybe I'm just getting old, but as I was reading through the list of features this doesn't have, I just got more and more excited. My watch pattern is pretty much watching videos to solve problems or research some particular thing, and I feel like I find most of them through Google or YouTube search.…

Just hopefully Google does not follow the Reddit and Twitter train.

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

#767

Post by rldjbpin »

interesting discourse around this and ads in general, from people on both sides of the equation. a lot of creator sided things are bunch of bs from what i've experienced myself.

while the public perception with popular channel is that they're making bank (in general), many professional channels are using in-video ads to make the most money. so it is very naive to use that card. not to forget that probably 90+ percent videos don't belong to people receiving the ad revenue through the program.

there was a point about people taking "free" content on the internet for granted. in the current web ecosystem where tracking has carried the platforms for so long, it is not like paying for youtube will get rid of all that. pretty funny how they want it both ways with monetization.

on mobile, youtube has already been twitch-level obnoxious with countering adblock efforts, with large banner ads right below the video and sometimes 20 seconds unskippable ads for a short 40 seconds video.

in terms of running costs, etc, they've already been reducing video quality despite having a fast connection. the culmulation of the above points pushes me away from paying them a single penny out of principle.

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

#769

Post by Roark66 »

I'll sooner stop using youtube than watch it with the ads. I've been watching it exclusively via smartyoutubetv app (an open source android TV app). Every couple of months youtube does something to break the app. Every single time the app it fixed within a couple of hours.

It's not even about just the ads. I use it because it let's me remove all the crap I don't want force fed to me while all I want it watch my subscribed channels (shorts, news etc). Smartyoutubetv let's me disable all of it. "

Also, it is technically impossible to ensure users watch these ads. The more elaborate detection they use, the more elaborate emulation of these ads being watched will be made.

Additionally, I used to have mixed feelings about using an ad blocker so I'd give the normal youtube client a chance now and then. Interestingly on the very first video watched I'd get pretty reasonable ads (maybe 2x5s of unskippable ad, the rest can be skipped in a 10min video), or one 30s unskippable ad in an hour long video. But continue watching and the number of ads (by ~5th video) will continue raising to obscene amounts. So no, I have no bad feelings for using the ad blocker.

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

#770

Post by city41 »

ianbutler wrote: post #470
kitsunesoba wrote: post #226

This doesn't really affect me since I subscribe to premium, but something that a lot of ad-based services don't seem to grasp is why people block ads. It's because they've become increasingly obnoxious. Nobody blocked ads when they were a simple column of links in the gutter or maybe an animated GIF banner with 3 frames. No, adblockers became popular because ads kept getting more loud (both visually and audibly), in…

I recently unblocked ads on a website that I use semi frequently in an effort to contribute to them as they had crossed my threshold for something I feel I should pay for. The page erupted into animation and sound. I immediately turned my blocker back on. Sorry website, you're quite useful but I won't subject myself to that.

My only ad blocker is the pi hole. So whenever I am away from home, I am always shocked and amazed at how bad ads have gotten. On many sites I feel like an archaeologist digging through layers of ads to find the one tiny morsel of actual content.
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