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YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

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Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#31

Post by tjpnz »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #18

EDIT: 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".

If you read the linked thread this is causing issues with the offsets SB currently uses. That aside YT will have the ability to inject ads dynamically based on region or whatever other signals they use for targeting. Consequently no two copies of the same video are guaranteed to have the same length.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#33

Post by Euphorbium »

whstl wrote: post #27
giancarlostoro wrote: post #20

I 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.

I'm actually loving this whole debacle, because I managed to cut down my Youtube time from 1h/2h a day to almost zero, after I had a week of my Ad Blocker not being able to block ads.

Same. It really broke the addiction.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#35

Post by hedora »

bdcravens wrote: post #21
TehCorwiz wrote: post #18

EDIT: 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".

It seems like this could be easily defeated via random ad injection.

Random ad injection is easily defeated by services like that. They’d just need to fingerprint ever N second window of the video, and then drop stuff that isn’t included across multiple plays.

I wish video distribution would move to self hosting or some other decentralized model though.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#36

Post by ballenf »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #11

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.

The downloads would have the ads as well if they're server-side.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#37

Post by qmarchi »

flaminHotSpeedo wrote: post #24
upmind wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They would just statically account for it if they e.g., permanently modified the video

It doesn't sound like that's the case, per the link: > This breaks sponsorblock since now all timestamps are offset by the ad times. Sounds like either YouTube doesn't care about timestamp stability or they missed this in testing

SponsorBlock works by telling the video player to skip to certain timestamps within the native video player. YouTube however knows the exact offset of the ad that it sent, and this can offset its timestamps.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#38

Post by Bengalilol »

tjpnz wrote: post #5

Presumably this would also break timestamp links more generally?

I bet it won't. It isn't hard to offset, or better put : not take into account the ad in the timestamp (like the video plays the injected ad, but the timestamp doesn't run/increase/tick).

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#39

Post by mg »

Online advertising is such a strange world.

Do I see it correctly, that half of the worlds' population (the ones without ad blockers) is paying the web for the other half (the ones with ad blockers)?

The amount of ads these days is so crazy that I think we might all be better off if there was a way to easily do micropayments instead.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#40

Post by lxgr »

yuck39 wrote: post #17
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #11

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.

Or the ~100% of users who wouldn't understand anything you just wrote will shell out for a premium subscription.

Users don't need to understand an ad blocker to use it either, do they?

That said, the predictable next step would just be for Google to turn on DRM on Youtube videos.

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