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YouTube runs experiment addressing users with ad blocker
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PlainName:
I wonder if this 'experiment' is targetting heavy users? The thinking might be that occasional users aren't wedded to viewing Youtube (otherwise they'd be on there more often) so don't have much to lose and wouldn't put a lot of effort (that is, money) into viewing. Heavy users, on the other hand, are kind of addicted so would feel the loss more and would be much more likely to cough. Hence why some of us are getting the anti-block thing (regular viewers) and some aren't (days between viewing something).

If that's so then using the private feature of Youtube might fool the system into not realising you're a potential target because there is no history. If you're logged in then it's easy to know what your viewing habit is and whether you might be susceptible. And if you have subscriptions then I guess you would need to be logged in to view them.

So, if you're reporting that your viewing has been disrupted, perhaps it would be useful to know if you subscribe to stuff (and/or are usually logged in). For reference, I don't get ads and the only time I log in is to post a video perhaps once a decade. Also not a heavy user - can go days without watching owt, then perhaps might view a hour or so after being led down a rabbit hole.
Bicurico:
Youtube is working again on my main computer.

Very strange.
helius:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on October 30, 2023, 08:03:26 pm ---Exactly.

And the subscription-everything for what used to be free online services is a new trend, as I mentioned before. It's going to be the new normal. Both to milk the cow further, and also, arguably, because most online services were just not sustainable businesses (shaky business models), so they need to make a predictable stream of revenue. Subscriptions are a fully predictable revenue, selling ads or data is not (even though it can make a lot of money).

In any case, that won't stop them from still selling your data behind your back as before, as PlainName said.

--- End quote ---
I'm seeing some of this trend with domain registrars. It used to be that many of them provided free email services with the price of a domain name. Now (mine) seem to be monetizing the email service separately, for far more than the domain itself cost.
Are others having this experience too?
PlainName:

--- Quote ---Now (mine) seem to be monetizing the email service separately, for far more than the domain itself cost.
Are others having this experience too?
--- End quote ---

No, because I wouldn't dream of having the domain registra host anything other than the DNS (and even then, the DNS master would be elsewhere so they would be a secondary).
wilfred:

--- Quote from: PlainName on October 31, 2023, 09:40:34 am ---I wonder if this 'experiment' is targetting heavy users? The thinking might be that occasional users aren't wedded to viewing Youtube (otherwise they'd be on there more often) so don't have much to lose and wouldn't put a lot of effort (that is, money) into viewing. Heavy users, on the other hand, are kind of addicted so would feel the loss more and would be much more likely to cough. Hence why some of us are getting the anti-block thing (regular viewers) and some aren't (days between viewing something).

If that's so then using the private feature of Youtube might fool the system into not realising you're a potential target because there is no history. If you're logged in then it's easy to know what your viewing habit is and whether you might be susceptible. And if you have subscriptions then I guess you would need to be logged in to view them.

So, if you're reporting that your viewing has been disrupted, perhaps it would be useful to know if you subscribe to stuff (and/or are usually logged in). For reference, I don't get ads and the only time I log in is to post a video perhaps once a decade. Also not a heavy user - can go days without watching owt, then perhaps might view a hour or so after being led down a rabbit hole.

--- End quote ---

I think Youtube would be automating the adblocking detection. They could have some threshold but I would doubt it. Not getting ad revenue for one user missing a thousand ads is the same as a thousand small time viewers missing one ad each.

Better to sell premium to those one thousand lightweight resource demanding users than a single heavy bandwidth user.

I tried the private browser feature (Edge) and got ads regardless of whether logged in or not.

One of my alternative viewing option is my Android media box with an app called Smarttube  which is not available (strangely) on the google play store. Yesterday it got signed out, don't know why. However I couldn't sign back in on Youtube.com/activate with the code it displays. Because it stopped being able to display a code. Did youtube change something inadvertently or deliberately to thwart the app? Also don't know. I downloaded the latest version (i'd been using a several years old one) and it also failed to provide a code but a day later it called for an upgrade which did fix the issue and I am now viewing ad-free again.

I seems risky for youtube to alter the ability to sign on a "smart-tv" since they soon lose the ability to upgrade the viewing apps built in. Smarttube claims to be a smart-tv like experience and reportedly does not work on phones and tablets.

Switching user agents in the browser is still working with Windows phone as the agent but Firefox33 has stopped working. So it seems to me Youtube is still hard at it.

I not sure where i'll end up but I hope to be watching far fewer Youtube videos and therefore unwilling to buy premium but just being irritated by relatively few ads to match the far fewer videos. we'll see.
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