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Susan Wojcicki has died

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Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#331
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure what you mean about the UI, but I pay for YouTube Premium exclusively so I don’t have to see ads, and for that purpose alone, to me it’s worth it.

Why not just use an ad blocker?

I'd rather move towards a web (largely) without ads than continue to be the product sold to advertisers rather than the consumer served by the platform. The constant escalation of the ad blocker-ad server war has also contributed greatly to ballooning complexity in all sorts of technologies.

I hope YT Premium is a step in that direction, but only time will tell.

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Moderna’s results indicating 94% efficacy Yet strangely every person I know vaccinated or not still got COVID. YouTube banned people for even simple observation like this.

Every person you know. Anecdotes are worthless in a scientific setting, or literally any setting with the slightest amount of rigor. More often than not, we do not have anywhere near a representative sample in the people we know or hang around.

I got the Moderna vaccine in May 2021 and a booster in December that year.

The first time I got Covid was a year later, December 2022. Exactly as predicted by the vaccinations.

I don’t go around pretending that this anecdote is worth anything. That’s why companies like Moderna do clinical trials with 30,000 people.

Somehow lots of people whose experiences are slightly outside the median are convinced that everything is a lie. “Statistics are hard, let’s go shopping?”

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#333
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on earth you want 10X longer video with same information content as the shorter video?

Why on earth would you watch a 1.5 hour movie when you can watch a 2 min TikTok that explains the entire story? In a world full of distractions I for one love the more slow-paced videos than “shorts” churned out by content mills designed to feed the modern day digital ADHD…

10 minutes of a shitty movie is too long, but one great movie might be not enough and I want a TV series out of it!

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#334

Was shocked to hear this news. I worked for Google years ago but I was in the NYC office, so we didn't run into the YouTube folks much. Opinions about YouTube may be mixed here on HN, but it is objectively one of the most successful businesses in tech or media to emerge in the past 15 years. If it weren't buried inside Alphabet, Youtube would be worth on the order of $400 billion, more than Disney and Comcast combine…

>Opinions about YouTube may be mixed here on HN, but it is objectively one of the most successful businesses in tech or media to emerge in the past 15 years. I was always critical of YouTube from the sort of technical perspective than just pure UX. The core product and the core UX are great and I'm even considering getting YouTube Premium because I use YouTube so much. All in all, YouTube was and still is internet ph…

> and I'm even considering getting YouTube Premium

Why?

Serious question, too. You can sideload clients that give you every single feature of YouTube Premium for free. Unless you're expressly lazy, like being taken advantage of or enjoy watching advertisements, there's really no excuse. YouTube Premium is the "I'm trapped in this place and you people have finally gotten me" fee - you can circument it all together by just, not using YouTube's software. Newpipe is must-have on Android, I'm certain something similar exists for iOS. I run SmartTube on my dirt-cheap Amazon FireTV and don't get a single ad when browsing. Subtotal is $0.00 for the installation and usage of Open Source software.

I use YouTube a lot, but between uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock (which I set-and-forget like 4 years ago) I don't have a single gripe with the experience. I hear people contemplate paying YouTube for a worse experience and it gives me hives. The content is on a server; you are making yourself miserable by acquiescing to a harmful client. Paying for YouTube Premium is your eternal reward for submission to the Walled Garden.

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#335
post #123
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Opinions about YouTube may be mixed here on HN Who? Who has a negative opinion about YouTube? The occasional "My kids watch too much of it" != "mixed opinions" about the site in general.

YouTube’s algorithm feeds increasingly radicalizing content to young people. It makes celebrities of people like Andrew Tate and is a primary enabler of fringe belief bubbles. Any time someone posts a YouTube link to a political discussion, it’s guaranteed to be the worst nonsense that pries on people who “do their own research.” (No matter if they’re left or right on the political spectrum, there’s endless junk on Y…

As targeted towards young people, YouTube's algorithm serves up a lot more Mr. Beast than Andrew Tate.

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#336
post #321

Was shocked to hear this news. I worked for Google years ago but I was in the NYC office, so we didn't run into the YouTube folks much. Opinions about YouTube may be mixed here on HN, but it is objectively one of the most successful businesses in tech or media to emerge in the past 15 years. If it weren't buried inside Alphabet, Youtube would be worth on the order of $400 billion, more than Disney and Comcast combine…

My dad uses it to get fascist/right-wing propaganda for about 4 hours every night. All nicely monetized for any grifter willing to debase themselves for a potential fortune. Truly novel, but not well thought through or done with any care at all besides profits which is par for the course in silicon valley.

Your idea of fascism must be rather tame, considering YouTube’s active censorship of anything even slightly right-of-center.

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#337
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh lol. I thought he was dead. The point still stands

The point doesn‘t stand, because you made a claim about what people supposedly said or didn’t say after Chomsky passed away. And he didn‘t even pass.

This is pedantry at its finest.

You can remove the name and still have a point left there. Just pretend the comment only said Kissinger, it’s really not that hard.

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#338

Was shocked to hear this news. I worked for Google years ago but I was in the NYC office, so we didn't run into the YouTube folks much. Opinions about YouTube may be mixed here on HN, but it is objectively one of the most successful businesses in tech or media to emerge in the past 15 years. If it weren't buried inside Alphabet, Youtube would be worth on the order of $400 billion, more than Disney and Comcast combine…

YouTube has very much been resting on its laurels, they were innovative 20 years ago when they started. For the past decade or so they have mostly just rested on their laurels allowing the auto-moderation to rampage and destroy people's livelihoods. They've been way behind on adding standard features that their competitors see lots of benefit from. For example, YouTube was years late to the 'channel memberships' game…

I've often wondered why YT hasn't released a subscription fee or donate type button where they could easily take a small nominal processing fee while removing the friction of forcing use of 3rd party services. Is liability from that kind of money movement too much for them to care with all of the much less risky money they are making?

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#339
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is YouTube an illegal monopoly?

Alphabet has engaged in many anti-competitive business practices to promote YouTube's monopoly. To name a few, Alphabet is currently being sued by the DoJ for illegally monopolising digital advertising technology. That technology, which directly integrates with youtube (and which you or I could not integrate with our own competing youtube-like product), is one of the key reasons that youtube has become as successful…

The irony is that despite all of this monopolization and lying to advertisers about the reach of their ads YouTube is still not profitable.

Re: Susan Wojcicki has died

#340
post #45

Next time you're thinking "I wish I was the one who had made a billion dollars with my startup idea", remember that only health and family matter, and to have fun while you're alive. RIP. Edit: some people misinterpreted my comment. I'm just one anonymous voice on the Internet, but am deeply saddened by the passing of Susan Wojcicki, who meant a lot to me as one of the many people who crossed paths with her professio…

Susan didn’t start YouTube.
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