I've had no issues with either Chrome or Firefox in Incognito with uBlock Origin. But I do kinda wonder if the fact I have YouTube Premium on one of my accounts in Chrome means Google isn't trying too hard to block my IP/detect adblockers on it.
This marks the moment Google officially decided it didn’t know how to innovate any longer, and that it’s time to grab all they can to increase the bottom line.
Most technology companies follow this same cycle. When they’re in the innovation/disruption phase, there are less rules, they just focus on giving people the best experience. When they start stagnating, suddenly every cent matters.
The irony is that the profile type most likely to have an AdBlocker is the Silicon Valley engineer. They spend so much time online, that it would be really annoying to have ads.
I already found a fix: I use another YouTube client that displays the stream directly without showing the ads. My guess is more people will do that - unless the adblockers get better. If YouTube goes as far as protecting the streaming servers themselves with greater authentication, people will likely go elsewhere… TikTok… Insta… or the many other video platforms that have been popping up as a result of censorship.
But I am skeptical everyday people are willing to wait for ads - or pay for social media.
I’ve been blocking ads for a long time but I’m not going to cry about mistreatment when somebody shuts the back door that I’ve been using to get free lunch.
The ads are annoying, I might just use nebula more.
I find myself using Nebula more and more because most of the creators I watch are there and their app, while imperfect, is miles better than YouTube on the Apple TV. I'm currently subbed to YouTube Premium so I don't get ads either way, but if Google ever changes that, you can bet I'm unsubbing immediately. I only tolerate how expensive it is because of the sheer amount of content I watch from there, and because I watch the majority through Apple TV's where adblocking is a lot more complicated than I'm willing to deal with.
I'm not even convinced they'll make more money clamping down on ad blocking this way. I'd happily pay £1 or £2 a month for no ads, which is still infinitely more than they make out of me now (given I never willingly click on, engage with or otherwise view their or anyone else's ads), but I know a rip-off when I see one and £12.99/month definitely is.
YouTube has been a thorn in the side of Google for a long time. Think about it, what has YouTube brought to Alphabet other than brand recognition? YouTube has already peaked.
It's not profitable. It's a source of a lot of drama, and ill-will toward the company, it doesn't generate much ad revenue, it's no longer a "feat of engineering" that so many people talked about in the mid-2000s - and it seems like the general populace whom generate a lot of revenue by being targeted on the platform (eg US, North America, Western Europe, Australia) are beginning to shift from adblockers is the exception, to adblockers is the default.
I've worked at F500's where uBlock Origin is part of the Chrome Enterprise profile. Why? It brings security, and performance, to the majority of users. Yes there's occasional issues, but it's worth it.
I suspect we'll see YouTube clients built into AdBlocking software (eg I'm pretty sure SponsorBlock has already begun this). AdBlock and uBlock Origin likely won't implement this, at least initially - but I can definitely see this taking off. At that point, what can Google do?
They'll enforce their walled garden and kill off all Google-ToS breaching extensions.
Put simply, the end user is not the customer. The shareholders are. As in "we need a product that harvests money from people" instead of "let's solve a problem for people while adding value".
Solving a problem is harvesting money when it’s well done.
It’s when they stop solving new problems that they have to optimize their existing revenue streams at the cost of user satisfaction.
Every innovation they have tried themselves has failed and they just discontinued it. Other good things they have done are actually by buying other startups and then using their tech .
> This marks the moment Google officially decided it didn’t know how to innovate any longer
What? THIS marks that moment? I haven't seen google innovate since they built google search. Literally every other successful thing they have was bought.
I feel like I'm in the minority that has zero problem paying for an ad-free experience. I get tremendous value out of YouTube in both professional and personal ways. I have a daughter who watches it often. Suppressing ads while supporting the service my family enjoys regularly seems like a no-brainer to me. And I never have to worry about them circumventing my ad blocker.
I paid for Premium for years. But then I started asking myself if wanted to give money to a company that pushed things like FLoC, Manifest v3, and WEI.
And the answer was no. We used to pay them $284/year for our household services.
Now we pay them nothing. Maybe they'll have a change of heart someday, but until then, not a dime.
YouTube is the only Google service that I still use, and I've been paying for premium. But, mostly for the reasons you list, I'm cancelling that subscription and abandoning YouTube altogether.
So that's at least two of us.
I'll have to give Nebula another try. I hope their app is better now. Last time, it was so bad that I cancelled that subscription.
I agree with all of that, and I sincerely was planning to become a paid subscriber. But I have some irrational resentment around being a statistic validating their increased pressure campaign. I don’t like feeling forced to spend the money! Which is weird because I get significantly more value from it than any streaming service.
Why does your mindset go to being "bullied", though? Aren't you the bully for circumventing their revenue model with the expectation that you should get it for free?
I've posted this a few times recently, but I used to pay for youtube premium, but it started showing me ads while using chromecast. The third time it happened I cancelled and went back to using ublock. I don't use the chromecast much because the ads are unbearable but I see exactly 0 ads ever on my pc. In short, I block ads because not only is it free, it also actually works. My guess is as soon as(if?) they manage to totally stop ad blockers, they will pull a cable company move and start showing ads to paying users as well. They'll say it's to help creators or something or course.
Yeah, if I start seeing ads on anything while signed into my active Premium account, I'm going to start asking questions or considering other options as well. Hoping it doesn't come down to that.
I'm probably also in the minority, but I think Youtube having a near monopoly in this space is bad for consumers and would prefer to see some alternatives. If by merely executing control over my own hardware to see only what I want is enough to actively harm them then so be it.
I also have been subscribed to NebulaTV and Curiosity Stream for years.
Same. And I support several of my favorite creators on Patreon and Ko-fi. And I try to watch their videos on Nebula. If I could find any of them on PeerTube I'd do that instead.
Unfortunately it feels like spitting into a hurricane. I can say I'm fighting the good fight, but am I making a difference? I doubt it, I doubt it very much.
I think the nature of the service lends itself to monopoly. The part that is bad for consumers is the profit/growth requirements that put consumers and producers second. The USPS is a prime example of a non profit-driven operation that leaves customers satisfied and operates self-sufficiently (ignoring the relatively recent laws enacted to kneecap the operation by requiring onerous pension funding requirements).
Yeah but I have a problem with being bullied into paying them. It will just make me want to make their engineers life a pain by working on work-arounds.
I have zero problem paying for ad-free... but what I do have a problem with is that I have no ad-free only option. You have no choice but to also pay for their music streaming service for $14 per month when other, subjectively better music services are only $11 per month. They should have an ad-free a la carte option for something like $6 per month.
For me, it was the ads more than the tracking. But after a while, I couldn't in good conscience pay Google any longer. They're not a good netizen, and if they luckily go bankrupt, I won't shed a tear.
> When you block YouTube ads, you violate YouTube’s Terms of Service.
I wish these corporate goons would drop their moronic drivel about a Terms of Service that means nothing and nobody reads and just write in the following style:
"When you block YouTube ads, we don't like it and will take technological steps to retaliate, which are within our right."
Just let me pay for youtube premium without bundling a music streaming subscription please. $14 per month for no ads is not worth it when I already pay $11 per month for my preferred music streaming service.
I feel like I need a hotkey for "Purge all caches && Update now" for uBlock Origin to keep up with this game of cat and mouse. YouTube has definitely already given me the "Use will be blocked after 3/2/1 videos" warning but it still keeps working time to time with ad-blocking.
Readit News
I can't find that option. Where's it at?
> I can't find that option. Where's it at?
For Firefox...
1. about:addons (type into url bar and go)
2. click on the uBlock Origin Name
3. Where is says "Run in Private Windows", click on the *allow* radio button
All done.
Most technology companies follow this same cycle. When they’re in the innovation/disruption phase, there are less rules, they just focus on giving people the best experience. When they start stagnating, suddenly every cent matters.
The irony is that the profile type most likely to have an AdBlocker is the Silicon Valley engineer. They spend so much time online, that it would be really annoying to have ads.
I already found a fix: I use another YouTube client that displays the stream directly without showing the ads. My guess is more people will do that - unless the adblockers get better. If YouTube goes as far as protecting the streaming servers themselves with greater authentication, people will likely go elsewhere… TikTok… Insta… or the many other video platforms that have been popping up as a result of censorship.
But I am skeptical everyday people are willing to wait for ads - or pay for social media.
The ads are annoying, I might just use nebula more.
It's not profitable. It's a source of a lot of drama, and ill-will toward the company, it doesn't generate much ad revenue, it's no longer a "feat of engineering" that so many people talked about in the mid-2000s - and it seems like the general populace whom generate a lot of revenue by being targeted on the platform (eg US, North America, Western Europe, Australia) are beginning to shift from adblockers is the exception, to adblockers is the default.
I've worked at F500's where uBlock Origin is part of the Chrome Enterprise profile. Why? It brings security, and performance, to the majority of users. Yes there's occasional issues, but it's worth it.
I suspect we'll see YouTube clients built into AdBlocking software (eg I'm pretty sure SponsorBlock has already begun this). AdBlock and uBlock Origin likely won't implement this, at least initially - but I can definitely see this taking off. At that point, what can Google do?
They'll enforce their walled garden and kill off all Google-ToS breaching extensions.
What? THIS marks that moment? I haven't seen google innovate since they built google search. Literally every other successful thing they have was bought.
(Yes, some of these involved acquisitions, but there is a difference between acquiring YouTube and acquiring Android Inc.)
Google is in a bad place, but I think it's silly to pretend like they didn't have anything else interesting or successful.
And the answer was no. We used to pay them $284/year for our household services.
Now we pay them nothing. Maybe they'll have a change of heart someday, but until then, not a dime.
So that's at least two of us.
I'll have to give Nebula another try. I hope their app is better now. Last time, it was so bad that I cancelled that subscription.
I also have been subscribed to NebulaTV and Curiosity Stream for years.
Unfortunately it feels like spitting into a hurricane. I can say I'm fighting the good fight, but am I making a difference? I doubt it, I doubt it very much.
this is fine until enough people pay
at which point they add ads for paying customers too
see: cable TV, netflix, disney plus, hulu, ...
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Dead Comment
Paying for Youtube premium doesn't stop them spying on you.
I wish these corporate goons would drop their moronic drivel about a Terms of Service that means nothing and nobody reads and just write in the following style:
"When you block YouTube ads, we don't like it and will take technological steps to retaliate, which are within our right."