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After subscribing to YouTube Premium, I had a similar revelation. Now if only we could have a google ad-free subscription which would turn off all google search
by anoncow 7y ago
After subscribing to YouTube Premium, I had a similar revelation. Now if only we could have a google ad-free subscription which would turn off all google search and display network ads, our lives would be so much better! What if we could have cities outlaw advertising on billboards and instead collect a small tax to make up for the lost revenue, how much would our quality of life increase? That makes me wonder, if we could ever get to such an utopia, what avenues would advertisers have left to sell products to us?
- dimensi0nal 7y agohttps://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin... https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa...
- eswat 7y agoI actually forgot YouTube had ads until someone showed me a video on their laptop this past weekend. Was painful to watch them try to dismiss it.
- vonseel 7y agoI find uBlock works well at blocking YouTube ads but occasionally I get a static screen in the video player that says something like “Service not available at the moment.”. YT seems to be intermittently blocking UBO users.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- yzssi 7y agoI use ubo and I've never, ever had that happen to me. My two cents.
- vonseel 7y agoDisabling it temporarily always fixes the problem, so I have assumed it is due to UBO blocking something which if YT sees has been blocked enough times for a specific visitor, they will prevent video from loading, but maybe my hypothesis is incorrect. This only happens when I’m watching a lot of YouTube videos one after the other.
- Shank 7y agoI seem to recall that if you disable uBlock on a site, you have to reload for the change to take effect. Is it possible that the page reload and not disabling uBlock is doing it?
- baud147258 7y agoI've seen such errors, on Chrome with UBlock, but I don't know if it's coming from Ublock or from my network connection.
- gorhill 7y agoThis also affects other blockers.[1][2] I never reproduced such issue on my side, so unfortunately there is no way for me to investigate -- given that this affects different blockers with different code base, I suspect a filter issue. * * * [1] https://venturebeat.com/2016/03/13/youtube-shows-adblock-plus-users-an-error-message-instead-of-ads/ https://venturebeat.com/2016/03/13/youtube-shows-adblock-plu... [2] https://help.getadblock.com/support/solutions/articles/6000117537-fixed-please-try-again-error-when-playing-youtube-videos https://help.getadblock.com/support/solutions/articles/60001...
- sbr464 7y agoIn addition to blocking ads, I used Adblock to remove the html for the recommended videos panel that shows up to the right or underneath a playing video. I’ve definitely noticed a personal reduction in wormhole clicking YouTube usage.
- lostmsu 7y agoAnything for FireTV? I tried DNS blocking, but that did not affect YouTube there (it runs on FF, which does not support add-ons on Fire OS).
- Scottopherson 7y agoI've been enjoying YouTube Red/Premium for about a year and a half but I'm kind of considering cancelling it to go back to using an adblocker for YouTube's embedded ads and supporting specific creators via Patreon or something. The majority of the channels I watch embed their own ad-reads into their videos now so the ad-free value proposition for Premium is getting much weaker for me.
- reificator 7y agoI cancelled my Google Play Music family subscription (of which I was the only user at that point) and then signed up for a normal subscription. Didn't realize doing so lost my bundled Youtube Red subscription in the process. Started getting midroll ads on YouTube on my phone and couldn't figure out why...
- mguerville 7y agoI just cancelled mine and let me tell you, the added 10 to 30 seconds of ads before the video starts are already bugging me a lot.
- antepodius 7y agoIs there any particular reason you're not using an adblocker?
- jeromegv 7y ago
- switchbak 7y agoThis reminded me of Elysium: but instead of the rich being the only ones able to receive quality health care, here they are the only ones able to afford a reprieve from these mind numbing ads. I would love to be able to eliminate all ads in my life. At the same time, doesn't this feel a little like the advertisers are extorting us for some $$? Lest they jam more ads down your throat.
- la_barba 7y ago> At the same time, doesn't this feel a little like the advertisers are extorting us for some $$? Lest they jam more ads down your throat. They wouldn't have succeeded in this extortion (online) if it wasn't for companies with billions of dollars hiring the smartest people in the world to enable advertisers to spy on people en-masse.
- dorgo 7y agoRest assured that advertisement works with and without spying. Spying just improves efficiency somewhat.
- antepodius 7y agoGet an adblocker!
- eswat 7y ago
- dnc204 7y agoTax for making up not getting ads pushed down our throats? That is silly :) I shall not feel any sort of pity towards the companies whose ads I refuse to consume on a constant basis. If they go bankrupt because I have uBlock of something similar set up (if such thing was possible), then good riddance.
- pickdenis 7y ago> what avenues would advertisers have left to sell products to us? My serious guess would be even more paid shills. It's amazing how much more weight a message can have when it comes from someone that's not obviously tied to the company.
- switchbak 7y agoMy skepticism level is now of epic proportions when I see someone recommending products online. Louis Rossmann is one notable exception, but far too rare. These days I usually just type "reviews for XXX reddit", but even that isn't a sure thing anymore.
- pault 7y agoJust one of the many things SEO has ruined. Searching "x reviews" for any x is completely worthless at best, actively hostile at worst.
- layoutIfNeeded 7y agoThe trick is to look for negative reviews first.
- crazypyro 7y agoI use reddit for all kinds of suggestions. It's definitely getting harder and it also helps to be in the target demographic of reddit.
- rchaud 7y agoYup, I do the "[search query] + reddit" in my searches as well. Just including the phrase on its own brings up a ton of garbage sites with reviews written by content marketing people for SEO purposes as opposed a 3-4 line Reddit comment.
- thomasahle 7y ago> if we could have cities outlaw advertising on billboards and instead collect a small tax to make up for the lost revenue, how much would our quality of life increase? Ideally decisions would instead be made based on unbiased reviews and rational decision making. Hopefully the lack of advertising would relieve us from unconscious decision fatigue and free up our energy for other parts of life.
- dwiel 7y agoWe have a ban on billboards in our town in Indiana of all places, its definitely possible. It is nice as well, I always forget how annoying they are until I travel to other cities.
- ducttape12 7y agoIf you're not a fan of blocking ads, DuckDuckGo let's you disable ads in their search results.
- dorgo 7y agowhat is the difference between blocking and disabling? The result is the same, right?
- ducttape12 7y agoYes, just without the guilt (since this means DDG is clearly okay with not making ad revenue off me)
- captn3m0 7y agoBangalore blocked all billboards recently. Different reasons, but similar effect. It is like the whole city is on Adblock.
- vincnetas 7y agoSão Paulo is the city without outdoor advertisements. Random link: https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secrets-sao-paulo-uncovered-outdoor-advertising-ban/ https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secret...
- overthemoon 7y agoThese photos are unreal, thanks for sharing.
- warent 7y agoThat link is awesome and could be its own HN submission altogether
- richjdsmith 7y agoSubmit it. I wholeheartedly agree!
- DavidSJ 7y agoIt looks almost like a bunch of trash was cleaned up off the streets.
- HNLurker2 7y agoAdvertising just works. Don't doubt it on consumers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
- DavidSJ 7y agoDoes anyone doubt it?
- cwkoss 7y agoInoculate yourself and others from the effects of advertising by saying something negative about the brand whenever you see the ad. Ex. I saw a Mazda ad. "Mazdas are the perfect car for when you want to look like a complete idiot while burning to death in your poorly manufactured deathtrap."
- btbuildem 7y agoI think it would create a sort of a monopoly -- the municipal taxes paying the ad-free tithe. I imagine corruption and backroom deals would result in that cost going up and up over time. A better solution would be to outlaw ads / billboards, and ticket the offenders to offset the lost income from billboards etc. Municipalities love new revenue streams.
- FiatLuxDave 7y agoInstead of banning a particular avenue of advertising, which moves the advertising spend to somewhere else, why not have a broad-based tax on advertising spending? We've seen how ineffective things like banning advertising to children were on reducing smoking, while raising taxes on cigarettes was quite effective at reducing smoking levels. And some advertising is useful. I don't need no advertising in my life, I just need less of it. Taxes would reduce the "arm's race" effect where companies need to advertise because their competitors are advertising. I suspect that the quality of advertising would go up if it were more expensive, as well. Perhaps at some point in the future, we will have too little advertising and there will need to be a debate on how we should reduce the advertising tax. I long for this day.
- ACow_Adonis 7y agoBut smoking rates have been dropping, and the tobacco companies certainly put up a huge fight here in Aus when we tried to enforce plain packaging on cigarettes, so they're spending an awful lot of resources on fighting something that 'doesn't work'...(hint: it does)
- scarface74 7y agoAd blockers effectively block Google ads on desktops and iOS - including third party apps like Feedly that use the SafariViewController.
- yogenpro 7y agoThere is "Google Contributor" [1]. The idea is basically that you pay the publisher out of your own pocket for their ad space, to buy your own impression. This might be a great product if it covers the majority of ad inventories... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Contributor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Contributor
- heavymark 7y agoThat world exists with ad blockers. Was viewing a friend's computer who didn't have an ad blocker installed and almost forgot what it had been like to see ads plastered everywhere online.
- dorgo 7y ago> what avenues would advertisers have left to sell products to us? Maybe pay me some money for my attention? In exchange you get all the data from me: how much money I spend on X. How often I do Y. Whatever helps you sell your product to me. If you succeed and I like your ad or buy your product, the ad is for free. Otherwise you pay me some €/$/coins.
- tibyat 7y agowhy be a tool who pays google for what we had for free just a few years ago? use an adblocker.
- aiilnns 7y ago> What if we could have cities outlaw advertising on billboards and instead collect a small tax to make up for the lost revenue To me there is something seriously wrong with this way of thought. Why would we collect a small tax to make up for businesses' lost profit? It sounds, to me, downright bizarre, like saying forcing factories to be more environmentally friendly would cost money to the business and cut profits so we should take that money from the taxpayers. Wow.