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Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

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Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we pay for the experience we used to have for free? It would be an easy sell if google offered some benefit to paying, but making the experience worse and then offering to put it back as a premium option rubs me the wrong way.

Because you aren't entitled to anything. It's someone else's service they ran at a loss. Remind me to never invite you over for dinner. "Why should I have to split the check now? You paid for my dinner yesterday!" Jesus christ. Grow up. Be an adult.

> It's someone else's service they ran at a loss.

IANAL, but running a service at a loss until you have a monopoly position and then cranking up prices sounds illegal.

> Remind me to never invite you over for dinner. "Why should I have to split the check now? You paid for my dinner yesterday!"

I dunno; if for 18 years you give away free food, not to just to one person, but to an entire town, and then one day when nobody else is left selling food in town decide to start charging, I think it would be quite reasonable for people to be cross with you.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#52
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is only paying/ad viewers that matters, until they start to lose those they wont care. They prefer you use youtube ad-free than go take the crowd to another platform. Microsoft famously said that they prefer people to pirate Windows than to use Linux/Mac.

Pirating OS users tend to become paying OS users after a while, when they need to perform a job etc. Ad blocking users aren't becoming paying or ad-viewing users, they stay unprofitable forever.

They stay unprofitable forever individually but they stay on YouTube instead of making another video site popular, which on the whole is better for YouTube.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#53
post #12
post #8

The free ride is over. I feel like the only reason this is upsetting to people is because it seemed to be free for so long. If you give someone a free meal every day for 15 years, and then suddenly take it away, they'll be pretty upset. But nobody ever asked why the food was free? It costs to make and it costs to deliver. Google have datacenters all over the world and we still expect the food to be free. They literal…

Sorry bud, Google makes its money spying on my email and my searches. Those are tradeoffs I’m willing to make. I absolutely refuse to ever watch ads, though. You say we can’t go back torrents, and maybe you can’t, but I’ll go full Luddite mode before I start watching ads on anything. I haven’t had a television for 20+ years for this very reason. Torrents and a seed box are about as easy as it gets.

> I’ll go full Luddite mode before I start watching ads on anything.

That's the spirit! Ads are cancer for clear thinking and create widespread harm.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#54
post #8

The free ride is over. I feel like the only reason this is upsetting to people is because it seemed to be free for so long. If you give someone a free meal every day for 15 years, and then suddenly take it away, they'll be pretty upset. But nobody ever asked why the food was free? It costs to make and it costs to deliver. Google have datacenters all over the world and we still expect the food to be free. They literal…

I'd rather stop watching YouTube than start watching ads. I disabled my adblocker to see how bad is it and it is truly disgusting, I cannot conceive how people can enjoy YouTube with so many ads. And before you say "just pay YouTube Premium", no, the moment a majority of people start paying $10 (or whatever it is) for YouTube Premium, Google is going to add ads to it again and make you pay $20 for YouTube Premium For…

Is there any precedent at all for this? This feels more like a Netflix than a Google move. Google's consumer facing offerings have not really rubbed me the wrong way yet, except maybe the consolidation of music services into their worse one.

Ads pay near to nothing compared to a subscription. Why would they jeopardize that. Even someone who buys Premium in a country where it's exceptionally cheap makes them more money than an ad user.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#55
post #11
post #4

I would recommend them to ditch video ads and maybe people won't use ad blockers anymore. But I'm afraid that this ship has sailed.

They probably will force users to enable webcams to detect if content is being watched, and if you as much as blink - ad will pause.

They can't do that. They wouldn't do that! Because that's a Microsoft patent.

https://www.vg247.com/microsoft-filed-kinect-patent-that-gov...

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#56
post #36

[flagged]

> STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT ADS No. I believe you missed/ignored a few facts in your screed: 1. Ads are a malware surface 2. Ads are used to pass misinformation and other harmful content Google is failing to perform its due diligence as an ad platform for both sides of the ad two-sided market. Ergo, my browser connection will continue to use its condoms. -- Further, Google paid for little to any content creation that is…

>1. Ads are a malware surface

Youtube ads, Which is what we are talking about, are not.

>2. Ads are used to pass misinformation and other harmful content

This is a small percentage of ads.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#57
post #36

[flagged]

> STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT ADS No. I believe you missed/ignored a few facts in your screed: 1. Ads are a malware surface 2. Ads are used to pass misinformation and other harmful content Google is failing to perform its due diligence as an ad platform for both sides of the ad two-sided market. Ergo, my browser connection will continue to use its condoms. -- Further, Google paid for little to any content creation that is…

The misinformation is insane. Diet advertisements of don't eat this, etc are disgusting.

It follows the same pattern of those Google searches that pop up like 'what are some of the benefits of xyz' written by someone with 0 scientific knowledge, on a page with 0 references to studies. It is merely there as filler content to lure people to the website.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#58
post #8

The free ride is over. I feel like the only reason this is upsetting to people is because it seemed to be free for so long. If you give someone a free meal every day for 15 years, and then suddenly take it away, they'll be pretty upset. But nobody ever asked why the food was free? It costs to make and it costs to deliver. Google have datacenters all over the world and we still expect the food to be free. They literal…

Ah the fallacy of content piracy harm. If I steal content it doesn't cost the creator anything. I was never going to pay for said content anyway. If I enjoy content to to point of being willing to pay, I would do so anyway, even if I could keep getting it for free, if there is an agreeable way to do that. This applies to software, books, video, music and everything else, and has been proven time and again. Google has…

People quit their jobs and make videos full time thanks to YouTube ads. Those videos wouldn't exist otherwise, people would be busy working regular jobs.

Re: Google admits cracking down on people using ad blockers

#59
post #5
post #3

baz00 admits cracking down on using Google. Only way to do something about this crap.

Why would they care about losing you when they aren't making any money on you? "McDonalds cracks down on people taking ketchup without ordering anything" "Then I'll stop taking ketchup from McDonalds, that will show em!" It is only paying/ad viewers that matters, until they start to lose those they wont care.

I've paid for content on YouTube before, through Purchases, and I won't do that anymore if there's even a hint they'll try to detect my adblocker in the future.

Thing is, I'm not going to pay their excessive and ongoing subscription fee under any circumstances. I watch maybe an hour of videos a week, but all of them are just to kill time, and they're not worth double digits a month to me. I was happy to have a transactional relationship with them for paid content, and they likely made a net profit from me even with an ad blocker, but if I can't trust them to provide ongoing access to the content I bought then I won't buy any more.

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