YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#51

Post by Workaccount2 » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:29 PM UTC

Longlius wrote: post #42

hombre_fatal wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how this comment tracks with the events. Content creators on Youtube are paid from ads and subscriptions. If they want to give their content away for free, they can turn off Youtube ads since they are the ones turning them on in the first place.

Youtube runs ads on content that isn't monetized, the creator just doesn't see any of that money.

The creator absolutley sees that money. It comes in the form of free hosting, bandwidth, and analytics platform.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#52

Post by jszymborski » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:29 PM UTC

qntmfred wrote: post #36

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

See, I like a lot of content creators on YouTube. I also think that Alphabet has such an immensely negative impact on society. Deeply and thoroughly.

I just cannot bring myself to give a red cent. Not by viewing ads, and much less by giving them my credit card.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#53

Post by carapace » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:29 PM UTC

qntmfred wrote: post #36

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

It's not free: you're supposed to watch the ads. You pay with your limited seconds of lifetime. You don't get those seconds back, ever.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#54

Post by ChatGTP » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

qntmfred wrote: post #36

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

Of course, it's not free, they're making billions of dollars of targeted advertising and stealing your attention to sell ads.

They also seem to be in the shady business of getting kids completely hooked on the service. Most of my friends kids are just staring at YouTube day day out. I could blame the parents, but there is a reason why selling drugs is illegal too I guess.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#55

Post by boomboomsubban » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

My opinion of the for profit ad blockers is so low that I assume this article is sponsored content from at least one of them. I'd guess Adlock refused to pay, as bizarrely they're the only one who don't get their product linked to despite claiming to have solved the problem.

I always find it strange to hear so many people still use non uBlock Origin ad blockers. I feel like any discussion I've seen about ad blockers in the past decade has been overwhelmingly full of recommendations for uBlock Origin, deservedly so.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#56

Post by 0xfedbee » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

qntmfred wrote: post #36

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

Nice try, Google, but no.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#57

Post by warabe » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

qntmfred wrote: post #36

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

That's great! Thank you for keep supporting Youtube!

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#58

Post by realusername » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

Longlius wrote: post #27

I took off adblocking on Youtube just to see if I could get along with continuing to use Youtube in a frictionless way. The answer is no, because Youtube's current crop of ads is full of outright scams and conspiracy theory stuff. Content that would probably be massively de-emphasized by the youtube algorithm or even outright banned is apparently okay to show as long as you pay Google a few thousand dollars to run it…

Same for me, I don't have adblock on my mobile yet and I evaluate that less than half of the ads I see on youtube are even legal in my country.

Conspiracy theories, fake products, casino type games, get quick rich schemes and fake medical products are common.

Then I hear PR ads on the radio on how Google supports small local businesses, when you are big enough, the reality doesn't matter anymore.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#59

Post by Kim_Bruning » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

teeray wrote: post #49

pprotas wrote: post #5

I wonder if anyone in the industry has any insights in how a regular developer can help improve ad blockers? Where to get started? As a huge fan of blocking ads, this makes me feel inspired to join the fight against Google. How can I help?

Eventually it will have to become content extraction. Load the page in the background, load the ad, capture frames from the video window and use some process to detect and remove the frames that show an ad. Take the clean video feed and show it in another interface than the original page. This would also be a countermeasure against direct injection of ads into the content stream.

Meanwhile: https://sponsor.ajay.app/

Though if youtube is really going to end up blocking ad-blockers, this one may stop working too, of course.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#60

Post by rchaud » Fri, Nov 03, 2023, 2:31 PM UTC

qntmfred wrote: post #36

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

That would suggest you're paying 40% more for it now than when you started. It's the cable TV model but with public access TV content.