A Novel Approach to Youtube Ads : technology

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 315 points 11 months ago (5 children)

While some paid ad blockers seem to work, the vast majority of tools don’t seem to do the trick.

What a bunch of FUD. Firefox and uBlock Origin still work on Youtube just fine.

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 74 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Part of the reason I am not advocating for or against the extension or the source. People can judge for themselves. I thought it was funny (not a great idea but definitely an interesting implementation). For the record I use both unlock origin and Firefox, and I also run a pihole at home. I'm just putting out there that it exists.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I moved back to Firefox like 5 years ago. But saying the vast majority of tools don't seem to do the trick is a pretty true statement, since that's one browser with one app, and the browser only has a sub 10% market share.

[–] SpaceCadet@feddit.nl 10 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Yeah but uBlock Origin still works on Chrome too

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[–] Aatube@kbin.social 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Maybe they mean the vast majority of tools on Edge and Chrome? Plus this approach may or may not preserve dollars for creators

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[–] AlolanYoda@mander.xyz 109 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Everyone's hating on this approach but I think it's nice that we have other options. I'm sure Ublock is going to come out on top of this cat and mouse game YouTube is playing with them, but if YouTube manages to temporarily disable Ublock I'll look into this solution. Thanks!

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 28 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Google will give up eventually. They're definitely burning more money than they would gain from winning the battle

[–] Wisely@lemm.ee 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

They give up on everything else all the time. I wonder if expanding their ad business is the one exception though. They ran out of new users and already pack videos full of ads. Forcing them on people who block them is the only thing left for them to attempt as they seek to continue perpetual growth.

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 11 points 11 months ago

Ads are the very core of Google at this point. They are more likely to give up their search engine and the name Google before they give up their ad business.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Unfortunately the videos with ads absolutely packed through them are largely due to the creators choosing the settings for extra monetization.

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[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I do not believe that is the case. Youtube ads are an insanely profitable business. I suspect throwing a couple dozen of FTEs on blocking ad blockers would be <1% of current revenue.

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (10 children)

I don't doubt they make tonnes of revenue from ads however you have to remember how small the share of adblocker users are. So the extra money from fighting the adblock user base is a clear gamble. Especially as those types of users are the ones who are more likely to avoid YouTube completely if they can't bypass ads.

Someone in Google would have done the research because it's not a simple case of war profit = adblockusers * ad revenue per user

I strongly believe they'll stop once they hit a certain threshold/target of "reduction of adblock users". They won't go on like this forever.

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[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't think they've gone all in yet.

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[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

That's why I tried to present it without an anti-google seeming bias. I wanted people to just have the facts and not all the BS in the article. I think it's a good option for people who don't want to block ads so creators they watch benefit.

[–] Chev@lemmy.world 80 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Or use Firefox

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 75 points 11 months ago

I said it was novel. I didn't say it was good.

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[–] Gabu@lemmy.world 78 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What the fuck is wrong with this shit article?

The crackdown on ad blockers has been quite effective

No, it hasn't. What's up with the doublespeak?

While some paid ad blockers seem to work, the vast majority of tools don’t seem to do the trick.

Patently false. uBlock hasn't had a single hickup.

Fuck whoever wrote this garbage.

[–] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Let them believe they've won.

[–] pachrist@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know. I bet it has been pretty effective, but I also don't think I'd trust any data I'd see from Google.

But, their goal isn't to get you or me to watch ads. Hell will freeze over before I spend 30s watching an ad for a video that's barely double that. Their goal is to target the people we've installed ad blockers for: friends, parents, siblings, in-laws.

I'm not going to watch ads, and I sure as hell am not going to click on anything, but my mother in law does now. My mom does too. They now feel like an ad blocker is "too much hassle," so Google won that fight. I don't know if new people are installing, updating, or changing ad blockers enough to offset right now.

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[–] yamanii@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

They all pretend ublock origin don't exist, they only talk about the old stupid for profit AdBlock that let's "good ads" through.

[–] dynamo@lemm.ee 58 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

Yeah, no. I'm not willing to even have the ad for any amount of time. IMO ads should be banned, and before anyone reaponds, no i don't give a shit about the consequences of a change that substancial

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Then this isn't for you. That's fine. Adblockers like ublock origin still work. So do newpipe, piped and other front end services. Firefox and other non-chromium based browsers etc. Do what you want with your devices.

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[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 49 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

and so the cat and mouse game continues...

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago (6 children)

And ublock origin continues to work, thankfully. Disappointing to see the article failed to mention it.

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[–] praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have less problems with actually watching it than the fact that those ads they serve are very often times completely inappropriate and not respecting my online privacy.

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Same here. If I'm watching a biography about Nathaniel Hawthorne, then why would I want to see an ad where someone is twerking their ass in my face?

[–] opensourcedeeznuts@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

A year or so I turned off targeted ads from Google. I very quickly noticed an increase in ads with anime tiddies.

I guess Google sees a correlation between people who worry about privacy, and people who are likely to click on anime tiddies...

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 46 points 11 months ago (5 children)

uBlock Origin works just fine. I use Firefox btw

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 12 points 11 months ago

I watched two hours of Rocky & Bullwinkle uninterrupted the other day thanks to FireFox and uBlock Origin

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 45 points 11 months ago (4 children)

In before Ads are recorded at 1/16th the speed in order to play at the correct speed with one of those extensions.

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[–] blahsay@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago (10 children)

F I R E F O X

[–] ours@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

The "Look at what they need to do to have a fraction of our power" Invincible meme comes to mind.

Pathetic to be satisfied with sped-up annoyances when they can be easily skipped altogether with a browser not controlled by the ad company.

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[+] ubermeisters@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)

On the other hand, this will royally piss off advertisers if it takes off. Make Google play a losing game of whack a mole with a ton of options on how to subvert their annoying platform

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[–] capital@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago (2 children)

uBlock Origin is still working just fine for me.

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[–] decisivelyhoodnoises@sh.itjust.works 31 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Awesome, now you get only subconscious messages flashed in your eyes.

What else are people going to do to avoid installing Firefox?

[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Awesome, now you get only subconscious messages flashed in your eyes.

Blipverts. If I recall correctly, they had some bad side effects on sensitive people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blipvert

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Imagine using Chrome 😂

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Some people have to use it for work. Including me, although I don't have this problem because I don't use it for YouTube.

[–] governorkeagan@lemdro.id 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I’ve been A/B testing Chrome and Firefox at work since we’ve had it drilled into us that we absolutely have to use Chrome. I haven’t had a single issue with Firefox, even with internal web apps. Your mileage may vary though.

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[–] 1984 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

It's cool and all but it's still that annoying break when you are trying to enjoy a video or learn something.

This will take you out of the flow also.

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[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I must be an anomaly but... Ublock still works perfectly fine for me on chrome lol

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

You aren't. I also use Firefox and ublock origin (but sometimes have to use chrome for work).

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[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Use Freetube on the desktop and Newpipe (or the Sponsorblock version) on mobile (Android). No issues or ads

[–] bnjmn@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use FreeTube but hadn't heard of Newpipe before. Thanks for the recommendation!

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Between uBlock and Sponsor Block I've had absolutely no interruption in service and it's the exact same experience that I've had for years

[+] PhantomPhreak@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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