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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

#931

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

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…

While I totally get why people block ads, and I do so myself, I also totally understand antipathy toward adblockers on the part of websites. Making ads better is definitely one approach they can use. But preventing folks who block ads from using the site is also a viable approach! They don't need to care why people block ads, nor do they need to worry about making the site worse for such people. We who block ads are not economic stakeholders in the services.

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

#932

Post by tehwebguy »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #294
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…

Compare it with TV though, which is what youtube is; nobody blocked ads because they couldn't, there was no escaping them unless you physically exit the room. In my country that worked, because ads were neat 5 minute blocks every 15 odd minutes, but in the US it seems every few minutes there's an ad interrupting - but they're too short to tune out / do something else. The news channels are even worse, where the energ…

TV here is pure hell now. I turn it on in a hotel periodically and always regret it. There’s plenty to watch but the ads are louder and dumber and have naturally become saturated with insanely high margin / LTV scam products like testosterone pills, the worst pay-to-win game imaginable or literally just gambling.

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

#933

Post by colinsane »

cruano wrote: post #372
Moldoteck wrote: post #51

Strange move, people use adblockers for a reason, 2-3 unskipable bs ads. Instead better limit quality to 480/720p. This way they'll save money for traffic. No adblocker?, Can go up to 1080p. Yt premium?, Welkome to 4k. Yt premium+?, Welcome to >8k

> This way they'll save money for traffic If people leave because of this that cuts their costs to zero. What's their incentive not to do this ?

the more people leave the more space there is for a competitor. right now the space outside YT is tiny, and YT should want that to remain the case.

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

#934

Post by colinsane »

mynameisash wrote: post #643

There's a 402 PAYMENT REQUIRED[0], but apparently it's been reserved for future use forever. I'm surprised there isn't a scheme by which websites can charge micropayments for content. In principle, I'm not opposed to loading up an account with $20 and paying $0.10 for an Economist article or $0.02 for a YouTube video or whatever. I honestly don't know if this exists now or has ever existed, but I would love to direct…

if after loading the wallet it could equally well pay $.05 to YT or $.05 to the same video on Vimeo than YT loses half the benefit of its integration with Google (the ability to get high CPMs via its in-house as platform). it would make it easier for competitors to enter their space: don’t expect it to happen.

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

#935

Post by CatWChainsaw »

lowlevel wrote: post #741

A lot of people think ads before and after videos, or peppered eveyr 3 minutes within an hour long video are no big deal, but many of us have had enough. I pay google around $20 a month to avoid watching ads. I consider this extortion.

If they got away with blocking adblockers and people signed up for Premium, eventually the money from that wouldn't be enough because Line Always Needs Up. Eventually you'd watch more ad than video, and eventually videos would become unwatchable because every second would be peppered with ads.

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

#936

Post by colinsane »

o_m wrote: post #216

I don't have a Youtube/Google account and I don't use any of their apps, so how are they going to block me, go for my IP address? I don't see a reason to have an account, RSS works just fine for subscriptions.

what players do you use for RSS video? right now i use RSS for comics, blogs, and podcasts. i could reuse the podcast stuff probably, but i expect there’s stuff out there tailored more specifically to video.

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

#937

Post by 8bitsrule »

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…

Right-on. EG Often-repeated chirpy jingles with imperative lyrics will hang around in heads for decades. Couple of oldies:

"See the USA in your [??] ..."

"You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with [??] ..."

Carpenter's They Live was great pointing out how many 'OBEY's are buried in adverts. 30 years before, Vance Packard The Hidden Persuaders was published. 2010, Eldon Taylor's Mind Programming.

Worse yet: TV tearing a great movie up into shreds punctuated with adverts (imagine doing that to famous paintings). I eventually dropped cable as a result.

"Lower than pond-scum" = all the disciples of Freud's nephew Ed Bernays.

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

#938

Post by CatWChainsaw »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #706

Unpopular opinion, ad blockers are the same as piracy. There's basically an agreement that in return for watching some video for free, you have to 'pay' by watching an ad. On YouTube a significant amount of this money even goes to the creator. Not really sure how you can defend your entitlement to free content with no ads, refusing to support the creator and provider, when the ad free version is reasonably priced, an…

I watched a video for free and "paid" for it with that personal data that we were constantly told was the new oil, the stuff that runs modern life, the stuff that countries go to war over. Who's really entitled here? :)

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

#939

Post by colinsane »

Cyder wrote: post #359

the real issue, is that when enough people consume a service, it becomes a 'utility', and you are penalized if you don't use it. As such, if a percentage of the population uses something, it should be regulated as a 'utility'. Copyright laws should reflect this also. Most jobs I've seen (even outside of tech ) require familiarity with Windows and Office, ie. basic skills linked to one platform. Google is used enough…

mm i understand the argument, but looking at the other utilities around me, i think it has to be a last resort. we have way more options navigating this in the space of bits than we do of matter. monopolies sort of suck no matter how they’re owned or operated: rather to force the non-critical monopolies to break up than to immortalize them as utilities.

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

#940

Post by colinsane »

worewood wrote: post #777

Unless they make the ads part of the video itself by re-encoding it on the fly with the ads inserted, there will be a way around this. Instead of blocking the ads, the ad blocker just needs to download the content anyway and run it off-screen.

inline ads don’t even fix YT’s problem. see: sponsorblock. if you’re inserting targeted ads (where each viewer sees a different length, or ads inserted at a different position), the sponsorblock approach can be modified to function as a catalog of known ads which your browser/app recognizes and skips.

it’s an arms race. it’s the same flaw as DRM. Google wants to control how your device interacts with the bits it’s already downloaded. as long as the device is in your hands, they can make the bits more difficult for you to use in a manner they don’t approve of, but they can never make it impossible.

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