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Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#71

Post by nullymcnull »

yeukhon wrote: post #23
herbig wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After having used adblock plus for like the last 2 years, I disabled it the other day and have been amazed at how terrible the Internet is without it.

You should read this: https://adblockplus.org/blog/acceptable-ads-by-the-numbers after hearing a talk Robert Hansen gave at AppSec USA, I then realize why adblock plus has been doing a poor job :( it can't stop most of the pop ups and ads anymore.

I think you misunderstand. AdBlock doesn't force this whitelisting, it merely defaults to using it.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#72

Post by eru »

Detrus wrote: post #49

It's totally obnoxious now and destroys usability. I was on a slow internet for a while and youtube mercilessly shoved ads on it. It was impossible to use. I found Youtube center and it smoothed the experience, allows me to disable ads and download video easily. I also got it on the faster connection. It really makes life better. I'm willing to pay a few bucks to never see ads. Until that's an option youtube and dese…

> Until that's an option youtube and deserving content creators will lose a few bucks.

Not necessarily. Allowing the people most willing to spend money to opt out of ads, removes exactly the people someone would want to advertise to.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#73

Post by icebraining »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #36
graeme wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one example use case where the ads are horrible: playlists. Youtube has these "top tracks" playlists. When I discover a new artist, I'll often put that on and go do something else. If a rollover ad comes on, I have to come back to the computer, and click the "skip" button, since I'm not sitting down. One thing I was wondering: does the content creator make money when I skip the ad, or only when I take some kin…

The content creator might get paid when you click, or might get paid per impression. The the creator is absolutely not paid is when you click Skip. Click skip when you don't like the ad; It drives up the price for a successful watch, because ads that get skipped don't get played. There's an ecosystem, it can be played, but it has the proper knobs and controls to combat the playing.

Click skip when you don't like the ad

I do, that's why I click it every time.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#74

Post by bad_user »

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #8

I don't know why it did't happen sooner. I started pre-roll seeing ads on mobile as well, which I don't remember until recently. I don't get why it's disgusting. This is how video creators and Google are supposed to get paid. It's annoying to me that people want free content, and they keep pushing companies to "get traction first, then monetize". This is what has to happen, or else Google has to keep subsidizing prog…

To me they are annoying because they disallow you to skip them for the first few seconds. Their targeting also doesn't do a very good job.

But let me tell you the real problem with YouTube ads. Recently in my country there has been a public outcry against a mining project, which is dangerous not only because of ecological reasons, but also because it needs special laws that trump our constitutional rights and the whole deal is filled with documented corruption. Movies started popping on Youtube describing the perils of open-pit gold mining with cyanide.

Well guess what, the company behind the project started displaying ads on every one of those clips, showing local poor villagers crying for "jobs", with one of the big fat lies of the project being that it will create plenty of jobs. It won't of course, but that's besides the point.

The point is, say somebody believes in something and posts a video on YouTube. A company or an individual can always display ads right at the start of that clip in disagreement and there's no way in hell that you can stop it. If you report it, what are you going to report it for? Now, I believe in freedom of speech, but that's just immoral, as freedom of speech doesn't imply forcing your opposition to present your case in their argument. And it's not freedom of speech when your opposition is a multi-national with all the money it needs to buy whatever it wants.

So that's why YouTube ads are immoral. Because they are more intrusive than normal ads and can be used for disinformation. And because I don't use AdBlock, I limit my visits to YouTube. I used to use it for listening to music, but there are much better options for that.

What I don't get from such services ... maybe I'm willing to pay a monthly subscription. That's what I do with Google Apps. Why not give me the option to turn those ads off?

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#75

Post by daveid »

gizmo686 wrote: post #37
cclogg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's just annoying that it's practically on everything now... like everyone is trying to make that 4 cents in ad revenue off of their kitten rolling around or whatever lol > I've personally stopped watching several videos just because an ad started (as in I closed the browser tab after seeing I had to wait 15s or 30s). Youtube still has dominance now but if you keep getting in the way of people, something bet…

Youtube has 2 types of users it needs to worry about: viewers, and uploaders. One of its major offerings to uploaders is the ability to monotize. It is difficult to see how a competitor can offer this without advertisements.

Perhaps paid subscriptions per channel, with free tiers (or amounts) of content?

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#76

Post by fhd2 »

cupcake-unicorn wrote: post #44
HaEB4zcjbp wrote: post #4

https://adblockplus.org/ https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl

Give AdblockEdge a try. It's a true open source clean fork of AdblockPlus, and it doesn't have the "acceptable ads" whitelisted, which are only whitelisted in some cases because Google/etc. paid them off.

I work on Adblock Plus and would like to clarify some things:

1. Adblock Plus is fully open source, has always been, will always be. Everything else we do is open source too, including our infrastructure and backend systems. (https://hg.adblockplus.org/)

2. Adblock Edge is an unmaintained (edit: Not true, there've been some changes lately) fork of an old Adblock Plus version, with the Acceptable Ads feature removed.

3. Acceptable Ads are an opt-out feature which whitelists ads that comply with the Acceptable Ads criteria. Large sites have to support the project in return, but there's no way around the criteria. (https://adblockplus.org/en/about)

As an aside, we're currently looking into a way of making it easy for users to whitelist ads on YouTube channels they like automatically. Pre-roll video ads will never be acceptable and hence never will be whitelisted for all users by default, but many people still want to support individual YouTubers.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#77

Post by kitsune_ »

The problem I have is the really shitty targeting. With as much as Google must know about me, their ads usually are about stuff I have absolutely no interest in.

I am from smaller country, so I get that the pool of advertisers must be smaller too.

I bought a new bike this year and religiously researched this topic and consumed a ton of cycling videos. What ads do I see? Cars. I don't have a driver's license.

Facebook isn't any better. Last year I was in South Korea and logged into Facebook once. After my return, FB managed to exclusively display ads in Korean for over a month.

Then there are the occasions where you research a topic, buy a product, and then get to see ads for the product you already bought for a year after (I saw ads for the NI Maschine midi controller for over a year after my purchase).

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#78

Post by cpleppert »

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #8

I don't know why it did't happen sooner. I started pre-roll seeing ads on mobile as well, which I don't remember until recently. I don't get why it's disgusting. This is how video creators and Google are supposed to get paid. It's annoying to me that people want free content, and they keep pushing companies to "get traction first, then monetize". This is what has to happen, or else Google has to keep subsidizing prog…

It's annoying because google has done the worst possible thing and put ads in front of every video because you even decide to watch it. It totally breaks the point of being able to browse selections of video if you can't do it without seeing an ad every time.

Google really needs to leverage all the screen real-estate on youtube or take advantage of the active video discovery process of its users. Youtube shouldn't just be a TV where ads are pushed every x minutes or every video like clockwork.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#79

Post by ejain »

bad_user wrote: post #74
alanctgardner2 wrote: post #8

I don't know why it did't happen sooner. I started pre-roll seeing ads on mobile as well, which I don't remember until recently. I don't get why it's disgusting. This is how video creators and Google are supposed to get paid. It's annoying to me that people want free content, and they keep pushing companies to "get traction first, then monetize". This is what has to happen, or else Google has to keep subsidizing prog…

To me they are annoying because they disallow you to skip them for the first few seconds. Their targeting also doesn't do a very good job. But let me tell you the real problem with YouTube ads. Recently in my country there has been a public outcry against a mining project, which is dangerous not only because of ecological reasons, but also because it needs special laws that trump our constitutional rights and the who…

I don't think you can place ads in any movie--only movies that have the "monetization" feature enabled.

It's the same issue as with Google AdSense, though there you have options to exclude certain ads.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#80

Post by xyproto »

bad_user wrote: post #74
alanctgardner2 wrote: post #8

I don't know why it did't happen sooner. I started pre-roll seeing ads on mobile as well, which I don't remember until recently. I don't get why it's disgusting. This is how video creators and Google are supposed to get paid. It's annoying to me that people want free content, and they keep pushing companies to "get traction first, then monetize". This is what has to happen, or else Google has to keep subsidizing prog…

To me they are annoying because they disallow you to skip them for the first few seconds. Their targeting also doesn't do a very good job. But let me tell you the real problem with YouTube ads. Recently in my country there has been a public outcry against a mining project, which is dangerous not only because of ecological reasons, but also because it needs special laws that trump our constitutional rights and the who…

If anyone from Google is reading this: what happened to "don't be evil"?
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