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Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

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Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#91

Post by gzer0 »

ohyoutravel wrote: post #54
ghoomketu wrote: post #43

People complain a lot about Youtube ads and how awful they are but as a thought experiment I once tried to imagine the amount of storage and bandwidth Youtube must need everyday to operate. So after some basic research it looks like they need to add almost 1 petabytes of storage and I couldn't find much info on the bandwidth and servers it uses. As much as I don't like Google for their shady business practices, I cou…

I’m not seeing the connection you’re making between the admitted marvel of engineering at scale and ads.

more than 500 hours of video content on average is uploaded every minute to the platform [1].

Not sure what standard you are using for 'marvel of engineering' but to me this is truly a marvel of engineering.

[1] https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/new-era-video-infrastruc...

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#92

Post by pc86 »

paulpauper wrote: post #74
ghoomketu wrote: post #43

People complain a lot about Youtube ads and how awful they are but as a thought experiment I once tried to imagine the amount of storage and bandwidth Youtube must need everyday to operate. So after some basic research it looks like they need to add almost 1 petabytes of storage and I couldn't find much info on the bandwidth and servers it uses. As much as I don't like Google for their shady business practices, I cou…

google and YouTube generate insane profits. they could show fewer ads and it would not impair the functionality of YouTube

Google might. But does YouTube? Should other Google properties subsidize YouTube if it doesn't generate "insane profits" by whatever metric you're using that word?

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#93

Post by alex_young »

ghoomketu wrote: post #43

People complain a lot about Youtube ads and how awful they are but as a thought experiment I once tried to imagine the amount of storage and bandwidth Youtube must need everyday to operate. So after some basic research it looks like they need to add almost 1 petabytes of storage and I couldn't find much info on the bandwidth and servers it uses. As much as I don't like Google for their shady business practices, I cou…

What do you think a petabyte of storage costs? SSDs currently start at $15k / PB and presumably Google’s pricing at volume is better.

Data transfer is priced by connection and not by bandwidth, so that cost will not scale linearly.

https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&condition=new&disk_types=e...

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#94

Post by sbradford26 »

kmmlng wrote: post #34
noobermin wrote: post #6

Recently, I've been with people who unlike me don't have youtube premium and I loathe the ads. I'm so happy I pay for premium so I don't have to experience this. I want to say "subscription is the right answer" but it clearly isn't enough for some people (netflix).

The YouTube subscription just seems excessively expensive. I find it hard to fathom they would generate anywhere near as much revenue from me watching their ads compared to the subscription cost.

So I agree for just YouTube it would be excessive. But they do combo it with youtube music which makes it a slightly better deal. Also personally they have the best family plan since it allows 6 accounts total and doesn't require to be "Under the same roof" like spotify. But I agree I probably wouldn't find the full price outside of the family plan worth it.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#95

Post by hundchenkatze »

rocqua wrote: post #44
kmmlng wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The YouTube subscription just seems excessively expensive. I find it hard to fathom they would generate anywhere near as much revenue from me watching their ads compared to the subscription cost.

I found a youtube premium-lite option. It removes adds, but does not allow background play and a few other perks. But it only costs 6 euros. I found it a better deal than premium so I downgraded.

This would be great, exactly what I need. But they don't seem to offer it everywhere. I get the message "This offer is not available" when I go to https://www.youtube.com/premiumlite

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#96

Post by jrootabega »

pluc wrote: post #68

And how we make sure to always skip ads is 1) use an adblocker 2) use a pihole 3) use sponsorblock anything short of the first two is literally using a different internet. Marketers and Advertisers would ruin the net if we let them.

I wonder how much this is still contributing to the overall problem. The content is getting views, so advertisers will still pay for ads, the algorithm will promote it more, more people will see the ads.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#97

Post by duxup »

ramblerman wrote: post #61
duxup wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I read it. The presence of the ability to skip an ad or not is entirely obvious when you're on YouTube. Sometimes you can't skip an ad, that's not surprising nor dark. It is right in front of you and the result is obvious.

Weird hill to die on... You still seem to be missing the point OP was making though. The dark pattern isn't that you can't skip the ad.

>The dark pattern isn't that you can't skip the ad.

Help me out then, what is it?

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#98

Post by geodel »

Maybe more productive way is to use youtube premium instead of looking dark pattern in youtube ads.

Or is the idea is something similar to if restaurant displayed unlimited buffet ads and some jackass customer decides wasting trays of uneaten food is okay. Anything else is restaurant owner is liar and using dark pattern to lure customers.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#99

Post by [deleted] »

duxup wrote: post #18

I don't really see this as a dark pattern. Being exposed to an ad is not a dark pattern IMO. And this particular pattern is IMO pretty dang obvious if you use YouTube much at all. Someone has to pay for YouTube ... someone has to pay for this stuff. If it is ads that's it. I think the issue involves two parties, the sites who want revenue, and the vast majority of users who want content for free. So yeah here we are…

[deleted]

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#100

Post by duxup »

zerocrates wrote: post #63
duxup wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you can or can't skip ads doesn't imply any "blame" to me.

I think the complaint here is not exactly about the fact that you can't skip some of the ads, but that by varying the UI a bunch, users don't reliably "catch" all the skippable ads, so they watch more of them or take longer to skip them than would be the case if it was always immediately obvious what you could and couldn't skip.

I find the idea of "varying the UI" to be way far form the ethical ethical dilemma presented.
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