YouTube runs experiment addressing users with ad blocker

[thm_w]

Yes, it's a million times better. But it's no longer much good. I've blocked all the channels I didn't like and it struggles to find anything good - much of what it shows is clickbait or crap. There are a few good channels of course, but they don't provide many updates and youtube doesn't seem very good at finding high quality similar channels.

Old man yells at cloud.
You have to spend the effort to find good channels, and yes they exist, more than ever.

I have seen "the app" advertised and some people using it last year on their phone and it has this a horrible dimming overlay with the controls large in size slapped in the middle of the video. I might being trying to see to find something and putting my hand where it can get in the way and obscuring the picture with the dimming overlay... I think is very stupid. Also going from light to dark to light excessively isn't very nice for my eyes.

If the app is an issue you can try revanced, although I have not yet: https://revanced.io/youtube/

[chickenHeadKnob]

I have been using YT Premium for years. I started when I was a part of one of those experiments where adblockers stopped working, and it was so frustrating that it was easier to pay. So, annoying users works. Some would quit, of course.

" So Annoying users works ". This goes deeper than you think. I am convinced youtube was traffic shaping the adds to ones they figured out I would find particularly obnoxious, just before trying again to get me to sign up for premium. I would get inundated with health product and financial services scam ads ( some lasting more than 15 minutes !) for a few days then offers to sign up for premium. Click no for premium offers maybe 4 times and then back to a more normal add stream.

They know exactly what they are doing.

[madires]

Well, if add-blockers are a problem for Youtube, viewers moving away will be a problem for content creators with paid product placement in their videos. The content creators might go to other platforms which don't scare away their viewers.

There's another point to consider. When a user pays YouTube for ad-free videos would he also expect the videos to be free of in-video ads/promotions? Would the content creators have to create two versions of their videos, one with and one without in-video ads?

[ataradov]

would he also expect the videos to be free of in-video ads/promotions?

No, why would you expect that? You don't expect a movie to not have product placement if you watch it on a paid streaming service.

I doubt a lot of people will leave. There are no good alternative platforms. And especially platforms with back catalog that big. A significant part of stuff I watch today is from 10+ years ago and from channels that no longer make videos. Yet content is still there and it is better than new stuff in many cases.

At the same time, I do skip videos by channels that try to be crafty with the way they integrate the ad. Unless I'm extremely interested in what is going on, I will close the video if the ad comes up in the middle of the content. Thankfully most channels put sponsors at the beginning or the end of the video.

And if your content is very well-produced, I would pay extra. I pay for Nebula just to support a couple content creators. But this is not for the "sitting at the desk waffling about stuff" content.

[thermistor-guy]

YouTube's 'Ad blockers not allowed' pop-up scares the bejesus out of netizens: https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/10/youtube_ad_blockers/

The first expense that companies cut during an economic downturn is advertising. So I imagine YT is trying to
maximize revenue from the advertising that it can run.

I have ad blockers on Firefox, and connect to YT via VPN (Europe, Singapore, etc). My point of presence changes
each day. The browser deletes everything on close. So normally I don't see ads.

The exception is when setting up a new PC or rpi. Then I use YT on a browser, not yet locked down, to check that video,
audio, DNS, and so on work ok. It's a quick all-in-one test. It always shocks me to see just how many ads there are.

It reminds me of the movie They Live - glasses on, glasses off.

[vk6zgo]

Sometimes the ads are better than the content!

[gnif]

If they continue this way, the ad-blockers will just get to a point where they feed back false information to YouTube that the adverts have been seen, clicked on, etc, costing the advertiser for the false view, and forcing YouTube to pay the content creator for ad revenue that was not actually earned.

I sincerely hope things go this way, I would love to see a major exodus from YouTube to Odysee.

[james_s]

Sure, you try to run two unskippable 20 seconds ad before a Youtube short, and get upset if I block it...

I wish I could just block all of the shorts. If it's short enough to be called a short then it doesn't need to be a video in the first place.

[asmi]

I wish I could just block all of the shorts. If it's short enough to be called a short then it doesn't need to be a video in the first place.

You are just too old and too used to having a long attention span A lot of youngsters can't hold a focus on the same thing for longer than a minute or two, this is where TikTok came from, YT Shorts is a direct response to it. Even I feel like I'm too old for that stuff, even though I'm not even 40 yet, but when I talk to coops I coach sometimes I feel like they came from a mental institution because how stupid their "current thing" seems to me. But then again, I'm still young enough to remember than only 20 years ago or so I was the one telling my parents and other older relatives how cool "the current thing" was, and they returned blanks on me.

[boB]

I have found good stuff on YT for many years.   I just subscribe to YT Red and I can scroll past the added ads if I want to.

Too many good shorts too.  I find myself going from one to the next and on and on sometimes.

boB

[thm_w]

Sure, you try to run two unskippable 20 seconds ad before a Youtube short, and get upset if I block it...

I wish I could just block all of the shorts. If it's short enough to be called a short then it doesn't need to be a video in the first place.

https://www.wikihow.com/Disable-YouTube-Shorts

[madires]

YouTube is bringing 30-second unskippable ads to its TV apps: https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-bringing-30-second-unskippable-ads-to-its-tv-apps-121051897.html

[nctnico]

If they continue this way, the ad-blockers will just get to a point where they feed back false information to YouTube that the adverts have been seen, clicked on, etc, costing the advertiser for the false view, and forcing YouTube to pay the content creator for ad revenue that was not actually earned.

Does it matter? In the end we all pay for the advertisement through the product price. Even the government runs commercials so you are even paying for media content through your taxes 

[SiliconWizard]

YouTube is bringing 30-second unskippable ads to its TV apps: https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-bringing-30-second-unskippable-ads-to-its-tv-apps-121051897.html

No kidding.

[EPAIII]

Wouldn't that be difficult? I mean, when the video starts to play again, the YouTube server would need to start feeding that data again and it would be perfectly obvious that the ad has been skipped.

Now might be the time for stealth adblocking.

[EPAIII]

1. I like YouTube. I watch it a lot. One saving grace is I tend to like at least some things that must be so unpopular as to have no ads. But there are others that do.

2. I worked in the TV and ad business as an engineer. I sat in a lot of boring (to me) meetings and observed much of the process and the reasoning behind it. A lot of effort and expense was used in the placement of the ads. You didn't advertise women's underwear in a children's show. There are many other examples of that. Funny thing, the advertisers ACTUALLY EXPECTED RESULTS. Or, in other words, SALES. And that meant the ads had to be placed to reach the people who would buy that item. My final working years were with an advertising company that specialized in infomercials. My job existed, in large part, so that they could TRACK the results of their programs/ads. Those ads were personalized with different phone numbers for the viewers to place their orders. A phone number was assigned to a city or TV station or cable channel or even a particular payment schedule. The number of calls told them what worked and what didn't. Hundreds of different phone numbers could be used in a single ad campaign. My point is, success of the ads IS IMPORTANT. Or, at least was.

3. So the fact that there are ads on YouTube doesn't surprise me. What does is how inept they are. Google is an ADVERTISING COMPANY. It is built on collecting data on prospective buyers (all of us) and supposedly using that data to target prospective buyers and sell products. But, in spite of the fact that I take almost no measures to prevent them from collecting information on me and my purchasing habits or desires, they almost never show me anything that I am actually interested in.

I am a 79 year old man but get bombarded with ads for the latest loud music which I was NEVER interested in.

I almost never buy new vehicles (last new truck was a 70-something Chevrolet). But I am bombarded with ads for new trucks and other vehicles - at least two dozen a day. And I always cut them short so I don't even watch them.

It goes on and on: women's underwear (what do they think I am), new houses (I am going to die in this one), I-phone (never bought a single Apple product), etc. Item after item that I never buy.

And they almost never target me with ads for something that I am actively searching for. I have spent hours and hours searching on the internet (Google's playground) for an item that I really want and WILL buy. Sometimes an expensive item. But do I get Google/YouTube ads for that item? NEVER! What do they do with all that data they have on me?

Back in January of this year I needed a new microwave oven. I spent hours and even days searching and studying them on line. I asked questions in other groups. No attempt to hide that I wanted a microwave oven. And I wasn't looking for a cheap one. I was looking at the more expensive models. Did I get any ads for microwave ovens? NO! At least not until I had actually purchased one. Then, yes, only when I had already made a once-in-ten-years purchase, did they actually target me with ads for microwave ovens. Duhh, I just bought one, dude! Why on earth would I buy another one now. See me in 2033, if I am still around.

Google must be the single, worst advertising company in the world. EVER!

And, they are ripping off the advertisers far more than they are irritating the NON-POTENTIAL customers. If I were an advertiser, I would not spend a single dime with them. Not even a single penny.

[NiHaoMike]

Wouldn't that be difficult? I mean, when the video starts to play again, the YouTube server would need to start feeding that data again and it would be perfectly obvious that the ad has been skipped.

You pretend to play the ad, it's just that nobody actually sees it. Hence the term "ad hider" as a more accurate description of a "stealth adblocker".

[YurkshireLad]

My wife can perform a single Google search for one item, and 5 minutes later when she loads the Facebook app, bingo! She immediately sees an ad for the item she just searched for.

[boB]

My wife can perform a single Google search for one item, and 5 minutes later when she loads the Facebook app, bingo! She immediately sees an ad for the item she just searched for.

Another weird thing is that I will often see an ad for something that I just bought online !

boB

[MarkS]

I used ad blockers for years. However, last year I signed up for YouTube Premium and have never looked back. It's just a better viewing experience and much less hassle.

[james_s]

Sure, you try to run two unskippable 20 seconds ad before a Youtube short, and get upset if I block it...

I wish I could just block all of the shorts. If it's short enough to be called a short then it doesn't need to be a video in the first place.

https://www.wikihow.com/Disable-YouTube-Shorts

I found that too and tried the extension and found it didn't work. I'll have another go at some point and see if it gets updated.

[ve7xen]

Wouldn't that be difficult? I mean, when the video starts to play again, the YouTube server would need to start feeding that data again and it would be perfectly obvious that the ad has been skipped.

You pretend to play the ad, it's just that nobody actually sees it. Hence the term "ad hider" as a more accurate description of a "stealth adblocker".

I think the endgame here is that YouTube starts embedding the ads in what is effectively a 'livestream' from the client's perspective. If they only let you buffer 5-10s of video from the stream, it would be virtually impossible to skip the entire ad. You could blank it or show a 'buffering' spinner, but you'd still have to wait for the ads to roll.

Didn't see SponsorBlock mentioned yet. I have Premium so I don't see YT's ads, but SponsorBlock crowdsources automated skipping of 'sponsorship' segments.

[thm_w]

I found that too and tried the extension and found it didn't work. I'll have another go at some point and see if it gets updated.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-youtube-shorts/

This firefox one had the most users, seemed to work. Says its not monitored for security though. And yeah probably has to be updated every time youtube makes a big change.

[NiHaoMike]

If they only let you buffer 5-10s of video from the stream...

That's impossible to enforce, the client could pretend to to be playing the video all along when in fact it's saving it somewhere.

[ve7xen]

If they only let you buffer 5-10s of video from the stream...

That's impossible to enforce, the client could pretend to to be playing the video all along when in fact it's saving it somewhere.

Yes, you could save the stream (in realtime), and then watch it later, but who is clicking on a 10 minute YT video with the intent of waiting 10 minutes to watch it? That is definitely not a good user experience, or equivalent to what you can have today with an ad blocker.

The point is that just 'pretending' the ads have been viewed isn't necessarily enough, and if YT wants to, they can nip this in the bud more or less no matter what technical measures you employ on the client side.