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YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

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Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#81

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…

> where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want

If it was a FREE service to EVERYONE, they wouldn't care about adblockers. It is paid, then.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#82

I think many content creators have recognized that it's important to expand their brand outside of youtube so they're not so beholden to youtube. I wonder if this is opening cracks for competitors.

The biggest video site in the world, with the 3rd biggest cloud is admitting they can't make money with adblocking on. Most of the world is not even using adblockers, as they're on mobile apps where it's harder.

Why would anyone want to enter this market?

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#84
post #4

I avoid anything with Ads and will simply avoid YouTube, as I already have been avoiding it for a long time for simply not having useful content.

To suggest YouTube doesn't have "useful" content seems objectively false. I think it should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. Need to see how to install a car seat? Need to fix a burner on your stove? Need to learn Hindi? Need to hear a live version of a Tom Waits song he only played once? Need to learn more about Philippine-American War? Need to learn what the difference between effect and affect is? My wif…

It's useless because there are thousands of idiots with a camera who record pointless clickbait videos to extract ad money. The signal-to-noise ratio is completely out of wack. There are are tons of 10+ minute videos about topics which say absolutely nothing. It's like college papers with a minimum page requirement where the student has to just fill the page with words which mean nothing. There very little actual value in most of the videos. IMO anyone who enjoys and watches youtube regularly uses it as a mind numbing medication to exit our terrible existence of life for a few hours.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#86
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?

By far the most effective way to end ads would be to come up with an internet business model that doesn't need ads or subscriptions to stay alive.

This would be a god tier level development, and would seriously cripple Google's core business (serving ads) and youtube as well (serve ads or subscription).

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#87

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…

I got several ads from a well known scammer, full of conspiracy bullshit about how school is a way for the "elites" to hide some grand truth from the masses. It promotes his "re education" portal, which is actually a get-rich-fast type of scam, à la Andrew Tate.

I reported the ad, twice, but YT claims it doesn’t violate any policies. I’m pretty sure it violates EU laws about disinformation, but no one is going to listen to me right ?

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#88

The YouTube app on my AppleTV never showed me ads until the past few days. I do use NextDNS, but by all accounts it did nothing for YouTube ads. On my desktops I have ublock origin so I didn't see ads there and attributed it to that extension. It was glorious. Then suddenly YouTube started showing ads. Terrible. Literally worse than classic "free" television in its prime. Multiple ads pre-roll. Frequent ads just inje…

This is probably because of Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rules, which prevent personal data from leaving the device for ads without consent. This means YouTube on AppleTV can't target you at an individual level, and thus the ad inventory is less valuable. Maybe now they have more demand side budgets and are finding ways to spend it even on Apple devices. Or maybe their privatization technology is finally mature enough to make that inventory valuable enough to sell.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#89

I think many content creators have recognized that it's important to expand their brand outside of youtube so they're not so beholden to youtube. I wonder if this is opening cracks for competitors.

No one wants to be a competitor. People are so deluded on this topic that they cannot even think straight. No one wants to watch ads. No one wants to pay a subscription. Those two things are factually true, and why youtube sucks, why it has no competitors, and why the future looks bad for it. Vid.me ran an experiment a few years ago and made a serious push to upend youtube. They had great success and it really took o…

I agree it's a dead end if you're not Youtube-scale, but people do pay for subscriptions. Spotify and Netflix come to mind, but yes, they are both approaching the price point at which it no longer feels worthwhile to keep.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#90
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To suggest YouTube doesn't have "useful" content seems objectively false. I think it should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. Need to see how to install a car seat? Need to fix a burner on your stove? Need to learn Hindi? Need to hear a live version of a Tom Waits song he only played once? Need to learn more about Philippine-American War? Need to learn what the difference between effect and affect is? My wif…

It's useless because there are thousands of idiots with a camera who record pointless clickbait videos to extract ad money. The signal-to-noise ratio is completely out of wack. There are are tons of 10+ minute videos about topics which say absolutely nothing. It's like college papers with a minimum page requirement where the student has to just fill the page with words which mean nothing. There very little actual val…

You know you can train the feeds, right? Or are you one of those "but Google will sell my viewing habits to better represent my demographic" people?
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