←back to thread

YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

(iter.ca)
990 points smitop | 1 comments | 20 Jun 25 17:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.237s | source
Show context
dkga ◴[21 Jun 25 09:45 UTC] No.44336118[source]▶
Dear YouTube,

It’s not so much that I don’t want to see ads - nobody does, but very very often the ad breaks the vibe of what I am watching and it displeases me to the point I will invest my soul and energy to block ads. Some real-life examples:

- watching a video about coding where the creator has a monotonic, calm voice that keeps me engaged, and VS Code in dark mode which is easy on my eyes in my dark room at 2am, then suddenly comes an ad with bright lights, incredibly high sound and a high-energy backtrack.

- watching a meditation video, the exact same ad appears.

You get the idea.

At the very least, please ensure the ad is in the same volume as the original video. That alone wouldn’t be too hard. In addition, please at least try to match the background overall brightness or color, and the vibe. All this would create value because people would actually watch much more ads.

replies(12): >>44336198 #>>44336250 #>>44336336 #>>44336338 #>>44336437 #>>44336448 #>>44336556 #>>44336621 #>>44336642 #>>44336751 #>>44336823 #>>44337272 #
AlienRobot ◴[21 Jun 25 10:29 UTC] No.44336336[source]▶
>All this would create value because people would actually watch much more ads.

I'm very skeptical about this statement.

There is a simple way to stop watching ads: pay for premium. It's 100% effective and works right now.

What you are saying is that you want Google to make your ad experience better because you don't want to pay money to use their service.

You somehow use it enough for ads to bother you but not enough to pay for it.

This paradoxal type of user is too common and makes no sense to me.

replies(5): >>44336412 #>>44336493 #>>44336539 #>>44336651 #>>44337076 #
1. NoLinkToMe ◴[21 Jun 25 11:06 UTC] No.44336539[source]▶
Agreed. I've probably got a few thousand hours on youtube, more than just about everything else. It's immensely valuable, yet I refuse to pay for Youtube. Not quite sure why.

I'm perfectly happy paying for two $5 coffees a month that I hardly remember consuming, just because I was perched and a bit tired while on a walk in the city. I pay $25 for a more comfy seat for a 3 hour flight. I pay $15 for a single movie ticket, and another $15 for $3 worth of snacks. I pay $30 for a 30 minute cutting of my hair. I pay $20 for a 3 minute slingshot at the fair. I pay $30 for a 20min taxi.

Yet I refuse to pay $14 for Youtube that I use 30 hours a month, because with adblockers I don't have to. And if Youtube makes adblocking awful enough, I simply will pay. As annoying as youtube ads are, I'd never think to complain about them because it has an easy solution.