YouTube runs experiment addressing users with ad blocker

[madires]

'Consumers are paying more than ever for streaming TV each month and analysts say there’s no reason for the companies to stop raising prices': https://finance.yahoo.com/news/consumers-paying-more-ever-streaming-181821039.html?guccounter=1

Some observers see another reason for the frequent price hikes: to push subscribers to their breaking point, and compel them to opt for a lower-priced, or even free, ad-supported plan instead.

... because subscriptions are fixed revenue, and ads have no ceiling. I wonder if YouTube is following that strategy.

[metrologist]

uBO is randomly detected. I wanted to listen for a part of a music video to recall if the cover was the original or not. The ad played black screen and audio only - no skipping.

I was more focused on finding if I could skip it that I did not even hear what the product was.

I was talking to the web lady here at work and was searching for some company related content. The first result was a sponsored ad. She tried to stop me just before I clicked it. Don't click the sponsored link; you just costed someone some money, she exclaimed.

Gee, what if there was a script that would automatically play just the ad part of videos, in the background, and everybody in the world had it covertly installed. Oh wait, I think there is already something like that going on, and YT demonetizes videos or channels that have "unusual activity..."

[NiHaoMike]

'Consumers are paying more than ever for streaming TV each month and analysts say there’s no reason for the companies to stop raising prices': https://finance.yahoo.com/news/consumers-paying-more-ever-streaming-181821039.html?guccounter=1

I predict the rise of low cost streaming services like Curiosity Stream. Then in time, those services raise prices until they get undercut by newer services.

Or piracy becomes popular again, in fact many already have VPN services to get around geoblocking nonsense.

Gee, what if there was a script that would automatically play just the ad part of videos, in the background, and everybody in the world had it covertly installed. Oh wait, I think there is already something like that going on, and YT demonetizes videos or channels that have "unusual activity..."

The idea already exists, some testing in the past shows that it really does work.
https://adnauseam.io/

[thermistor-guy]

YouTube's anti ad-blocker campaign has a noticeable impact: YouTube’s Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls of Ad Blockers (https://www.wired.com/story/youtubes-ad-blocker-crackdown-spurs-record-uninstalls)

I usually run Firefox. It's locked down with Disconnect, Ghostery, Adblock Plus, Privacy Badger.

When YT stopped working a few days ago, because of all the blocking, I installed Brave browser. It worked fine as is, with no ads showing up.
No doubt YT will block Brave as well, eventually. Firefox is working again.

I am shadow-banned on YT, so bottom-line: Google is banned from my wallet. I will pay for blockers and browsers that circumvent YT's
countermeasures.

[madires]

uBO is randomly detected. I wanted to listen for a part of a music video to recall if the cover was the original or not. The ad played black screen and audio only - no skipping.

If that happens reload the page (known timing glitch).

[mendip_discovery]

Presumably, it would be done by someone who lives in that country. It would be quite uneconomical to travel just to work around a law, even though the statute of limitations could theoretically be used to make it actually work. (Just very impractical.)

Well, to give you an actual example.  In the UK, on public highways (e.g. Motorways), the maximum speed limit, can be up to 70 MPH.

But, if you are happy to holiday or something, in Germany.  You can drive from the UK to Germany (using the channel tunnel or channel crossings), and on their autobahns, go to a much higher speed.
I think it use to have unlimited (no) speed limit, but now it is more limited speed wise, in some places.  But there are still sections, with no speed limits, for some vehicle types.

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

A better solution would just be to use a test track, or just stick to sensible speed limits.  But some people, are really determined, to (legally), drive a lot faster, to see how their vehicle performs.

Why bother with Germany, go the Isle of Man no national speed limit, the police are fair but if you act like a dick they will have you. Last time I was there they had several  fast Jags for mooching about in and even though I was doing 80ish over the mountain they still passed me as if I wasn't there.

Everyone says use track days or go to practice tracks but they are quite often full of psychos. There are a few that are for regular riders that just want to get the stress out of thier system but the psychos are never far away. BTDTGFTS.

[MK14]

Why bother with Germany, go the Isle of Man no national speed limit, the police are fair but if you act like a dick they will have you. Last time I was there they had several  fast Jags for mooching about in and even though I was doing 80ish over the mountain they still passed me as if I wasn't there.

Everyone says use track days or go to practice tracks but they are quite often full of psychos. There are a few that are for regular riders that just want to get the stress out of thier system but the psychos are never far away. BTDTGFTS.

Thanks, that is an interesting idea/option.
I either didn't realize that was an option or had forgotten about it.

Anyway, back on topic.

I think what YouTube/Google are doing, could alienate a significant number of customers.  Which surely is a bad thing?

Unlike certain other things (which could probably have massive barriers, to entering the market.  E.g. PC operating systems, to compete with windows).

An internet video service, doesn't seem that hard of a market to crack (at least to enter, in a small way), if one of the possible competitors, wants to join it.

The difficult bit, would probably be, how to get a significant percentage of the market, to move onto your new video service, along with the content creators and copyright holders.

Edited: Removed off-topic parts

[Ranayna]

Ublock stopped working tonight. YT detects it.

The popup got to me today.
"Purge all caches" followed by "Update all" in uBlock got rid of it

[madires]

Yep, it's about updating the 'uBlock Filters - Quick fixes' (for the cat and mouse game).

[MT]

[CJay]

UBlock Origin has kept the ads at bay for me and is still working fine here.

However, this whole episode has given me pause for thought and I 've decided to try and eradicate Google from my life as far as possible.

[Karel]

However, this whole episode has given me pause for thought and I 've decided to try and eradicate Google from my life as far as possible.

Let's say better late than never...

[CJay]

However, this whole episode has given me pause for thought and I 've decided to try and eradicate Google from my life as far as possible.

Let's say better late than never...

Indeed, I always knew they were evil but they're creeping evil and had wormed their way in with convenience and my laziness.

[MathWizard]

I started getting those pop-up's about adblocker early this Fall, and I kept watching for a bit. Then I went 3-4 weeks and hardly used youtube.

I don't really watch much stuff anyways, for entertainment, I just have it on in the background. But for technical stuff, youtube can be great, with all the repair video's and lectures/etc.

So for 3-4 weeks, I watched some pointless fiction stuff like old Star Trek TNG/DS9/Voyager, and a few movies I have downloaded. I can't keep that up, I've seen it all too many times.

But now I'm back to utube, and I haven't had popups or warnings.

[CJay]

I started getting those pop-up's about adblocker early this Fall, and I kept watching for a bit. Then I went 3-4 weeks and hardly used youtube.

I don't really watch much stuff anyways, for entertainment, I just have it on in the background. But for technical stuff, youtube can be great, with all the repair video's and lectures/etc.

So for 3-4 weeks, I watched some pointless fiction stuff like old Star Trek TNG/DS9/Voyager, and a few movies I have downloaded. I can't keep that up, I've seen it all too many times.

But now I'm back to utube, and I haven't had popups or warnings.

Well this morning I'm being told Ad-Blockers violate T&Cs, so starting today, I'm going without Youtube. 

[mendip_discovery]

I gave up with ad blockers etc years ago as I am aware I am the product.

Though recently I have noted a significant increase in advertising on YT. It will interrupt some live streams and is regularly at the start of anything I watch.

The most recent update to the phone app has advert, 4 large shorts, advert, then a video I might watch then more shorts. I have already given up on most social sides of the internet, wont be long before I also stop the video watching as the shorts are just annoying and constantly pushed in my face the adverts are just becoming an annoying distraction.

Thankfully I have my own website, with my own hosting so I'm in control of my email etc.

[MT]

SAMTIME

https://odysee.com/@samtime:1/youtube-is-sorry-for-banning-adblock:6

[IdahoMan]

I don't use or have anything to do with the Woke/China/Google/Corp junk, but for a long time I have been using Bing to search for and watch videos. No ads just FYI.

OT: If something like a DVD does not allow bypassing the intro/warnings I return it to the store and refuse to watch it. NO excuse for that, will not tolerate.

[NiHaoMike]

https://www.ghacks.net/2023/11/19/ad-accelerator-mutes-and-speeds-up-youtube-ads/

[SiliconWizard]

https://www.ghacks.net/2023/11/19/ad-accelerator-mutes-and-speeds-up-youtube-ads/

Damn!

At some point, YT is going to get into desperation territory and when all technical attempts have failed, they'll have to resort to lobbying politicians to pass laws making ad blocking illegal (with, of course if possible, heavy jail sentences and fines).

[David Hess]

At some point, YT is going to get into desperation territory and when all technical attempts have failed, they'll have to resort to lobbying politicians to pass laws making ad blocking illegal (with, of course if possible, heavy jail sentences and fines).

They already have the Computer Fraud and Abuse act to use if they like, but referring your own customers for prosecution would have dire consequences.

[magic]

You are not their customer if you are only watching videos and skipping ads on top of that.

But it would be fun, that's true


edit
Suing individual visitors in court, after tracking them down by IP addresses would be way too much hassle to be profitable. SiliconWizard is right, they would need to lobby for something new - mandatory automatic enforcement by ISPs, or in browsers, or banning production and distribution of adblocking software, this sort of things.

[langwadt]

At some point, YT is going to get into desperation territory and when all technical attempts have failed, they'll have to resort to lobbying politicians to pass laws making ad blocking illegal (with, of course if possible, heavy jail sentences and fines).

They already have the Computer Fraud and Abuse act to use if they like, but referring your own customers for prosecution would have dire consequences.

like the movie and music industry?

[eutectique]

At some point, YT is going to get into desperation territory and when all technical attempts have failed, they'll have to resort to lobbying politicians to pass laws making ad blocking illegal (with, of course if possible, heavy jail sentences and fines).

And they would not be alone. A "leader in go-to-market security" claims boldly:

But as the internet has grown in scale and sophistication, the quality and authenticity of its traffic has decreased as the web is increasingly flooded with automation tools, bots (good or bad), and users who, for one reason or another, aren’t genuine.

This is known as fake traffic, i.e., web traffic that consists of bots, fake users, and otherwise invalid users that cannot turn into legitimate customers.

... we can conservatively estimate that approximately $35.7 billion of ad spend budget was wasted on fake and fraudulent traffic last year.

And worse, that fake traffic also destroys potential revenue opportunities. ... so businesses potentially missed out on approximately $142B in revenues due to fake traffic.

Author
Jeffrey Edwards
Content Marketing Manager
... He has several years of experience as a trained journalist ...

It's not long before being an invalid user that cannot turn into legitimate customer will become a criminal offence, with the obligation to report to the ISP's list of offenders.


AdNauseam ("clicking ads so you don't have to") in my Firefox reports, as of today:

Since Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 13:16, clicked 1531/1562, total estimated cost = $1576.93

Not bad.

[madires]

... or banning production and distribution of adblocking software, this sort of things.

A large German publisher (Axel Springer) is trying exactly that for years by suing a small company (Eyeo, Adblock Plus) over and over again to no avail.