Posted on 10/15/2023 1:11:41 PM PDT by ducttape45
The experiment is meant to urge users to disable their ad blockers or subscribe to YouTube Premium.
YouTube is looking to take a more aggressive approach in preventing viewers from using ad blockers while watching videos on its platform. As BleepingComputer reports, people have been posting screenshots on social networks like Reddit that show a pop-up notice warning them that their player will be blocked after three videos.
The warning says YouTube will block their ability to play videos on the platform unless they disable their ad blocker or add the website to their white list. "Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide," the notice continues. To go ad-free, the company tells users to get a YouTube Premium subscription so "creators can still get paid." Prior to these warnings, YouTube only showed popups to ad blocker users, reminding them that it's against the website's TOS. Eventually, it added a timer to the notices to ensure viewers take the time to read them.
The website has confirmed to BleepingComputer that the new alerts are part of an experiment. A spokesperson told the publication that YouTube is "running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium." They said that YouTube might temporarily disable playback "[i]n extreme cases, where viewers continue their use of ad blockers." The spokesperson added that they will only disable playback "if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube," though it's unclear if that means YouTube won't automatically block playback after a viewer watches three videos and will give them more opportunities to comply.
At the moment, this new approach only affects a small number of users, and YouTube didn't say how many people and regions are part of the test. The website, which makes most of its money from ads, has seen its ad revenue decline over the past three quarters, so we won't be surprised if this test expands to more users around the world should it turn out to be effective.
That sucks. But of course.
“Then watch the ads.”
You want me to watch ads, then pay me to watch them.
With the video ads on YouTube, the “missing time” that would have been present had you watched the commercial is a huge giveaway. And other detection methods involving protocol acknowledgements and probably other industry-secret methods are used. One more elaborate strategy is to utilize a service that responds normally to the ads, but passes ad-free content on to you. Some VPNs and speciality sites offer this.
YouTube Premium isn’t that expensive and gets rid of all of the irritants. It’s like TSA PreCheck - it’s annoying to have to pay for what was free in 1999, but worth it. If the prices go up, then we’ll have to reconsider.
First they Rob the people that create their content and now they want to Rob the people that watch the content created by other people
Oh well.
But, I don’t want to monetize Iguana, the Oyster Slurper.
Watching YouTube for ten (10) minutes ) and the ad blocker blocked 100 ads , ONE HUNDRED !
The adds on YouTube are out of hand! It More than 90% of the videos I look at have ads. It’s ridiculous! A classical music video is broken up by ads, totally wrecking the piece. I watch a lot of amateur astronomy related videos-ADS!
I watched a video on how to replace a gearbox on my motorized telescope drive- ADS!
No matter what I try to watch-ADS! ADS! ADS!
I have the YouTube ap on my TV. It doesn’t matter…
It’s maddening.
I got the warning using brave browser
I for one will check it out.
On some conservative but mainly Christian channels, YouTube puts in ads but the creater gets none of the money because their videos are “controversial”
“I always move the article to Archive.ph and then read it for free.”
....yeah but that seems like a lot of trouble. Look! A squirrel!
I just got one of those popups the other day. My fix is to run YouTube on both Edge and Firefox. My adblocker only works on Edge, so what I did was sign out of YT on Edge and sign in on Firefox. I use the signed in YT to check for new videos on my subscribed list and to post and read comments. I move over to the unsigned in YT to watch videos. If you’re not signed in they can’t block your account. At least not yet. This way I get to watch commercial-free videos without the popup that demands I allow commercials and I still get to check my subscription list and post and read comments.
I have seen the warning and ignored it. So far so good.
I agree that reading has been taken for granted these days, but as you mentioned, humans, especially men, are visual and can process things better when illustrated.
I have been able to just “X” the popup when it comes up and go on, but I’m waiting for YT to try and block me permanently. We’ll see what another browser will do.
So Freetube works just like Youtube? I’ll check it out. Any more nuggets of wisdom you can throw our way, the better. Thanks my friend!
Do those YT videos also come with commercials?
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