YouTube has been spotted testing server-side ads, which could pose a problem to ad blockers.

  • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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    4 months ago
    www.youtube.com##+js(json-prune-fetch-response, playerAds adPlacements adSlots playerResponse.playerAds playerResponse.adPlacements playerResponse.adSlots, , propsToMatch, /player?)
    

    Click on uBO icon > ⚙ Dashboard button > Add the filter(s) in “My filters” pane > ✓ Apply changes > Open new tab and test again.

    from the reddit page idk if it works but most comments say it does

    and if it does, that’s fucking hilarious

    this will have taken a team months of work and one ublock dev just threw it in the toilet within an hour

  • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    All of these issues have reportedly led to an increase in ad block uninstalls, leaving users with the choice of YouTube Premium or sitting still until that “skip ad” button appears.

    Oh yes, I totally believe that people are opting to delete their ad blocker, that works on not just YouTube but the entire internet, simply because YouTube has become obstinate and difficult. Who the fuck wrote this article? And how much are they getting paid by Google? Do they really think we’re going to buy into this bullshit and follow suit?

  • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I would rather pay an ad-block company a monthly subscription than give it to YouTube in blackmail. This will just be another salvo in a never ending war.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 months ago

      Support candidates who want to limit the ability for large tech companies to acquire their competitors. Maybe even those that wish to see their acquisitions rolled back. Maybe even those that wish to see them broken up.

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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    4 months ago

    New article title. YouTube tests more ways of making their service shit and driving away users.

    Edit: TIFO Scott Manley is on Odysee so i will start watching him there instead. One less yt channel is always a good thing

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I mean, if you’re not paying for it, and they can’t advertise to you, what do they need you for?

      • Cypher@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I did pay for it but they massively increased the price while the recommendation algorithm was deliberately made worse and they wouldn’t stop pushing short format videos.

      • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        To keep claiming they have x billion accounts…

        There’s a big reason why these companies don’t remove the bots and willingly allow them to do whatever. It boosts their numbers to inflate their actual worth.

      • tabular@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Does YouTube have competition? Your line of inquiry doesn’t mean much if the content is only on YouTube.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I’m not sure what point you think you’re making.

          YouTube doesn’t want you visiting if they can’t either put ads in front of you or get you to subscribe to premium. I appreciate wanting to access YouTube without ads, but from where they’re sitting, if they scare you off with server side ads all the better.

          • tabular@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Simply put: why care about their point of view? Google does not have your best interests in mind, often the opposite. There’s no where else to get almost all of the content, why do without or waste time with ads in this short life.

            • Wogi@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              YouTube could fall off the face of the earth and I would probably see my quality of life improve slightly.

              I don’t give a shit about Google. Perspective here is important when you threaten to leave the platform all together, as if they would care. If you’re one of the users they gain no ad revenue or subscription revenue from, they’re probably happy to see you go.

              Could they be doing more to try to turn Adblock users in to paid subscribers? Sure. I’m not here to defend their methods. I’m just saying that if you’re not paying, and you can’t be served ads, they really don’t care if you continue to use the service or not.

    • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      YouTube: oh no, the freeloaders costing us money are going away, what will we ever do!?

  • Zengen@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Let’s develop an AI that can detect where ads in videos start and end. And cut them out client side. Anti corporate advertising AI :D

  • illi@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Since it is server side, will this effect the alternative front ends?

  • downpunxx@fedia.ioOP
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    4 months ago

    Just got hit with this for the first time, and at first I was like what the fuck is this happening here, I’m running Firefox latest, and UBlock origin latest, never seen this before. Happening for every video, two injected video ads before the video, seem skippable, but i’m not clicking on them. Hope UBlock catches up to this quick, this sucks.

    • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Mine are getting trapped by pihole. They take 10 seconds to time out and just show a banner ad that won’t automatically go away without hitting the skip button. It’s really frustrating since I liked letting videos auto play as I fall asleep.

      • downpunxx@fedia.ioOP
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        4 months ago

        at least it’s not currently spawning an actual video advertisement, so, small blessings, the two injected ads stay static for 10 seconds a piece (makes sense), and if you don’t click skip, the first tiers to the second then tiers to the video (was thinking of going pihole but you just confirmed it won’t make a difference, if they start injecting autoplay video ads, then it’ll be back on my todo list)

      • ryan_@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m pretty happy with Nebula. I tried it back when it was still bundled with curiosity stream but now I just subscribe to nebula.

        It obviously isn’t anywhere near a full YouTube replacement, but it’s pretty good.

  • Zozano@lemy.lol
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    4 months ago

    Honestly… How much has Google spent trying to counter people skipping ads?

    Is it less than the amount of potential profit if everyone was forced to watch ads?

    This seems like that situation recently where NYC paid a million dollars to enforce people to pay for train tickets, which was less than twenty thousand a year in lost revenue.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I think it’s mostly about saving face for advertisers. Which is funny because Google never does anything for saving face for their users as they shut down services that literally cost a rounding error for them to run.

  • Facebones@reddthat.com
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    4 months ago

    Imagine what YouTube could be if they spent all this cash on improving their service instead.

      • letsgo@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Yes, and it took less than a minute of googling to find “I’m paying, why do I still see ads?”. There’s also someone in this thread complaining of the same.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        YouTube: creates the problem

        This guy: have you considered paying them for the solution?

        • SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Like many other business they offer an ad funded service and a paid service. I understand this is Lemmy, and people love getting things for free. But if you don’t like ads, have you thought about paying for the service?

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            they offer an ad funded service and a paid service

            Just because they offer a paid service doesn’t mean it’s reasonable for me to pay for it. For example: if the cost was $1000 a month it would not be reasonable to respond with “why don’t you pay for it?” Because that’s not a reasonable price.
            If a person doesn’t find the price reasonable then it is reasonable for them not to pay.

            Watching ads is also a cost. It costs time. Each person has a threshold of how many ads they are willing to watch before the cost is too high, at which point it is reasonable for them to no longer pay that cost.

            YouTube is constantly increasing the ad time trying to find that point just before people get sick of it.

            if you don’t like ads, have you thought about paying for the service?

            I remind you that the person you originally replied to said they were done watching YouTube. Not that they were insisting on getting it for free. They find the ad cost too high, and the paid service cost too high, so they will not use the service. That is a perfectly reasonable response and a response of “why don’t you pay for it” is not helpful, irrelevant, and shows you aren’t listening to what is being said.

            For the record: If I believed there was even a chance that my watching YouTube with an ad blocker caused the tiniest noticeable amount of loss to YouTube’s finances, I would set up a tab streaming YouTube 24 hours a day on mute. So no, I also will not be paying them for premium either.

          • MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            They had a service I paid for. I paid for youtube without ads. Just that. And then they changed prices and made me pay for something that I did not need, YouTube Music. So I canceled.

            They had me as a subscriber, they just wanted more money and lost me.

            And I block ads. Not specifically for youtube, but for all sites and apps that I can. I use Blockada and most days the number of blocked tracking cookies goes over 1000. Laat 24 hours it is 3426 trackers blocked. Is it really necessary that I am being tracked that much?

            I don’t think so, and I am not even talking about malware, or crypto ming scripts that will be loaded as ads. Most ads are not checked properly so I have no idea what malicious bullshit I can get on my systems without even asking for it.

            If I find something that I use a lot and adds value, I will donate some money. For example, I support some creators on Patreon.

            And ads always do their best to be loud and intrusive. And if I have a guest at my house that is loud and intrusive, they don’t get invited back. The same with ads.

            Remember when ads were just a small rectangle on youtube? You clicked it away and that is it? That was the way. Serve ads in a normal, non intrusive way and I can handle them just fine.

      • cheddar@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        And where will users go? There are no alternatives. Other platforms don’t have as much content, require you to pay, or both.

        • LinusSexTips@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Pornhub, or touching grass. Either order really.

          I’d been paying for premium YouTube for a few years, the family plan had a massive spike in price and I’d had enough from there. Been using Grayjay for the past few months only watching a couple of channels, but if this goes live it will kill the platform for me.

          The bundled YouTube music sub really doesn’t sell it for me either, sure it’s got some more niche music compared to other platforms but it’s not a drop-in replacement (especially for the better half).

          All and all I’m probably one of the few that will tap out of the platform, will be interesting to see the fallout.