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YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

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Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#61

Post by drewg123 »

noman-land wrote: post #15
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.

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.

There already exists the comskip project used by most home-brew PVR software for broadcast TV. I wonder if it could be leveraged for this. See https://github.com/erikkaashoek/Comskip

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#62

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

jasode wrote: post #47
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.

>YouTube frontend [...] where you pre-download videos from your favorite creators ahead of time. I think the post is saying the ads would be burned into the regular video stream such that even offline downloaders such as youtube-dl would also get the ads . The current common behavior is the actual video and the ads videos are 2 different streams. The javascript in the web browser switches back & forth between the str…

You can strip the ads from the final video or have the player automatically skip the ads while playing. The client will probably have some way to distinguish sections. Worst case scenario you're just ending up in a DVR-style scenario where you have to press some button to skip +30 seconds in the downloaded file. And eventually someone will make a tool to filter out the ads or crowdsource a solution.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#63

Post by miloignis »

mg wrote: post #39

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.

I would argue YouTube Premium is an easy way to do micropayments to the creators you watch.

This doesn't work out to be micro for someone who only watches YouTube rarely, but if you watch a reasonable amount it does.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#65

Post by ballenf »

jasode wrote: post #47
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.

>YouTube frontend [...] where you pre-download videos from your favorite creators ahead of time. I think the post is saying the ads would be burned into the regular video stream such that even offline downloaders such as youtube-dl would also get the ads . The current common behavior is the actual video and the ads videos are 2 different streams. The javascript in the web browser switches back & forth between the str…

If the ads are in-stream, it should actually make it easier to skip from a frontend interface. If you know or can figure out their length.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#66

Post by jprete »

nequo wrote: post #29
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’d like to say that I don’t mind YouTube ads but I actually do much of the time because they try to sell me on an investment scam, some tactical doomsday merch, or fundamentalist religion depending on the theme of the video. Many YouTube ads truly feel adversarial and it is hard to not mind that.

I turned off personalization a while ago. I get ads for Mint Mobile, a local spa, an Internet fast fashion men's T-shirt company, dog food, and similar anodyne topics. It feels a little like watching 90s daytime TV.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#68

Post by account42 »

mg wrote: post #39

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.

Unfortunately, even if you do not view any ads you still end up paying for them via inflated prices (to cover tha ad budget) when you buy from the companies running those ads.

At least you avoid the psychological manipulation though, which hopefully means you don't spend as much for things you don't need.

Re: YouTube experimenting with server-side ad injection

#69

Post by immibis »

ballenf wrote: post #65
jasode wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>YouTube frontend [...] where you pre-download videos from your favorite creators ahead of time. I think the post is saying the ads would be burned into the regular video stream such that even offline downloaders such as youtube-dl would also get the ads . The current common behavior is the actual video and the ads videos are 2 different streams. The javascript in the web browser switches back & forth between the str…

If the ads are in-stream, it should actually make it easier to skip from a frontend interface. If you know or can figure out their length.

It's a given that they'll start and end on keyframes, so you can cut the middle section without losing or re-encoding anything. (It's a given because Google wants to do the opposite - insert them without losing or re-encoding anything. Even if they did re-encode, the sharp transitions would generate keyframes anyway)
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