4 ms·

> assuming a bug rather than intentional malice lol, no malice here, it's their websites they can do whatever they want and they are far from stupid, they test

> assuming a bug rather than intentional malice lol, no malice here, it's their websites they can do whatever they want and they are far from stupid, they test all these things. I'll still block ads and if Google prevents me from seeing Youtube content so be it. I'm not going to disable my ad blocker anyway. The fight against ads is getting interesting. Let's see who gets the "last word".

skybrian 11y ago
Testing every combination in advance isn't possible even for large corporations, because browsers in the wild vary so much, as do the computers they run on. It should show up in production monitoring, though.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
They absolutely can; the question then becomes how much they can do so without driving some traffic to secondary sites. Right now, YouTube enjoys massive mindshare; pushing ads too hard could cause people to start remembering that other video sites exist (whether for video hosting, or competitors for the same user attention spans like Netflix and Amazon). (Also, I was using the phrase as a callback to the classic expression; I changed it to "intended behavior" to better reflect my intent.)
- peteretep 11y ago
  > the question then becomes how much they can do so > without driving some traffic to secondary sites Pretty far, while Adblock allows you to whitelist some sites. YouTube, boardingarea.com, and listentotaxman.com are the only sites I have whitelisted, and presumably have had forever.
  - eva1984 11y ago
    I am pretty sure blocking Youtube ads is the lifeline for most ad-blockers...
MikeHolman 11y ago
Your fight against ads is a pretty selfish endeavor. Sure, there are some sites which abuse ads, but by visiting a website, you are getting a free service. And for YouTube, the cost is that you sometimes have to wait 3-15 seconds for an ad to play. Blocking ads on YouTube takes away from video content creators and Google.

skybrian 11y ago

Testing every combination in advance isn't possible even for large corporations, because browsers in the wild vary so much, as do the computers they run on. It should show up in production monitoring, though.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

They absolutely can; the question then becomes how much they can do so without driving some traffic to secondary sites. Right now, YouTube enjoys massive mindshare; pushing ads too hard could cause people to start remembering that other video sites exist (whether for video hosting, or competitors for the same user attention spans like Netflix and Amazon). (Also, I was using the phrase as a callback to the classic expression; I changed it to "intended behavior" to better reflect my intent.)

peteretep 11y ago
> the question then becomes how much they can do so > without driving some traffic to secondary sites Pretty far, while Adblock allows you to whitelist some sites. YouTube, boardingarea.com, and listentotaxman.com are the only sites I have whitelisted, and presumably have had forever.
- eva1984 11y ago
  I am pretty sure blocking Youtube ads is the lifeline for most ad-blockers...

MikeHolman 11y ago

Your fight against ads is a pretty selfish endeavor. Sure, there are some sites which abuse ads, but by visiting a website, you are getting a free service. And for YouTube, the cost is that you sometimes have to wait 3-15 seconds for an ad to play. Blocking ads on YouTube takes away from video content creators and Google.