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YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

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Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#91

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

> YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet.

This is true.

> I am 100% happy to pay for YouTube.

Just remember that you're giving money to the company that backs things like FLoC, Manifest v3, and WEI (recently in the news), things that threaten interoperability on the Internet. It's not friendly.

If you pay them, do it with your eyes open.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an individual creator you can make that decision, but if YouTube as a whole annoys your viewer base to the point that they use YouTube less then you have a problem.

That's a stretch. Even if Google, an entirely metrics driven company, decided to destroy their metrics, there isn't any good alternatives to Youtube. At best you'll be going to TikTok, but most YouTube channels can't be sustained on TikTok's revenue model.

They don't have to destroy their own metrics as a whole to drive away your niche audience as an individual creator. I can certainly imagine scenarios that would increase Google's metrics, user base, and ad revenue while causing problems for some existing creators.

The push towards non-youtube channels like Nebula and Patreon signals that some creators are at least worried about their entire audience being delivered via Youtube's whim.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#93

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

"Hm, Google tracks me everywhere I go and tries to store data about everything I do. It's pretty terrible, but what should I do about it? I know, I'll link my account to a real identity and credit card!"

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#94
post #57

I've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for th…

That's great! Thank you for keep supporting Youtube!

Support wikipedia. Youtube doesn't need support they have deep pockets making money selling ad space to scammers

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#95

I think many content creators have recognized that it's important to expand their brand outside of youtube so they're not so beholden to youtube. I wonder if this is opening cracks for competitors.

There's Nebula. https://nebula.tv/ Many of my favorite channels (mostly civil engineering, science, history) are there, and release there first before YouTube. Sadly the UI is not as good, and there are no automatic captions like YouTube. But it's cheap and it works... And of course there's Patreon.

Rather surprising that they don't offer sign up with Facebook/Google.

I know, i know, but that's pretty big speed bump in the onboarding process.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#97

I think many content creators have recognized that it's important to expand their brand outside of youtube so they're not so beholden to youtube. I wonder if this is opening cracks for competitors.

No one wants to be a competitor. People are so deluded on this topic that they cannot even think straight. No one wants to watch ads. No one wants to pay a subscription. Those two things are factually true, and why youtube sucks, why it has no competitors, and why the future looks bad for it. Vid.me ran an experiment a few years ago and made a serious push to upend youtube. They had great success and it really took o…

And guess what? No one needs Youtube. Content delivery will continue to exist if youtube stops existing.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that when paying for YT premium, you have to be logged in. Google will still collect the data, build your profile, just not show you the resulting ads on youtube. But they will use that data to show you targeted ads elsewhere. Plus now you cannot invalidate that data by dropping cookies, etc.

This is one of the many reasons that Google has never had me as a paying customer, even though I like YouTube's content enough to pay something for it. Over the years, things like this have eroded the trust I have for Google to effectively zero. Instead I pay other services like Nebula to watch creators I first discovered on YouTube. Unfortunately, most creators don't have an alternative like this in place.

What makes you think Nebula doesn't do the same thing?

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#99

The thing the gets me the most, maybe, about this situation is that there can't be that many of us using ad blockers, eh? As big and as profitable as Youtube is, do they really need to come after such a small segment? It seems so petty and venal.

Petty? Do you think someone at Google decided one day to spit in your face out of spite? Lol. Some product manager looked at the metrics and determined it would be worth the engineering effort to try out.

Re: YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls

#100
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To suggest YouTube doesn't have "useful" content seems objectively false. I think it should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. Need to see how to install a car seat? Need to fix a burner on your stove? Need to learn Hindi? Need to hear a live version of a Tom Waits song he only played once? Need to learn more about Philippine-American War? Need to learn what the difference between effect and affect is? My wif…

> I think it should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. Second that. If YouTube videos disappeared, I think internet would lose half its worth. I still hate their limited suggestions and discoverability, but the content is top notch. Many researchers publish YT videos for their papers, and don't publish on any other platform. So YT is the cutting edge of science as well.

There were video sites before YouTube, and Limewire before that. The internet wouldn't lose its worth at all, the content would be distributed elsewhere.
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