YouTube viewers will soon have to sit through even longer ads, with Google rolling out new 30-second unskippable spots on a popular app.

    • Renat@szmer.info
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      Me on (android) TV. On PC I have ad blocker. On TV ads time is between 6 seconds and 1 minute. Sometimes ads contain AI slop. 💀

      • awake@lemmy.wtf
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        Theres also the possibility to use a VPN and log in from Albania (I think) to avoid ads altogether because they’re not legal there.

        • 42Firehawk@lemmy.zip
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          It is Albania. I will say that it’s more correct to say that YouTube chooses not to send ads to Albania, rather than Albania banning it.

          Albanians anti ad laws state that ads are required to be safe for children, with the platform being responsible for failure… So Google is not spending the effort to make the ads safe.

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            I didn’t know it is the other way around (Albania ban vs. YouTube not playing ads)! Thanks for elaborating.

      • sircac@lemmy.world
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        On TV I silenced them as they start and look elsewhere meanwhile… I find joy in training myself to be unable to consciously recognise at all what is ongoing till the video start

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      Someone who don’t want to lose their emails… In https://lemmy.cafe/comment/15974964 it was mentioned that their entire google account got banned for 10 years over adblocking youtube. I stopped watching youtube immediately… I’m not about to watch ads, but I don’t want to lose access to my 22 year old personal account… So many accounts are tied to that address, that I can’t manage to move to a different service.

      FML what happened to “do no evil”? Now it’s “make money with the baby grinding machine for all costs”

      • 1984@lemmy.today
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        I would be scared as hell to rely on Google like that. You are one automated Ai decision away from losing access.

        At least move your mail to a proper company. Jesus.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    Youtube: “People are blocking are ads and costing us money, what should we do?!”

    The People: “Police your platform and stop advertising scams, hate speech, pornography, and all the other shit.”

    Youtube: “I just have no idea what to do, so I guess I’ll just invest millions/billions into making ads harder to block, and make the ads longer and unskippable. You know, Just make the platform almost completely unusable without adblocking”

    The People: “YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO, JUST POLICE YOUR FUCKING PLATFORM ALREADY. IF YOU DID YOU WOULDNT NEED TO DO ALL THIS SHIT”

    Youtube: “Oh, btw, heres another PragerU video thats 3 hours long and talks about how the black man should be grateful for the white man uplifting them via slavery, followed by a ad thats basically a woman fingering herself to advertise chinese AI girlfriends”

    The People: adblocking intensifies

    • SSTF@lemmy.world
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      That’s the craziest part isn’t it? All of this data collection so they can build profiles of us, and then they just don’t apply any of it to ads.

      I don’t like watching ads, but it would at least be slightly more tolerable if I got ads for things I actually wanted. On my TV I watch YT unfortunately not adblocked, and never once have I seen an ad for anything that appeal to me.

      • pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip
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        This is tinfoil hat stuff, but based on the ads I’m shown, it’s almost like they pick ones they know won’t appeal to you since they know anger drives up engagement. Google can probably guess from my search history that I’m trans and asexual, since I’ve asked questions online relating to that. And then the majority of the ads I get on YouTube are porn and anti trans things.

        • SSTF@lemmy.world
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          Anger does drive up engagement, but the point of engagement farming is supposed to be so that you keep coming back to the content (YT videos, articles, whatever) and therefore it gets more exposure so that the attached ads get more exposure.

          The ads themselves designed to make you angry at them doesn’t seem to make sense, at least as a default practice. There’s really only hyperspecific niche scenarios where the ad itself making you angry at the ad is beneficial to the people paying for it.

        • VoiHyvaLuojaMitaNyt@lemmy.world
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          If they actually wanted to show ads targeted to me, first thing they would figure out is if I’m capable of buying their stupid bullshit product. I’m poor as the rat in the church, my monthly budget is literally -50€. I can’t afford to buy anything, what good does it do for advertisers to let me know that they have a new phone that costs 1500€ and is 0,05mm thinner than the previous one?

          • Bazell@lemmy.zip
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            No matter how rich you are, if you have seen the ad, then their job is done. They pay YouTube to show ads to as much people as possible, not to just ones who can afford buying their products.

            • VoiHyvaLuojaMitaNyt@lemmy.world
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              Yeah I was specifically talking about how google etc tell me that they are offering me “targeted” ads. Point was, if they knew anything about me, they’d know I’ve been poor as fuck for the last 20 years and should advertise food banks etc to me, instead of the latest Macbook Pro AI Super 2000.

    • sudoer777@lemmy.ml
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      YouTube does police their platform, they curate it for babies and remove anything critical of the government

  • ozoned@piefed.social
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    I recommend Peertube. There’s not much there yet, but myself and others are trying.

    Also, did you know you can upload your video to Peertube and have YouTube pull it via RSS? That’s what I’m doing!

    All of my stuff you’ll find on Peertube and I don’t have to do anything else to get it up on YouTube.

      • qarbone@lemmy.world
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        This is a terrible take, as most content creators I watch already cannot survive off of Youtube ad revenue and rely on third-party monetization, like Patreon subscriptions.

        Besides the fact that plenty of people make content for free, from the simple love of creating something.

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
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        Lots of people did it on YouTube for years. Even more on other platforms.

      • Zombie@feddit.uk
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        NoBOdY wIlL dO AnYThiNg wItHOuT PrOfiT mOtIvE

        This book, YouTube’s history, and the span of human history say otherwise. You’re spouting capitalist rhetoric which is ultimately a lie told to us on repeat to encourage greed, selfishness, and individualism.

        The platform you’re using right now was built without profit motive, there’s plenty of content. PeerTube can achieve the same.

      • athatet@lemmy.zip
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        Except for all the people already making unpaid content. I guess if you ignore them then yeah, you’re right. Great job advancing the conversation in a meaningful way.

      • NKBTN@feddit.uk
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        People will create plenty of content for free. Basically every blog, early YT video and all of Wikipedia was made by people who just like creating stuff for free

      • sp3ctre@feddit.org
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        There are already some youtubers linking to their patreon because their content gets demonetized frequently (shiey, gifgas).

        I think this could be the way to go. Instead of patreon, liberapay could also be used.

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        I’m creating content and YouTube pulls from my Peertube. So I’ll never lose it. All of these content creators are leaning on Patreon as none of them can count on ad revenue anymore. So people are already doing it.

        And Peer tube will never fully replace YouTube, but also, it doesn’t have to. Your local library, school, church, community space, doesn’t need ad revenue.

  • x00z@lemmy.world
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    It’s so fucking funny though. I would love to pay YouTube. But I will never pay a company that abuses my data the way they do.

    • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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      There’s that, but I’d also like to point out, that as a paying customer, you’re still force fed that bottom tier slop with no way to filter it other than hoping some combination of reporting/not interested/don’t show me this channel again works.

      But even if you say, not to recommend a channel, it can still show up. So you get to pay for low grade AI slop videos. Or “content farms” that take 2 videos and just splice them together for some reason (both horizontal and vertical). Or the “I’m just going to stare at the camera and do nothing while I play a video that’s from another platform”. Like it’s endless.

      The “shorts” platform is pure garbage. Can I turn shorts off? No I can “show fewer shorts”.

      So you pay, to not get ads. They sell ALL your data to double dip (since they selling your data anywho) and there’s no benefit for the content. They have all this data, all this tech, and the platform is rot with shit.

      • VoiHyvaLuojaMitaNyt@lemmy.world
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        The “shorts” platform is pure garbage. Can I turn shorts off? No I can “show fewer shorts”.

        Once again the pirate version (revanced) of youtube is better than the actual paid version. Revanced and ublock filter take care of shorts for me. Haven’t seen them in months

      • Haquer@lemmy.today
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        On my desktop I use YouTube Enhancer on Firefox and you can make it to where shorts literally never show up.

        Now, if only it could filter out the “Buy Premium Now” and “Try Out Our AI Bullshit” boxes that appear…

      • x00z@lemmy.world
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        That’s true. I guess I would only pay for a YouTube that is actually useful. “People want to block channels. Best we can do is ‘I am not interested’ and still show them.”

    • Rose@slrpnk.net
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      I’d be willing to get YouTube Premium just to get rid of ads, but they’re bundling it with YouTube Music and I’m not trusting Google with my music purchases any more, thank you.

      They discontinued Google Play Music (fortunately only after a long long period of time allowing you to download MP3s with their bloody terrible client app, so no loss there) and told me that you can just import the purchases to YouTube Music. Which I couldn’t actually access.

      Also I don’t want a music streaming service, I just want to buy the albums. It’s pretty sad that it seems the only remaining feasible local option for electronic music purchases is iTunes! Bloody iTunes!

      • Art3mis@lemmy.world
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        I just use bandcamp and cds for most stuff. If its out of print or unavailable outside of streaming (i listen to a lot of indie pop), i just rip it offline. Not my fault they dont make it easy to get legitimately.

        Its just stored in a folder on my pc. Like 800 hrs of music and growing. Quit streaming all together like 6 months ago now

    • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      you gladly feed them your viewing habits to increase their value to their shareholders though 🤷

      you aren’t hurting their bottom line by not watching ads. You’re just making a tiny dent into a single line of thousands on some slides on the evp of youtube’s quarterly presentation. No one else notices.

      Your data and viewing habits and patterns and all of the device info you leak and broadcast? The wifi signals your phone is always seeing? Oh that bluetooth device that just rode past your apartment while your blocking ads on youtube? Definitely not being seen by them. Apps are spyware these days, and they are spying on everything

      • Bazell@lemmy.zip
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        Yeah, funny people. I personally prefer my ads to be free on free streaming services. Even if it means to wait a few weeks or so before desired content will be available on these services.

    • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      I have recently had a funny discussion with a husband of my wife’s friend. In short, he’s not an IT guy but does run ad blockers on each browser and device as he can. He was wondering why people wont use ad blockers since it is trivial to install and even chrome uBO lite works well on youtube (dunno about that fact, I have migrated to FF as soon as they announced Manifest V3)

      Normies just wont. It is just not what they do. And they are the majority.

      • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
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        I’m kinda glad they won’t. If I tell you how easy it is to install an ad blocker and you don’t, you’re just funding my leeching through your data and time that you claim has no value.

      • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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        Normies just wont. It is just not what they do. And they are the majority.

        And that’s actually a good thing. If 90% of users used ad blockers on youtube, their profit model wouldn’t work and they’d stat locking more behind a subscription or they’d double down on cracking adblockers. We can enjoy an ad blocked youtube experience because the majority of users don’t.

        • bthest@lemmy.world
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          Nah youtube will never stop being free no matter how many are ad blocking. Content creators will all leave because they can’t pay the bills with 3,000 views a day. They’d loose billions of active users and Alphabet’s shareholders will shit their pants.

          Youtube doesn’t actually loose anything from ad blocking. It’s advertisers who lose out and it’s easier for youtube to scam them than us. If the advertising money dries up Youtube will simply go back to operating in the red just like it did for most of it’s existence.

          Revenue, debt, profit, products, customers, etc. Not of that shit means anything anymore because the billionaires have decided to let the world burn. The market today is nothing but gambling, theft, insider trading, grift and speculation and they’re going to do that for as long as they can before the party ends.

        • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          On the other hand, If everyone would use adblockers, maybe content creator market would evolve into viewers supporting their favorite creators directly, or youtube having a subscription model that is much better than a current one in a way of user experience and creator support.

      • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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        Don’t worry. Those normies are about to cost us the whole open web, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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    and they’ll be unskippable

    I’m sure i’ve heard this before, but yt-dlp still skips them fine.

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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      Yt-Dlp has been breaking recently and requiring cookies to be entered in order to work at all.

      I’ve never seen a company quadruple dip on something before. It’s like surviving enshittification and then still continuing to push for further revenues.

      Error retrying …

      Rate limited, waiting 60 seconds …

      Video not found

      • traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        It has been breaking a lot lately and it’s really sad. I pretty much pull all of my content off of YouTube now through yt-dlp so once that goes, im pretty much entirely YouTube free. I absolutely refuse to use it in the state it’s in now and really wish more creators would offer content on other platforms. Yt-dip is amazing and great but shouldn’t be the permanent solution.

        • knexcar@lemmy.world
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          Isn’t that what Nebula/CuriosityStream is? All my favorite YouTubers promote it, though the caveat is you have to pay but I think the money actually goes to the creators (and they put bonus content on it like a patreon).

          • Tja@programming.dev
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            With YouTube 55% of the money goes to the creators (and they don’t need to pay hosting costs).

  • pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip
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    Pretty much stopped using it once they decided my 20 year old account must belong to a child and demanded my ID. (Still don’t know why that happened. The account itself is over eighteen and I don’t live in the US where that policy was supposed to take effect.) This doesn’t make it any more appealing.

    I remember when you just had, like, banner ads and an ad next to the video. And now you get those gross ads for AI sexbots and stuff.

    And I really don’t think the latter is just because of my own search history. I’m asexual and don’t look at porn sites. I also noticed an uptick in the sex ads after YouTube decided I was a minor, so that’s pretty freaking weird.

    Then I also get far right ads about how trans people are terrible, that are basically hate speech and propaganda.

    I wish other platforms for long form video content existed.

    • jdr@lemmy.ml
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      For your own health I recommend an ad blocker. uBlock Origin works on the YouTube website and dodgy apps like NewPipe don’t show ads.

    • BigBrainBrett2517@lemmy.world
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      Right? Holy weird and gross, Batman. “Do you want a cream pie? D/L this app and have the dirtiest night off your life.” Literally an ad for an AI app on YouTube. What the fuck?

  • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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    Yeah thats enough to push me off the main app, I was already annoyed by the ads, the fact they are going unskippable is a end gamer for me

    I just wished there was a app i could load onto my tv and play the videos on there ( i have a samsung so suggestions welcome)

    • IratePirate@feddit.org
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      While cstom ROMs of Android TV do exist, Samsung does not want you to truly own your device and has locked it down. The only option I see is to use your TV as a dumb TV: hook up any PC to your TV’s HDMI ports (I use a Raspi 5 running Ubuntu for that). The PC gives you full control over what you want to install, which may include an adblocker in the browser or free YouTube frontends such as FreeTube.

      • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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        Frustrating but predictable by Samsung thanks.

        I do have a steam deck connected so I can look at using that to run a browser

        • mghackerlady@leminal.space
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          the only reason I know of that god forsaken platform is because it uses the woefully underrated EFL gui toolkit

  • timeghost@lemmy.world
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    I recommend turning off the device completely when an ad starts. This not only works, but has improved my entire life.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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      Or use a different front end on mobile or unlock on Firefox. I haven’t seen a YouTube as in years. Also smarttube for Android tv.