this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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21
YouTube's plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 1 year ago by ijeff@lemdro.id to c/technology@lemmy.world
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/2883134 (!android@lemdro.id)

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[–] morgan_423@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Honestly, Google did this to themselves with not properly vetting the advertisers that they sell space to, and with oversaturation of ads.

If they'd have stopped granting ad space to scammers and malware spreaders, and if they'd have stopped adding advertisements at the line most people find tolerable (which seems to be a single ad between videos... not multiple at a time, and certainly no mid-rolls), they wouldn't have triggered quite the level of ad blocking that they did.

I see this "problem" that they have as being entirely of their own making.

[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These tech companies have underestimated their utility. They are mostly providing mindless time wasters. If you try to charge money or create inconvenience, people will look for something else to do.

Their attention is your lifeblood, and you’re actively giving them reasons to look elsewhere. The VC grow-at-all-costs business model is fundamentally flawed. It doesn’t scale when profitability becomes a priority.

[–] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Their attention is your lifeblood, and you’re actively giving them reasons to look elsewhere.

👍

My attention is all the currency YouTube will ever get from me - and it should be enough. If I post videos to YouTube (for nothing in return) and I talk to people about videos I saw on YouTube or link them to videos - then I am a net gain for Google and they should treat me as such. If anything, they should be working (nicely) to try to get me to want to pay (or view ads) and just be thankful I'm there if I don't pay (or view ads). Instead they've chosen to work at ensuring everyone is so goddamn pissed off at their bullshit that they'd rather make it their full-time job to never give them another dime. Good job, Google! Smart!

Edit: Oh look, half a dozen lectures about how Google has to make money somehow. Hi there YouTube shills, I thought I would see you here.

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Look I hate YouTube ads too, and ads in general, but let's say every user of a service is like you. Attention is all the currency they'll ever get from you, that's totally cool, absolutely. I'm totally that way too. But they've got to make money somehow, so if you're not the paying customer, someone else has to be.

I'm not saying it has to be ad sales either, but if we want a world in which we can use services for free without ads, we need to come up with an alternative way for them to make money. It has to come from somewhere, and by the bucketload.

If every user thinks like you, then it doesn't matter how many people you talk to or share links with, you're not a net gain on their service, you bring nothing to it.

Why should they, or anybody, be thankful that you honour them with your presence, if you contribute nothing of value? What makes you so entitled to use somebody's product for free with no strings attached?

Ads suck, I'm eager for us to move past them once we figure out an alternative that keeps products in business and us receiving things for free. But we can't deny the reality we live in right now either. Even huge companies like Google (who yes, do suck) have to make money to survive.

[–] crusa187@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To answer your questions - users such as this bring something more valuable than ad money. They bring data. Google harvests data and metrics on users in a million ways, packages this up, and sells it for considerably more than they make on ads. In free services such as this, YOU are the product.

Ads suck, nobody wants to watch them, and they simply represent google maximizing shareholder value at every opportunity, as they are legally bound to do under American capitalism. YouTube ads are not a critical revenue stream that will make or break them.

[–] cole@lemdro.id 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Copy-pasting this from a comment I made a few days ago. I’m so tired of this misconception. Google’s business model literally disincentivizes selling personal data. The business model is built on selling targeted advertisements. Google wants to keep this data to itself because it gives them a competitive advantage in the ad space.

Selling your data would give competitors power in the marketplace. So yes, Google collects data and uses it, but no, Google does not sell your data. It sells targeting BASED on your data.

Very different, regardless of if it is any better.

[–] assa123@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Not all interested buyers are in the ad business, and governments can make payments in a way that is difficult to audit from a third party perspective, definitely not in any currency or a change in the balance sheet. I wish things where different but seems to me that paying won't protect me from them harvesting every bit they can.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are no better adblockers, uBlock Origin is all you need and is already updated to bypass it.

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Unlock origin is the adblocker that people are installing. There are a lot of people with shitty adblockers out there, I guess they are switching.

[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Meanwhile, Youtube engineers and uBlock Origin volunteers are in a war of attrition, updating both the website (youtube, to block ublock) and uBlock Origin (the ad blocker, to unblock the ublock blocker) multiple times a day every day

[–] ElBarto@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So today I've seen this article saying YouTube failed and another saying they've succeeded because of record uninstalls of adblockers.

[–] PostaL@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Considering that, after Netflix enabled anti account sharing, they got an increase in subscriptions, I've lost faith in humanity, and believe YouTube will succeed in the same way

[–] yoz@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Send email to your fav. Youtubers to start a channel on Odyssey. Hope we get a comparable alternative. Odyssey is pretty good. Load time is less and video quality is great. Just need content creators. Does anyone know if Odyssey pays its content creators?

[–] Muyal@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Tried it. The front page is nothing but conspiracy and crypto bullshit. So no, thanks.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 year ago

Lmao

Cry more, google

[–] chakan2@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

I just wonder how much of Chome's browser share Google is willing to lose over this.