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This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platfo
by jamiequint 3y ago
This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platforms.
- withinboredom 3y agoYet.
- martin_a 3y agoYouTubes "first-party ad platform" is delivering some of the worst ads on the whole internet. It's not only the big-boobed characters promoting mobile games, there are (video) ads for pyramid and other "get rich quick" schemes, conspiracy theories (government will force everyone to become transgender!) and whatnot. They don't give just the tiniest bit of a shit for all of this, as long as they are earning money with it.
- worrycue 3y agoI have heard of their “system”, they auction ad space out in real time with a bunch a descriptors for the ad buyers who then bid for the space. Google really doesn’t give a crap who wins it or if it matches your interests/needs. Advertisers are free to advertise to anyone as long as they win the bid.
- jamiequint 3y agoYour security is not affected by you seeing bad ads.
- MrFoof 3y ago>…there are (video) ads for pyramid and other "get rich quick" schemes… Oh my dog. Before I set up Invidious to ensure my experience on iPad and such could be ad free, the one that really shocked me is one of the two ads that would show up mid-roll for a creator I watched regularly was SIXTY SIX MINUTES in length. Yes, an hour and six minutes! I can’t imagine what that must cost, but clearly whatever they were selling must cover the costs of a 66-minute ad well enough!
- detuur 3y agoI've been wondering what the purpose of those super-long ads is for some time, but now it suddenly occurred to me: they're for unattended youtube players. Plenty of shops, waiting rooms, lounges, bars, etc have a TV which is simply tuned to a youtube playlist. Whoever is issuing those ads is counting on that the operators of those TV's for whatever reason (either because they don't care, don't notice, or don't have access to the controls) don't skip them.
- Brusco_RF 3y agoNot entirely. I sat through a 12 minute ad once. We could have skipped it after 5 seconds. But it was a charming video of a lady cooking a hamburger and I rather enjoyed watching it. I wish more ads were like that
- heavyset_go 3y agoI've noticed that some people like to play YouTube videos to go to sleep, and YouTube will play those long ads at night.
- vonseel 3y agoI've seen it said that newsfeeds/ads/etc. feed you what they think you will engage with, so you may want to wonder why you're seeing that type of content. I've never seen anything of the sort on any large tech platform, and I'm probably in an appropriate demographic to be recommended that stuff.
- Zak 3y agoThose algorithms tend to be "people who liked X also liked Y", which is very prone to false positives for people who don't fit conventional stereotypes. For example, someone who watches the Forgotten Weapons channel on Youtube might get recommended far-right conspiracy videos, because people who like guns often like far-right politics. They might also get recommended Scott Manley and Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles because all three have deep dives into interesting historical technology. Ideally, there would be more manual knobs for communicating one's preferences about such things to recommendation algorithms.
- askiiart 3y agoRelatedly, easily the highest item on my wishlist for YouTube features is algorithm customizability. Half the time I'm recommended the same 5 channels, while the other half I'm recommended amazing videos from fantastic smaller YouTube channels. Being able to at least switch between some presets for the algorithm would be amazing.
- martin_a 3y agoI think it's more the lack of other analytics data, due to uBlock Origin and a PiHole in my network, that they fall back to those ads. Maybe I'd have some nice ads for cooking supplies if I were to allow tracking, not sure.
- heavyset_go 3y agoFacebook shows me mobile game ads that are basically soft core porn for games that have absolutely nothing to do with the content of their ads.
- jamiequint 3y agoCool, has nothing to do with security. That’s a different point entirely.
- worldofmatthew 3y agoYouTube and its parent Google are known for being infested with ads linking to viruses and malware.
- _bohm 3y agoThe most outlandish and obvious scam advertisements I have seen (by far) have all been on Instagram
- smeagull 3y agoFacebook ads have certainly been used to deliver malware in the recent past.
- SpaceNugget 3y agoI almost fell for a scam yesterday from an instagram ad. There was an ad for fun printed workout shorts for only €4. I added a couple different prints and was about to pay when I noticed the URL was neehd dot com and the site title was some other random word. I couldn't find any reference to either name online and went back to instagram. The VERY NEXT AD was for an identical site with a different random 5 letter url. I reported both ads and now neehd com is "no longer available". Very glad I didn't put any payment details into the site. If they employ people to vet ads full time they should have easily been able to catch those ads before it was shown to a user. I have seen ads for those shorts non stop for a few weeks before I finally tapped the ad to see how much they were.
- bigbillheck 3y agoOne of the ways I solve that is to never buy anything that's been advertised to me (unless I have information about it from other channels).
- account42 3y agoYou not only clicked through an ad but were going to buy whatever it was trying to sell you? Wild!
- ChoGGi 3y agoYouTube? The website that had such a large advertising campaign for GTA 6 beta that people started doing meme videos about it?