Live data from Hacker News

YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

neowin.net

71–80 of 90 posts

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#71
post #53

I wonder how are they "detecting adblock". Let's say I have an alternative youtube client like smartyoutubetv. What will they do? Check if ads are loaded? Fine, the software can be written to load the ads, but not display them. Will they check the timing info? (that you pull a part of the video, then pull the ad for 30s,then the rest?). Will they encode the ad right into the video stream? The app can be coded with a…

Why does it all need to be so complicated? Any time an ad should play, the content can effectively be paused (unable to be played/buffered) for the duration of the ad so you could skip the ad, but would still have to wait to resume the content.

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#72
post #53

I wonder how are they "detecting adblock". Let's say I have an alternative youtube client like smartyoutubetv. What will they do? Check if ads are loaded? Fine, the software can be written to load the ads, but not display them. Will they check the timing info? (that you pull a part of the video, then pull the ad for 30s,then the rest?). Will they encode the ad right into the video stream? The app can be coded with a…

> There is no way youtube can win this battle using "brute force". The only way they can win this is by offering a new better service, not deteriorating existing ones. What could that new service be? How about recommendations that don't suck?

It seems like you're saying that people are mainly using adblockers because the recommendations aren't good enough, and if the recommendations were improved they'd respond by turning off the adblock? That doesn't sound realistic. People use ad blockers because they don't like to watch ads, and since the adblockers let them avoid ads with no effort or cost. The site offering "better service" doesn't change that equation.

> Also, if youtube gets really aggressive people will go elsewhere.

Oh, no! The people who are not willing to pay for the service and who are blocking ads are going elsewhere! How can the platform and the creators possibly survive without that $0 in revenue?

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#73

While I disagree with trying to prevent Adblock, I’m a recent convert to YouTube premium and it’s just so nice. I only tried it after using my girlfriend’s account on our TV for a bit, I was vehemently against it prior. Am I super happy about paying for YouTube? No. Is it worth ~CAD$30/mo to not worry about ads anywhere, have background playback on mobile, and support the folks I watch? Absolutely.

$30 a month?? No way I'd consider YT worth as much as all other streaming services combined.. Maybe I'd consider $3. Especially since even "ad free" videoes themselves now have lots of ads baked into them by the creators. Not a fan of the double dipping.

That’s a family membership IIRC. It’s for 5 or 6 people. We don’t have any other streaming services and spend a lot of time watching and listening to YouTube, so it’s well worth it.

If you want to remove those embedded ads, SponsorBlock and DeArrow are great extensions to make YouTube more bearable!

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#74

While I disagree with trying to prevent Adblock, I’m a recent convert to YouTube premium and it’s just so nice. I only tried it after using my girlfriend’s account on our TV for a bit, I was vehemently against it prior. Am I super happy about paying for YouTube? No. Is it worth ~CAD$30/mo to not worry about ads anywhere, have background playback on mobile, and support the folks I watch? Absolutely.

Protip: You should download a non-stock YouTube app to your TV instead, for instance: https://smartyoutubetv.github.io It has YouTube premium and more, e.g. Sponsorblock, it's over all superior. And free.

SmartTube Next is great, and I do use that on my Shield now for sponsorblock. On web I recommend adding DeArrow to your YouTube extensions to make the experience a bit more bearable. Hopefully they add that in soon too!

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#75
post #8

While I disagree with trying to prevent Adblock, I’m a recent convert to YouTube premium and it’s just so nice. I only tried it after using my girlfriend’s account on our TV for a bit, I was vehemently against it prior. Am I super happy about paying for YouTube? No. Is it worth ~CAD$30/mo to not worry about ads anywhere, have background playback on mobile, and support the folks I watch? Absolutely.

Ah the good old breaking your legs in economy to make you appreciate the ‘value’ of business. Works every time.

Not sure what you mean? I’m also not super happy paying the amount that I do for rent. That doesn’t mean I don’t like my apartment or that I’m not willing to stomach that extra amount for the value I get.

I’d prefer they were both cheaper. That doesn’t prevent me from seeing the value they provide me.

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#76
post #30

While I disagree with trying to prevent Adblock, I’m a recent convert to YouTube premium and it’s just so nice. I only tried it after using my girlfriend’s account on our TV for a bit, I was vehemently against it prior. Am I super happy about paying for YouTube? No. Is it worth ~CAD$30/mo to not worry about ads anywhere, have background playback on mobile, and support the folks I watch? Absolutely.

> and support the folks I watch? YouTube takes a 45% cut. So out of that $30, YouTube pays a few cents for bandwidth, and takes $13.50 thanks to its dominant market position. I'd much rather watch with AdBlock and donate via Gumroad or Patreon.

Right. And the other 55% goes to… the folks I watch.

Steam takes a 30% cut or something when I buy video games. I’m not about to start pirating games and mailing cheques to the developer.

I don’t assume that my YT Premium is paying for lavish meals for my favourite channels. But I watch lots of different channels, not all of which I’m going to sponsor on Patreon. They at least get something.

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#77

While I disagree with trying to prevent Adblock, I’m a recent convert to YouTube premium and it’s just so nice. I only tried it after using my girlfriend’s account on our TV for a bit, I was vehemently against it prior. Am I super happy about paying for YouTube? No. Is it worth ~CAD$30/mo to not worry about ads anywhere, have background playback on mobile, and support the folks I watch? Absolutely.

Wow, here in New Zealand I'm only paying 10 NZD/month (8.04 CAD), grandfathered in from when it used to be a Google Play Music subscription. It's fantastic value for that price, but I would definitely think twice at 30 CAD/month.

That’s the family plan

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#78
post #72
post #53

I wonder how are they "detecting adblock". Let's say I have an alternative youtube client like smartyoutubetv. What will they do? Check if ads are loaded? Fine, the software can be written to load the ads, but not display them. Will they check the timing info? (that you pull a part of the video, then pull the ad for 30s,then the rest?). Will they encode the ad right into the video stream? The app can be coded with a…

> There is no way youtube can win this battle using "brute force". The only way they can win this is by offering a new better service, not deteriorating existing ones. What could that new service be? How about recommendations that don't suck? It seems like you're saying that people are mainly using adblockers because the recommendations aren't good enough, and if the recommendations were improved they'd respond by tu…

Maybe if YouTube premium wasn't 10x the revenue of a normal ad user and YouTube creates a real way to browse videos it would work? It worked for Netflix, I don't see why it would not work for them.

The reality is that Google depends too much on its ads business and can't afford to spin their business model.

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, here in New Zealand I'm only paying 10 NZD/month (8.04 CAD), grandfathered in from when it used to be a Google Play Music subscription. It's fantastic value for that price, but I would definitely think twice at 30 CAD/month.

That’s the family plan

Ah, that makes more sense!

Re: YouTube gets more aggressive in pushing adblock warnings with countdown timer

#80

While I disagree with trying to prevent Adblock, I’m a recent convert to YouTube premium and it’s just so nice. I only tried it after using my girlfriend’s account on our TV for a bit, I was vehemently against it prior. Am I super happy about paying for YouTube? No. Is it worth ~CAD$30/mo to not worry about ads anywhere, have background playback on mobile, and support the folks I watch? Absolutely.

I have two issues with paying Google for YouTube Premium:

1. I don’t trust Google at all and am very reluctant about giving them any personal information.

2. Even if I pay, I still get all the promotional crap that the content creators put in their videos.

Post reply on HN