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YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

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Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#871

Post by mNovak »

socalgal2 wrote: post #855
wwweston wrote: post #848

Paying for YouTube has probably been the digital subscription with the single greatest return on a dozen dollars. Content is uninterrupted without having to engage in the arms race. Music selection is great. Random movies are available.

Music selection is great. Music recommendation (and video recommendation) is utter crap. I know running something as big as youtube means there is unlikely to be a true competitor but there is sooooooooo much low-hanging fruit to do a better job. My home page is on average 60% wasted/irrelevant. I'm a little surprised they haven't added "AI" yet. They add some prompt "tell us what you like". I tried it the opposite "…

Agreed the algorithm is significantly flawed. I often have the experience of being interested in a one-off video, but don't watch it because I don't want to pollute the algorithm recommendations with similar stuff.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#872

Post by fluidcruft »

GuB-42 wrote: post #765
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The primary thing that makes advertisements disagreeable is their irrelevance. That's not true. We don't hate billboards because of their irrelevancy. We hate billboards because they're giant ugly attention grabbers that make the world look worse for everybody in exchange for making someone money. If the billboards were all about driving-related products, they'd still suck. The YouTube ads are hated because that's…

If you saw a giant, attention grabbing billboard for something you are looking for, you wouldn't hate it. In the context of roads, these are businesses putting their signs on the side of the road. For example I usually find billboards/signs pointing to the nearest supermarket, restaurant or gas station to be useful, because that's the kind of thing I may want do do when I am driving, and I am getting useful informati…

I think you are complaining about the signs that happen inside cities particularly on roads where traffic gets backed up and slow. Beyond that it's gas/food/hotels/motels/tourist attractions... and religious speech. But in urban areas where it's AC repair, plumbers, injury lawyers or whatever lets be real: you're not missing much of a view.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#873

Post by felineflock »

zouhair wrote: post #822
felineflock wrote: post #772

There are 3 primary undesirability aspects of ads: 1) ads as irrelevant intrusions (in spite of all data Google collects, ads are mostly irrelevant for any person) 2) ads as ugly or blockers of beauty 3) ads as thieves of attention or downright theft (scam ads, illegal products) Then, should we pay to get rid of ads or not? Two opposite opinions: 1) paying YouTube support creators 2) paying YouTube rewards the "shiti…

I have only one: Ads. Ads shouldn't exist. The fact that most human endeavours now are forced to use ads is insane.

Ads are a brute force approach to the challenge of having useful information (company X offers Y) reach their target (people who needs Y presently or in the future).

If you say no ads should exist, then what alternatives would you have for that challenge?

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#874

Post by ranger_danger »

layer8 wrote: post #720
jay_kyburz wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The server can just ignore the player and send the bytes for the ad until its finished.

The server can't completely ignore the player, as it would have to adjust the embedded timestamps to be consistent with the skip operations, or otherwise the player won't show the video. In other words, the server would have to act as if the ad is embedded wherever you skip to in the video. Not only would it mean that users lose their position in the video when they try to skip, since after the ad it would continue i…

JS on the client (which is already required) can be instructed by the server to manipulate the timeline. You could zero it out completely (or stop it from moving at all) while an ad is playing and then return it to the right spot after, this is not rocket science.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#877

Post by UltraSane »

squigz wrote: post #201
UltraSane wrote: post #97

I have every right to try to block YouTube ads and YouTube has every right to try to defeat whatever I do.

No they do not have that right. They do not have the right to try to circumvent what I'm telling my browser to do. If they don't like what it's doing, they can block me from the platform.

At the most fundamental they have the right to send or not send video data to you.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#878

Post by kapitanjakc »

TJTorola wrote: post #853

Not sure what this says about me, but I ran into youtube putting a 3 video limit on me because I was using adblocking and when I hit that limit I just ended up going outside to have a lovely day. Honestly wish video limits was just a feature I could turn on. Funny enough, awhile back they made it so that if you turned off watch history, they would disable the front page feed. Not sure if that was seen as a punishment…

I don't have watch history on.

I don't see anything on my home page.

I specially open youtube when I want to look at something and I have to search for it.

I still watch related videos, but it's way better compared to what I got on home page.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#879

Post by kaptainscarlet »

v5v3 wrote: post #605
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #414

The primary thing that makes advertisements disagreeable is their irrelevance. That’s not to say whether or not the advertisement is for a product or service for which the viewer is interested in purchasing but how it relates to the context in which it is viewed. People complain about billboards next to a countryside highway because it is entirely irrelevant to driving through the countryside. Actual complaints may b…

You don't get it. You are not the target Most advertising is seeking the less intelligent consumer. Or the young and still naive consumer. They outnumber you 1 million to 1. It's why female musicians make more money putting their name to a makeup brand then their music. It's why Elon will make some promise that is unrealistic. It's why Apple put low paid everyday tech support staff in their stores and called them Gen…

Spot on. As technically apt people, we grossly overestimate the technical ability of the average user.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#880

Post by socalgal2 »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #428
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #414

The primary thing that makes advertisements disagreeable is their irrelevance. That’s not to say whether or not the advertisement is for a product or service for which the viewer is interested in purchasing but how it relates to the context in which it is viewed. People complain about billboards next to a countryside highway because it is entirely irrelevant to driving through the countryside. Actual complaints may b…

> The primary thing that makes advertisements disagreeable is their irrelevance. That's not true. We don't hate billboards because of their irrelevancy. We hate billboards because they're giant ugly attention grabbers that make the world look worse for everybody in exchange for making someone money. If the billboards were all about driving-related products, they'd still suck. The YouTube ads are hated because that's…

> We don't hate billboards because of their irrelevancy. We hate billboards because they're giant ugly attention grabbers that make the world look worse for everybody in exchange for making someone money. If the billboards were all about driving-related products, they'd still suck.

I like billboards when I'm driving down an interstate and I want to decide if I should get off at the next stop and I want to know what food options there are. (example: Driving down I5 from SF to LA). I like billboards when they tell me about an attraction coming up. (Winchester House has a billboard) I like billboards when they advertize concerts/entertainers. (Driving down the I15 from Ontario to Oceanside there are ads for who's playing at Yaamava (https://www.yaamava.com/yaamava-theater), Pala (https://www.palacasino.com/entertainment/upcoming-concerts/), etc...

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