If ads get too annoying people will start running a YouTube frontend and probably switch from on-demand video viewing to a DVR format where you pre-download videos from your favorite creators ahead of time. Maybe the frontend can pretend to have watched the full video and ads, I'm sure that'll go over wonderfully with advertisers.
YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
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Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#12I'm honestly surprised it took this long for them to do this. Knowing nothing about how ad delivery/networks work (or ad blockers, for that matter) my guess is that something fundamental with how they are delivered (e.g., 3rd party domain for tracking?) also made them detectable via extensions? Makes me wonder how they are solving the problem now. Twitch seems to do a good job of staying ahead of extensions.
Youtube at least they're not really solving it right now. uBlock origin does pretty well at managing to block most pre and mid roll ads, at least in my experience, there's only been a few short blips for me when it has let ads slip through. Some weird experiences where a splash screen with no video would appear, instead I just would just see a small icon for the thing the ad was for and a skip button.
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#13I find the baked-in ads in my parents VHS tapes to be quaint and informative.
I don't feel that way about current YouTube ads!
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#14yt has gotten very feisty all of a sudden.
If you're used to dipping in & out of vids to find something interesting it is fundamentally unusable without working adblock. You end up watching more ads than video
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#15If ads get too annoying people will start running a YouTube frontend and probably switch from on-demand video viewing to a DVR format where you pre-download videos from your favorite creators ahead of time. Maybe the frontend can pretend to have watched the full video and ads, I'm sure that'll go over wonderfully with advertisers.
There's no reason we can't train local AIs to do ad removal in real time. That will be fun. Will be useful when AR gets popular too.
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#16Can someone explain like I'm 5? Will this affect DuckDuckGo embedded player ?
Edit: clarify that I usually go through Bing or DDG to play YT videos
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#17If ads get too annoying people will start running a YouTube frontend and probably switch from on-demand video viewing to a DVR format where you pre-download videos from your favorite creators ahead of time. Maybe the frontend can pretend to have watched the full video and ads, I'm sure that'll go over wonderfully with advertisers.
Or the ~100% of users who wouldn't understand anything you just wrote will shell out for a premium subscription.
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#18EDIT: I didn't read carefully. Ignore the first sentence.
~There's already a tool called SponsorBlock which in conjunction with FreeTube or Invidious can automatically skip portions of videos tagged as sponsorships or ads.~ I don't see server injected ads being a long-term problem for people who use blockers or third-party players. It just shifts the problem to the "analog hole".
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#19Youtube ads have been on an impressively consistent path of aggression. Chromecasting went from no ads as recently as a couple years ago to 30+ second unskippable ads to. The revenue firehose I’m sure is incredible though. I run some online video campaigns for work (~$300k/mo) that compete with YouTube for budget and they have incredible performance stats… as indicated by GA4.
Chromecast got ads in ~2015. I was keenly aware of this because paying for YouTube premium didn't get rid of ads on Chromecast (yet).
Must have been some hardware combination or something unique where I never got them until recently, and it was quite jarring.
Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection
#20I have to wonder if they never have due to fear that people will stop using the platform. I honestly will stop using it. I don't mind ads, but they always come on YouTube at the worst time, if you're watching something informative, they cut your brain off from that into some obscure that has no relevancy to your life.