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The free YouTube tier is about to become unbearable with even more ads

52 points by raybb 4y ago

superkuh 4y ago
What an odd way to phrase things. Tiers? Almost certainly 99% of youtube's visitors don't pay anything. It's hard to believe people pay for Youtube Red.
- i_like_apis 4y ago
  Premium. I pay for it quite happily. It doesn't cost much and there are no ads. It's very worth it for me.
HardwareLust 4y ago
It's only bearable now with an adblocker. We're way past the point of unbearable.
- spaetzleesser 4y ago
  Brave browser works for me.
- smcl 4y ago
  I think my adblocker causes videos with ads to break on YouTube. They'll just have a loading spinner that never finishes. If I open them in a new tab or window it'll continue to happen. If I open in an incognito window (which has extensions disabled) it'll load fine.
  - cercatrova 4y ago
    What adblocker do you have? Use uBlock Origin if you don't already, it works for YouTube just fine, and every other site.
    - smcl 4y ago
      Yeah it's uBlock Origin that I'm experiencing this with. And it's only every now and again that I see this.
- thomassmith65 4y ago
  Just wait until Youtube begins hardcoding ads into videos. No doubt it's on their roadmap.
  - juice_bus 4y ago
    I'm sure something like SponserBlock - or SponserBlock its self - will step up to the plate.
    - thomassmith65 4y ago
      Yes. The downside, if one cares about privacy, is that the pressure to sell a user's history to a fourth party will be impossible for SponsorBlock to resist.
      - HardwareLust 4y ago
        Just the cost of the service. If SponsorBlock actually works and makes YouTube useable again, I'm willing to relinquish a little bit of personal data for that. You're going to end up paying, one way or another.
        thomassmith65 4y ago
        The sad thing for me about Youtube and monetization is that Youtube has no right to monetize most Youtube videos (big-budget or non-profit) that interest me. The content that Youtube does have a right to monetize (all the garbage that starts 'hey guys' and ends 'remember to like and subscribe') I consider worthless. I'm willing to relinquish a little bit of personal data for that. I probably would, too, though reluctantly :(
      - guerrilla 4y ago
        So it'll be forked or get cloned...
        thomassmith65 4y ago
- rocket_surgeron 4y ago
  People who don't pay for YouTube content, either through, you know, paying, or watching ads are almost exactly the same as the slimy scumbags who offer to pay artists and programmers in "exposure". The differences are so slight as to be superficial. Either pay, or don't use. "But I don't like their terms." So what? Either pay, or don't use.
  - picsao 4y ago
galuggus 4y ago
You can always tell ads to fuck off with the fuckoff.yt extension.
- rajup 4y ago
  Or you could just buy YT Premium. I don't have it since I can handle 2-3 ads but if it does get as bad as the article suggests I'll probably just buy the damn subscription. This entitlement for free stuff on the Internet is the cause of many issues with the Internet of today.
  - 418tpot 4y ago
    I have no problem paying creators for content. If a creator I follow has a patreon or some other method of supporting them I pay for it without hesitation. What I do have a problem with is supporting a company that is actively destroying the free internet. I think Google is a much bigger cause of the issues of the internet today than me attempting to maintain freedom in how I consume my carefully selected media. For example: I want to watch videos in mpv, which tiles nicely in my WM, and doesn't have toxic social media features such as like buttons, comments, and related videos which serve no purpose other than to entice me into wasting time watching useless content.
    - rajup 4y ago
      Ok fair points,but how does the creator achieve the reach he has? Or pay for hosting and serving content across the globe? He doesn’t pay for either of these right? YouTube pays for this and you the user can choose to pay by watching ads or paying a subscription fee (Patreon does not defray Google’s costs). There are tons of reasons to be pissed with google, but I find this allergy to YT premium very fascinating, especially when many of the same people would cheer a paid search subscription.
- lapser 4y ago
  Just install uBlock Origin. It blocks ads everywhere, not just YT.
foxyv 4y ago
YouTube already makes more money than Netflix. Guess they want to make more money than Disney now? YouTube Red (I guess they call it premium now) is pretty good though. Their music service and being able to download videos makes it pretty nice on the whole. I refuse to watch advertisements anymore and I hate advertising in general. Most commercials are brain pollution.
- mikece 4y ago
  YouTube makes more money than Netflix? Huh... why not just buy Netflix and roll it into YouTube Premium (or Red or Plus or whatever it's called this week)?
  - Kye 4y ago
    Netflix's value is quite a bit higher than its income, and that value is quite a bit higher than the figures we see for market leaders buying major competitors. Now, if it were worth $20B rather than $100B...
hombre_fatal 4y ago
It says the extra ads are only "bumper ads" up to six seconds long. Has anybody demonstrated that the total ad time is increasing?
- bhedgeoser 4y ago
  6 times billion is 6 billion.
- sshine 4y ago
  > Has anybody demonstrated that the total ad time is increasing? You mean scientifically? Sample size = 1, total ad time most certainly increased. The last 10 videos I played had 2 ads, one short unskippable (10s, not 5s), and one long that wasn't skippable until a long time had passed (like 30s). It was the style of ad that was a short-length video that was in itself somewhat captivating. I think I went something like 10 seconds into letting me skip, because it was about smart homes and I thought it was interesting. Ads are truly a pest. Especially when they work.
cercatrova 4y ago
uBlock Origin SponsorBlock (blocks sponsor segments as well as filler content like intros, outros, jokes, etc) ReVanced (or Vanced while it still works) These are all you need to remove ads on YouTube. This is also the reason why I won't use Chrome with their Manifest v3 extension mandate, Firefox all day.
- majora2007 4y ago
  Don't forget SmartTube(Next) for Android TVs (like Shield)
- SllX 4y ago
  $11.99/month buys you YouTube Premium. I consider that a more than fair deal, and the advantage this nets you is flexibility as long as you can sign in and all I really need is my phone and an AirPlay target if it’s something I want to show my friends without having to rely on their accounts (which a lot of TVs have built-in now).
  - thefourthchime 4y ago
    I have YouTube premium but most Youtubers have sponsored segments which is why I also use SponserBlock as well. Creators see exactly how much revenue they get from premium vs ad-supported, in many cases the premium viewers are the lion's share of the views. The sponsor is paying them regardless if I skip the segment, so I don't have any bad feelings about it.
    - SllX 4y ago
      That’s fair; personally I just skip them because a web extension isn’t going to do anything for me in the YouTube app anyway, but some YouTubers make a fun skit out of their sponsors when they have them. I’ll usually watch those if I have the time.
  - guerrilla 4y ago
    There's no guarantee that'll stay will stay without ads. In fact, I think that's extremely improbable. The need for infinite growth is definitionally insatiable. Part of what they're doing now isn't just to show more ads, but to drive people into Premium. Once they have enough people on Premium, then they can break it up into more tiers, adding ads to some. When enough people are using Premium (because Free has become completely useless and pointless) they can just remove the Premium tiers with no ads and "simplify" the entire thing: i.e. you paying Premium price for what Free YouTube with ads is right now.
Entinel 4y ago
This will inevitably be filled with people talking about adblock. Changes like this are more targeted at people who watch videos on mobile which is most people. I would venture a guess and say most people use Chrome or the Youtube app to watch videos. And no, the large majority of people don't know Firefox on Android + uBlock Origin even exist.
- cercatrova 4y ago
  Maybe people are talking about it so other people can know that adblockers for YouTube (even on mobile) exist. I don't see anything wrong with that.
  - Entinel 4y ago
    There is nothing wrong with bringing awareness to these things. I'm just making it clear that these changes are deliberately targeted at the average mobile user. Not the person who has a PiHole setup on their network and probably not at the average HN reader.
    - gadrev 4y ago
      One possible problem is if ad blocking technologies spread enough, they will stop working because it becomes a problem big enough for YT & others, or at least the adfree experience becomes harder. I can't explain how, and I don't really care, but it could become a cat & mouse game with the developers of uBlock, Newpipe and similar, and the big corp, in this case Google.
      - ElectricalUnion 4y ago
        It is already, and has always been a cat & mouse game with the bigcorps. Facebook and Twitch are at the bleeding-edge of "anti-adblock tech", and another reason why I don't use those services.
- redthrow 4y ago
  You can just use the Brave browser on mobile. It supports background playback too.
throw0101c 4y ago
Any good ad blocking mechanisms for Safari 15 and/or 16 on macOS?
- Kye 4y ago
  iOS Safari has ad blockers in the app store now. I would be surprised if these aren't available for desktop Safari.
- anderiv 4y ago
  1Blocker has been working great for me. It does block YT ads. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-ad-blocker/id1365531024 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-ad-blocker/id13655310...
- VignuB 4y ago
  For iOS and iPadOS, I use Adguard Premium(they offer system wide blocking too). On Mac, Adguard for Safari is good enough. It’s the best possible option given Safari’s limitations if you want to stick with Safari. For most intents and purposes it works ‘almost’ as well as ublock origin on Firefox. 1Password and Wipr does a good job too.
- dubya 4y ago
  Wipr seems to work pretty well. It doesn't block the stupid overlays that YouTube puts over the last 20 seconds or so of videos (not ads, but watch this or this next or subscribe to this channel...), but I don't think that uBlock does either.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  AdGuard is alright and seems to work fine on YouTube.
mikece 4y ago
YouTube has a problem where they are a victim of their own ad sales success: they have all of this advertising inventory that contractually needs to be shown, how do they make that happen? (I'm curious if the ads I don't see because I use uBlock Origin are somehow counted as having been seen... I think advertisers would call that fraud if that's the case.) Of course an easy solution to this is to radically reduce the number of ads being shown and radically INCREASE the prices for said ads. It would help if content creators were active participants being paid a premium to tailor their content to an advertising model (A block, advert, B block, advert, C block... etc) rather than a sudden interruption in the middle of an explanation video about advanced networking concepts that are jolting and make me need to rewind a bit when it comes back from the algo-inserted advert to remember what the context was. (And if there remains a "let me pay to never see ads" tier then content designed for advert insertion should see some of that money going to the content creator and not just to YouTube).
- Foobar8568 4y ago
  I would be really surprised if the ads are counted as viewed, literally 0 second has been watched.
  - stevewatson301 4y ago
    In fact, uBlock origin in its default configuration prevents watch histories from being recorded, because it prevents the analytics calls that record watch time.
- mikymoothrowa 4y ago
  > reduce the number of ads being shown and radically INCREASE the prices for said ads They can only do that if they had the ability to properly target ads like they’ve claimed for decades at this point. With all this data collection, they can barely show relevant ads and so they’ve simply decided do show all the ads they have
hericium 4y ago
Reminders: yt-dlp[1] allows you to download videos to disk via command line. Lots of options. Also, there's this Google-owned youtube-nocookie.com domain which is lighter than main one. DuckDuckGo offers to show YouTube videos from it under the "Videos" tab (not when video is suggested on the "All" tab) without fully switching browser to video's page on YT site. Also, you can use it to listen to YT audio on iOS Safari, on an locked iPhone. To do so, search the video in DDG, switch to "Videos" tab, play it on duckduckgo.com on the results page (without switching to www.youtube.com). Lock your phone and it will stop playing audio. Tap the screen (don't unlock) and you'll have the usual media player on the lock screen, showing the title and author of YT video. Simply hit the play button and you can switch the screen off. EDIT: reply to a freshly deleted "don't use if you don't pay" comment: I own a BluRay or DVD copy of every single movie or TV series I pirated and liked. I paid studios times more than I would if I never pirated and seen those products in the first place. After Google bought YouTube, other media streaming services started to diminish. Some content started to be only available on YouTube. Until Google was a team player and the "don't be evil" slogan wasn't trashed - I used the service and seen and was annoyed by ads. Then there were more ads. And many, many, many, many other issues with Google. I ditched the account I had with them. Haven't made a single search with their engine in 3+ years I believe. I use yt-dlp to watch YT videos and encourage everyone to do the same if they are annoyed by Google's user-hostile practices. [1] https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- albert_e 4y ago
  saw this in twitter and it worked on Android, when playing a YouTube video on app, you can share that video and select "Play in VLC" this avoids all ads now in VLC you can also "Play as Audio" if you want audio playback while phone is locked or background audio play while you are using other apps
  - strangattractor 4y ago
    yt is already testing steps to mitigate those apps.
arikr 4y ago
To YouTube employees reading: I pay for YouTube premium. So it really sucks when I google the name of a movie, click to play the trailer, and then it plays a pre-roll ad. This only happens with the movie trailers that you one click play from the search results. If I click on something that goes to the youtube domain or youtube app, it's fine. I'd like no videos when I'm playing videos from google. My google account and youtube premium account are the same, so I'm not sure why it doesn't link.
- browningstreet 4y ago
  If you're a Youtube Premium member and by Youtube TV, they still play 5-6 pre-roll ads before VOD streams. It's why I've cancelled that... though I did buy it for one month just to watch some of my favorite sports events not available on streaming services.
- Laremere 4y ago
  Also, Chromecast (Ultra) now shows a YouTube app when casting to it. This app puts recommendations on the screen. Even with premium, ads will show when I select one to watch. There's an option to sign in, but if I select it, it just says I can't sign in. Also, with chromecast, it's really annoying that they allow multiple users to put videos in the queue, but only have my videos be ad free. It effectively removes the multiphone feature because I have to look up and play (and ruin my recommendations) on my phone anyways. One premium users being connected should be enough to kill all of the ads. I've also had ads rarely and randomly show up. If I had to guess, some "is this user premium" server was down, and it decided to default to "no", despite that being the explicitly frustrating experience for paying users.
- i_like_apis 4y ago
  It seems you may be mis-reporting this behavior. I pay for YouTube Premium, do the steps you describe, and do not see that behavior. You must be in another browser session that's not signed in to your Premium account. You're in incognito or on second browser. Just sign in to YouTube to fix it.
  - 4y ago
Brajeshwar 4y ago
Outside of the technology bubble/fort we have built around our families and us, the normal outside world is extremely bizarre. I frequently have the opportunity of helping families and friends with their computers. The amount of distractions and non-content content is astounding. I always feel like Chris, trying to fix Jen's computer installing a browser and should expect an answer, "Leave it. I have it how I like it."
- spaetzleesser 4y ago
  Same here. I use Brave browser and rarely see ads anywhere. I am always shocked when I see other people’s web experience . It’s as unbearable as US network TV with commercials every ten minutes.
random314 4y ago
Thank you Pichai for squeezing out more from employees and users. I am a stockholder, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining!
itshossein 4y ago
Also: Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. The browser blocks ads (including YouTube ads) and website trackers. It supports offline and background palyback on all conventional devices. https://www.brave.com https://www.brave.com
- cercatrova 4y ago
  There is no way I'll use Brave after their controversy, not to mention they include cryptocurrency mechanisms in their browser. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers...
- MisterSandman 4y ago
  Also: Use literally any other browser with Adblock and you'll get a better, less bloated experience than Brave.
Brajeshwar 4y ago
FYI, YouTube Premium is economically cheap in countries such as India. A single user subscription is just ₹120 (~$1.5) monthly, so $18 a year. While the Family is just ₹189 (~$2.36) monthly, which is less than $30 a year. I believe it is worth it instead of fighting every algorithm, alteration, that Google throws at you.
- mikymoothrowa 4y ago
  it costs that little _right now_ Youtube being Youtube will definitely increase it
strangattractor 4y ago
"about to become unbearable" pleeeease. It crossed that Rubicon long ago. I had a Yahoo mail account once. When I started going to my inbox and could not find my mail due to all the ads I switched to gmail.
haunter 4y ago
Imagine paying for Youtube Premium then some months down the line they will just ban you as usual without any chance to get back your account. Maybe you opened a "wrong" link from Gmail. Maybe you watched a "wrong" upload on Youtube. Who knows. Google would be the last company on Earth I'd give my money.
- webinvest 4y ago
  Would it be possible to cancel your new subscription?
i_like_apis 4y ago
It's unclear if it's economically feasible as revenue to replace advertising for most services, but I happily pay for YouTube Premium and it is absolutely fantastic. No ads makes it a dream. I was dismayed when I realized Hulu's top tier still shows you ads for most in-season shows. Message to all streaming execs: I HATE ADS TAKE MY MONEY.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
For those who don't know it, you can also put a dash '-', between the 't' and the 'u' for any youtube video address and it will direct to an ad-free full screen version of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No add the dash https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No which redirects to: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TUDu0KT74No?playlist=TUDu0KT74No&autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&loop=1&modestbranding=1&start= https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TUDu0KT74No?playlist=...
Nextgrid 4y ago
Another option for those who don't/can't run ad blockers: Invidious (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious https://github.com/iv-org/invidious) It's a proxy server for YouTube. You install this on a server from your choice and it serves a minimal YouTube-like UI without any ads or other obnoxiousness. You can test-drive it by using public instances but those are often overloaded so I recommend running your own.
rognjen 4y ago
I suspect this is a bug. Also, all the sites that picked this up have been shown to be of questionable quality since their primary source is Twitter.
stereoradonc 4y ago
Never encountered advertisements using AdGuard with Vivaldi. I listen to many podcasts there; no issues. On Android, I sideloaded a modded YouTube app without issues. Besides, I can use Kiwi Browser with specific extensions to allow YouTube to play in background and screen switched off, and uBlock origin to block advertisements. If the Chrome manifest does take over, AdGuard on Android does its job perfectly (side loaded). I haven't touched the official applications or use Google Chrome because it's restrictive. I don't use iOS, but Adguard for iOS can filter out advertisements.

52 points by raybb 4y ago

What an odd way to phrase things. Tiers? Almost certainly 99% of youtube's visitors don't pay anything. It's hard to believe people pay for Youtube Red.

i_like_apis 4y ago
Premium. I pay for it quite happily. It doesn't cost much and there are no ads. It's very worth it for me.

HardwareLust 4y ago

It's only bearable now with an adblocker. We're way past the point of unbearable.

spaetzleesser 4y ago
Brave browser works for me.
smcl 4y ago
I think my adblocker causes videos with ads to break on YouTube. They'll just have a loading spinner that never finishes. If I open them in a new tab or window it'll continue to happen. If I open in an incognito window (which has extensions disabled) it'll load fine.
- cercatrova 4y ago
  What adblocker do you have? Use uBlock Origin if you don't already, it works for YouTube just fine, and every other site.
  - smcl 4y ago
    Yeah it's uBlock Origin that I'm experiencing this with. And it's only every now and again that I see this.
thomassmith65 4y ago
Just wait until Youtube begins hardcoding ads into videos. No doubt it's on their roadmap.
- juice_bus 4y ago
  I'm sure something like SponserBlock - or SponserBlock its self - will step up to the plate.
  - thomassmith65 4y ago
    Yes. The downside, if one cares about privacy, is that the pressure to sell a user's history to a fourth party will be impossible for SponsorBlock to resist.
    - HardwareLust 4y ago
      Just the cost of the service. If SponsorBlock actually works and makes YouTube useable again, I'm willing to relinquish a little bit of personal data for that. You're going to end up paying, one way or another.
      - thomassmith65 4y ago
        The sad thing for me about Youtube and monetization is that Youtube has no right to monetize most Youtube videos (big-budget or non-profit) that interest me. The content that Youtube does have a right to monetize (all the garbage that starts 'hey guys' and ends 'remember to like and subscribe') I consider worthless. I'm willing to relinquish a little bit of personal data for that. I probably would, too, though reluctantly :(
    - guerrilla 4y ago
      So it'll be forked or get cloned...
      - thomassmith65 4y ago
rocket_surgeron 4y ago
People who don't pay for YouTube content, either through, you know, paying, or watching ads are almost exactly the same as the slimy scumbags who offer to pay artists and programmers in "exposure". The differences are so slight as to be superficial. Either pay, or don't use. "But I don't like their terms." So what? Either pay, or don't use.
- picsao 4y ago

galuggus 4y ago

You can always tell ads to fuck off with the fuckoff.yt extension.

rajup 4y ago
Or you could just buy YT Premium. I don't have it since I can handle 2-3 ads but if it does get as bad as the article suggests I'll probably just buy the damn subscription. This entitlement for free stuff on the Internet is the cause of many issues with the Internet of today.
- 418tpot 4y ago
  I have no problem paying creators for content. If a creator I follow has a patreon or some other method of supporting them I pay for it without hesitation. What I do have a problem with is supporting a company that is actively destroying the free internet. I think Google is a much bigger cause of the issues of the internet today than me attempting to maintain freedom in how I consume my carefully selected media. For example: I want to watch videos in mpv, which tiles nicely in my WM, and doesn't have toxic social media features such as like buttons, comments, and related videos which serve no purpose other than to entice me into wasting time watching useless content.
  - rajup 4y ago
    Ok fair points,but how does the creator achieve the reach he has? Or pay for hosting and serving content across the globe? He doesn’t pay for either of these right? YouTube pays for this and you the user can choose to pay by watching ads or paying a subscription fee (Patreon does not defray Google’s costs). There are tons of reasons to be pissed with google, but I find this allergy to YT premium very fascinating, especially when many of the same people would cheer a paid search subscription.
lapser 4y ago
Just install uBlock Origin. It blocks ads everywhere, not just YT.

foxyv 4y ago

YouTube already makes more money than Netflix. Guess they want to make more money than Disney now? YouTube Red (I guess they call it premium now) is pretty good though. Their music service and being able to download videos makes it pretty nice on the whole. I refuse to watch advertisements anymore and I hate advertising in general. Most commercials are brain pollution.

mikece 4y ago
YouTube makes more money than Netflix? Huh... why not just buy Netflix and roll it into YouTube Premium (or Red or Plus or whatever it's called this week)?
- Kye 4y ago
  Netflix's value is quite a bit higher than its income, and that value is quite a bit higher than the figures we see for market leaders buying major competitors. Now, if it were worth $20B rather than $100B...

hombre_fatal 4y ago

It says the extra ads are only "bumper ads" up to six seconds long. Has anybody demonstrated that the total ad time is increasing?

bhedgeoser 4y ago
6 times billion is 6 billion.
sshine 4y ago
> Has anybody demonstrated that the total ad time is increasing? You mean scientifically? Sample size = 1, total ad time most certainly increased. The last 10 videos I played had 2 ads, one short unskippable (10s, not 5s), and one long that wasn't skippable until a long time had passed (like 30s). It was the style of ad that was a short-length video that was in itself somewhat captivating. I think I went something like 10 seconds into letting me skip, because it was about smart homes and I thought it was interesting. Ads are truly a pest. Especially when they work.

cercatrova 4y ago

uBlock Origin SponsorBlock (blocks sponsor segments as well as filler content like intros, outros, jokes, etc) ReVanced (or Vanced while it still works) These are all you need to remove ads on YouTube. This is also the reason why I won't use Chrome with their Manifest v3 extension mandate, Firefox all day.

majora2007 4y ago
Don't forget SmartTube(Next) for Android TVs (like Shield)
SllX 4y ago
$11.99/month buys you YouTube Premium. I consider that a more than fair deal, and the advantage this nets you is flexibility as long as you can sign in and all I really need is my phone and an AirPlay target if it’s something I want to show my friends without having to rely on their accounts (which a lot of TVs have built-in now).
- thefourthchime 4y ago
  I have YouTube premium but most Youtubers have sponsored segments which is why I also use SponserBlock as well. Creators see exactly how much revenue they get from premium vs ad-supported, in many cases the premium viewers are the lion's share of the views. The sponsor is paying them regardless if I skip the segment, so I don't have any bad feelings about it.
  - SllX 4y ago
    That’s fair; personally I just skip them because a web extension isn’t going to do anything for me in the YouTube app anyway, but some YouTubers make a fun skit out of their sponsors when they have them. I’ll usually watch those if I have the time.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  There's no guarantee that'll stay will stay without ads. In fact, I think that's extremely improbable. The need for infinite growth is definitionally insatiable. Part of what they're doing now isn't just to show more ads, but to drive people into Premium. Once they have enough people on Premium, then they can break it up into more tiers, adding ads to some. When enough people are using Premium (because Free has become completely useless and pointless) they can just remove the Premium tiers with no ads and "simplify" the entire thing: i.e. you paying Premium price for what Free YouTube with ads is right now.

Entinel 4y ago

This will inevitably be filled with people talking about adblock. Changes like this are more targeted at people who watch videos on mobile which is most people. I would venture a guess and say most people use Chrome or the Youtube app to watch videos. And no, the large majority of people don't know Firefox on Android + uBlock Origin even exist.

cercatrova 4y ago
Maybe people are talking about it so other people can know that adblockers for YouTube (even on mobile) exist. I don't see anything wrong with that.
- Entinel 4y ago
  There is nothing wrong with bringing awareness to these things. I'm just making it clear that these changes are deliberately targeted at the average mobile user. Not the person who has a PiHole setup on their network and probably not at the average HN reader.
  - gadrev 4y ago
    One possible problem is if ad blocking technologies spread enough, they will stop working because it becomes a problem big enough for YT & others, or at least the adfree experience becomes harder. I can't explain how, and I don't really care, but it could become a cat & mouse game with the developers of uBlock, Newpipe and similar, and the big corp, in this case Google.
    - ElectricalUnion 4y ago
      It is already, and has always been a cat & mouse game with the bigcorps. Facebook and Twitch are at the bleeding-edge of "anti-adblock tech", and another reason why I don't use those services.
redthrow 4y ago
You can just use the Brave browser on mobile. It supports background playback too.

throw0101c 4y ago

Any good ad blocking mechanisms for Safari 15 and/or 16 on macOS?

Kye 4y ago
iOS Safari has ad blockers in the app store now. I would be surprised if these aren't available for desktop Safari.
anderiv 4y ago
1Blocker has been working great for me. It does block YT ads. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-ad-blocker/id1365531024 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-ad-blocker/id13655310...
VignuB 4y ago
For iOS and iPadOS, I use Adguard Premium(they offer system wide blocking too). On Mac, Adguard for Safari is good enough. It’s the best possible option given Safari’s limitations if you want to stick with Safari. For most intents and purposes it works ‘almost’ as well as ublock origin on Firefox. 1Password and Wipr does a good job too.
dubya 4y ago
Wipr seems to work pretty well. It doesn't block the stupid overlays that YouTube puts over the last 20 seconds or so of videos (not ads, but watch this or this next or subscribe to this channel...), but I don't think that uBlock does either.
Nextgrid 4y ago
AdGuard is alright and seems to work fine on YouTube.

mikece 4y ago

YouTube has a problem where they are a victim of their own ad sales success: they have all of this advertising inventory that contractually needs to be shown, how do they make that happen? (I'm curious if the ads I don't see because I use uBlock Origin are somehow counted as having been seen... I think advertisers would call that fraud if that's the case.) Of course an easy solution to this is to radically reduce the number of ads being shown and radically INCREASE the prices for said ads. It would help if content creators were active participants being paid a premium to tailor their content to an advertising model (A block, advert, B block, advert, C block... etc) rather than a sudden interruption in the middle of an explanation video about advanced networking concepts that are jolting and make me need to rewind a bit when it comes back from the algo-inserted advert to remember what the context was. (And if there remains a "let me pay to never see ads" tier then content designed for advert insertion should see some of that money going to the content creator and not just to YouTube).

Foobar8568 4y ago
I would be really surprised if the ads are counted as viewed, literally 0 second has been watched.
- stevewatson301 4y ago
  In fact, uBlock origin in its default configuration prevents watch histories from being recorded, because it prevents the analytics calls that record watch time.
mikymoothrowa 4y ago
> reduce the number of ads being shown and radically INCREASE the prices for said ads They can only do that if they had the ability to properly target ads like they’ve claimed for decades at this point. With all this data collection, they can barely show relevant ads and so they’ve simply decided do show all the ads they have

hericium 4y ago

Reminders: yt-dlp[1] allows you to download videos to disk via command line. Lots of options. Also, there's this Google-owned youtube-nocookie.com domain which is lighter than main one. DuckDuckGo offers to show YouTube videos from it under the "Videos" tab (not when video is suggested on the "All" tab) without fully switching browser to video's page on YT site. Also, you can use it to listen to YT audio on iOS Safari, on an locked iPhone. To do so, search the video in DDG, switch to "Videos" tab, play it on duckduckgo.com on the results page (without switching to www.youtube.com). Lock your phone and it will stop playing audio. Tap the screen (don't unlock) and you'll have the usual media player on the lock screen, showing the title and author of YT video. Simply hit the play button and you can switch the screen off. EDIT: reply to a freshly deleted "don't use if you don't pay" comment: I own a BluRay or DVD copy of every single movie or TV series I pirated and liked. I paid studios times more than I would if I never pirated and seen those products in the first place. After Google bought YouTube, other media streaming services started to diminish. Some content started to be only available on YouTube. Until Google was a team player and the "don't be evil" slogan wasn't trashed - I used the service and seen and was annoyed by ads. Then there were more ads. And many, many, many, many other issues with Google. I ditched the account I had with them. Haven't made a single search with their engine in 3+ years I believe. I use yt-dlp to watch YT videos and encourage everyone to do the same if they are annoyed by Google's user-hostile practices. [1] https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

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albert_e 4y ago
saw this in twitter and it worked on Android, when playing a YouTube video on app, you can share that video and select "Play in VLC" this avoids all ads now in VLC you can also "Play as Audio" if you want audio playback while phone is locked or background audio play while you are using other apps
- strangattractor 4y ago
  yt is already testing steps to mitigate those apps.

arikr 4y ago

To YouTube employees reading: I pay for YouTube premium. So it really sucks when I google the name of a movie, click to play the trailer, and then it plays a pre-roll ad. This only happens with the movie trailers that you one click play from the search results. If I click on something that goes to the youtube domain or youtube app, it's fine. I'd like no videos when I'm playing videos from google. My google account and youtube premium account are the same, so I'm not sure why it doesn't link.

browningstreet 4y ago
If you're a Youtube Premium member and by Youtube TV, they still play 5-6 pre-roll ads before VOD streams. It's why I've cancelled that... though I did buy it for one month just to watch some of my favorite sports events not available on streaming services.
Laremere 4y ago
Also, Chromecast (Ultra) now shows a YouTube app when casting to it. This app puts recommendations on the screen. Even with premium, ads will show when I select one to watch. There's an option to sign in, but if I select it, it just says I can't sign in. Also, with chromecast, it's really annoying that they allow multiple users to put videos in the queue, but only have my videos be ad free. It effectively removes the multiphone feature because I have to look up and play (and ruin my recommendations) on my phone anyways. One premium users being connected should be enough to kill all of the ads. I've also had ads rarely and randomly show up. If I had to guess, some "is this user premium" server was down, and it decided to default to "no", despite that being the explicitly frustrating experience for paying users.
i_like_apis 4y ago
It seems you may be mis-reporting this behavior. I pay for YouTube Premium, do the steps you describe, and do not see that behavior. You must be in another browser session that's not signed in to your Premium account. You're in incognito or on second browser. Just sign in to YouTube to fix it.
- 4y ago

Brajeshwar 4y ago

Outside of the technology bubble/fort we have built around our families and us, the normal outside world is extremely bizarre. I frequently have the opportunity of helping families and friends with their computers. The amount of distractions and non-content content is astounding. I always feel like Chris, trying to fix Jen's computer installing a browser and should expect an answer, "Leave it. I have it how I like it."

spaetzleesser 4y ago
Same here. I use Brave browser and rarely see ads anywhere. I am always shocked when I see other people’s web experience . It’s as unbearable as US network TV with commercials every ten minutes.

random314 4y ago

Thank you Pichai for squeezing out more from employees and users. I am a stockholder, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining!

itshossein 4y ago

Also: Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. The browser blocks ads (including YouTube ads) and website trackers. It supports offline and background palyback on all conventional devices. https://www.brave.com https://www.brave.com

cercatrova 4y ago
There is no way I'll use Brave after their controversy, not to mention they include cryptocurrency mechanisms in their browser. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers...
MisterSandman 4y ago
Also: Use literally any other browser with Adblock and you'll get a better, less bloated experience than Brave.

Brajeshwar 4y ago

FYI, YouTube Premium is economically cheap in countries such as India. A single user subscription is just ₹120 (~$1.5) monthly, so $18 a year. While the Family is just ₹189 (~$2.36) monthly, which is less than $30 a year. I believe it is worth it instead of fighting every algorithm, alteration, that Google throws at you.

mikymoothrowa 4y ago
it costs that little _right now_ Youtube being Youtube will definitely increase it

strangattractor 4y ago

"about to become unbearable" pleeeease. It crossed that Rubicon long ago. I had a Yahoo mail account once. When I started going to my inbox and could not find my mail due to all the ads I switched to gmail.

haunter 4y ago

Imagine paying for Youtube Premium then some months down the line they will just ban you as usual without any chance to get back your account. Maybe you opened a "wrong" link from Gmail. Maybe you watched a "wrong" upload on Youtube. Who knows. Google would be the last company on Earth I'd give my money.

webinvest 4y ago
Would it be possible to cancel your new subscription?

i_like_apis 4y ago

It's unclear if it's economically feasible as revenue to replace advertising for most services, but I happily pay for YouTube Premium and it is absolutely fantastic. No ads makes it a dream. I was dismayed when I realized Hulu's top tier still shows you ads for most in-season shows. Message to all streaming execs: I HATE ADS TAKE MY MONEY.

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Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago

For those who don't know it, you can also put a dash '-', between the 't' and the 'u' for any youtube video address and it will direct to an ad-free full screen version of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No add the dash https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=TUDu0KT74No which redirects to: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TUDu0KT74No?playlist=TUDu0KT74No&autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&loop=1&modestbranding=1&start= https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TUDu0KT74No?playlist=...

Nextgrid 4y ago

Another option for those who don't/can't run ad blockers: Invidious (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious https://github.com/iv-org/invidious) It's a proxy server for YouTube. You install this on a server from your choice and it serves a minimal YouTube-like UI without any ads or other obnoxiousness. You can test-drive it by using public instances but those are often overloaded so I recommend running your own.

rognjen 4y ago

I suspect this is a bug. Also, all the sites that picked this up have been shown to be of questionable quality since their primary source is Twitter.

stereoradonc 4y ago

Never encountered advertisements using AdGuard with Vivaldi. I listen to many podcasts there; no issues. On Android, I sideloaded a modded YouTube app without issues. Besides, I can use Kiwi Browser with specific extensions to allow YouTube to play in background and screen switched off, and uBlock origin to block advertisements. If the Chrome manifest does take over, AdGuard on Android does its job perfectly (side loaded). I haven't touched the official applications or use Google Chrome because it's restrictive. I don't use iOS, but Adguard for iOS can filter out advertisements.