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YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls
- alexb_ 3y agomisread ignore this lol
- bluish29 3y agoThe article here talking about record uninstallations of the ad-blockers not YouTube apps (and the crackdown doesn't affect them anyway).
- guerrilla 3y agoSure, maybe in general but it seems it was true with Twitter; it's just that the collapse has been slow. First they lost tons of advertisers, then some people to Mastodon and now it's valuation is halved and it's become embarrassing trash otherwise.
- datpiff 3y agoThe article is about record uninstalls for Blockers, not for Youtube. If anything it claims the Tech company is "winning"
- prophesi 3y agoI'm also a bit confused by the article; I think the record uninstalls are users looking around for a blocker that works, or even trying different browsers, so I highly doubt the crackdown is working as well as it purports.
- ChatGTP 3y agoI agree, Facebook was dead recently, share price is now absolutely exploding.
- hombre_fatal 3y agoI've never seen anyone talk about how we have this underclass of internet user that subsidizes the services of everyone more tech-savvy because they don't use ad-blockers. I'm a big proponent of these crackdowns and hope we see a renormalization of the subscription model.
- vorticalbox 3y agoAds mostly make money for Google not the channel owners, there is a reason most creators look to other services (sponcers, patron, etc)
- jsnell 3y agoThat's not true. The revenue share has been stable at 55% to the creators / 45% to YouTube for more than a decade.
- solardev 3y agoYoutube takes half their revenue?! That's crazy. Man, I thought the app store 30% was bad.
- hombre_fatal 3y agoThat's for ads. After a quick googling, Youtube takes 30% of direct memberships. And apparently Twitch takes 50% of the membership fee, reduced to 40% for its bigger channels. It looks like Patreon will take 12% of direct memberships at the tier that lets you upload video, but Patreon is shit for discovery, especially video discovery, so it's not necessarily pure upside. Either way, people like to parlay the fact that Youtube has a revenue share into some sort of moral justification for giving the content creators $0 on that platform.
- vorticalbox 3y agoSomeone has to pay for bandwidth,storage, compute etc.
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- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agoI think many content creators have recognized that it's important to expand their brand outside of youtube so they're not so beholden to youtube. I wonder if this is opening cracks for competitors.
- jjallen 3y agoI know of one person doing their own thing except for Patreon. Are there many more?
- nfriedly 3y agoNebula and Floatplane both come to mind. Lots of creators on those two services. This Week In Tech hosts their own content, in addition to youtube uploads and other services.
- hombre_fatal 3y agoI don't see how this comment tracks with the events. Content creators on Youtube are paid from ads and subscriptions. If they want to give their content away for free, they can turn off Youtube ads since they are the ones turning them on in the first place.
- katbyte 3y agoAlso sponsor spots that cut out YouTube entirely
- stetrain 3y agoAs an individual creator you can make that decision, but if YouTube as a whole annoys your viewer base to the point that they use YouTube less then you have a problem.
- zeroCalories 3y agoThat's a stretch. Even if Google, an entirely metrics driven company, decided to destroy their metrics, there isn't any good alternatives to Youtube. At best you'll be going to TikTok, but most YouTube channels can't be sustained on TikTok's revenue model.
- a1o 3y agoI avoid anything with Ads and will simply avoid YouTube, as I already have been avoiding it for a long time for simply not having useful content.
- thinkingtoilet 3y agoTo suggest YouTube doesn't have "useful" content seems objectively false. I think it should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. Need to see how to install a car seat? Need to fix a burner on your stove? Need to learn Hindi? Need to hear a live version of a Tom Waits song he only played once? Need to learn more about Philippine-American War? Need to learn what the difference between effect and affect is? My wife's friend's husband has a channel where he literally only reviews air purifiers and has millions of views. You get the idea. YouTube has become an unrivaled global database of human knowledge. I fail to see how anyone can call that useless.
- visarga 3y ago> I think it should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. Second that. If YouTube videos disappeared, I think internet would lose half its worth. I still hate their limited suggestions and discoverability, but the content is top notch. Many researchers publish YT videos for their papers, and don't publish on any other platform. So YT is the cutting edge of science as well.
- rchaud 3y agoThere were video sites before YouTube, and Limewire before that. The internet wouldn't lose its worth at all, the content would be distributed elsewhere.
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- vinyl7 3y agoIt's useless because there are thousands of idiots with a camera who record pointless clickbait videos to extract ad money. The signal-to-noise ratio is completely out of wack. There are are tons of 10+ minute videos about topics which say absolutely nothing. It's like college papers with a minimum page requirement where the student has to just fill the page with words which mean nothing. There very little actual value in most of the videos. IMO anyone who enjoys and watches youtube regularly uses it as a mind numbing medication to exit our terrible existence of life for a few hours.
- pprotas 3y agoI wonder if anyone in the industry has any insights in how a regular developer can help improve ad blockers? Where to get started? As a huge fan of blocking ads, this makes me feel inspired to join the fight against Google. How can I help?
- paulryanrogers 3y agoBoycott YouTube in favor of other video services? Pay for YT Premium? Why spend so much energy bypassing compensation for an otherwise free service? It just pushes more ads in front of less sophisticated users or encourages producers to lock all content behind paywalls.
- vetinari 3y agoNote that when paying for YT premium, you have to be logged in. Google will still collect the data, build your profile, just not show you the resulting ads on youtube. But they will use that data to show you targeted ads elsewhere. Plus now you cannot invalidate that data by dropping cookies, etc.
- atomicfiredoll 3y agoThis is one of the many reasons that Google has never had me as a paying customer, even though I like YouTube's content enough to pay something for it. Over the years, things like this have eroded the trust I have for Google to effectively zero. Instead I pay other services like Nebula to watch creators I first discovered on YouTube. Unfortunately, most creators don't have an alternative like this in place.
- lern_too_spel 3y agoWhat makes you think Nebula doesn't do the same thing?
- atomicfiredoll 3y ago
- _rebocador_ 3y agoso far no mobile webpage crackdown. install extension that sets as mobile page, with adblocker. no ads.
- brycewray 3y agoUninstalls? Would’ve thought most people savvy to blocker extensions in the first place would know how to disable them for specific troublesome sites, but... (shrug emoji).
- jsnell 3y agoI think the suggestion is that users are uninstalling their current ad blocker in order to install another ad blocker that they hope can still block ads on YouTube, not that they're uninstalling the ad blockers entirely.
- brycewray 3y agoAh, good point — although, given what I’m reading elsewhere about this cat-and-mouse game, they won’t be happy campers for long, if at all.
- jabroni_salad 3y agoI wonder what % of users never click the extension's button once the entire time they have it, and if that figure has increased now that all the browsers want to wrangle them up into a folder by default. They might legitimately be unaware that any options besides 'install' and 'uninstall' exists.
- rchaud 3y agothat was a surprising to me as well. Every adblocker extension's UI make it clear that you can disable it for the site you're on.
- happytoexplain 3y agoThe title is misleading: > The available data suggests last month saw a record number of adblockers uninstalled—and also a record for new ad blocker installs as people sought alternatives that wouldn’t trigger YouTube’s dreaded popup.
- yesbut 3y agolol, nice try. I'll never uninstall ubo.
- ChatGTP 3y agoI'd honestly forfeit YouTube before I uninstall UBO.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Longlius 3y agoI took off adblocking on Youtube just to see if I could get along with continuing to use Youtube in a frictionless way. The answer is no, because Youtube's current crop of ads is full of outright scams and conspiracy theory stuff. Content that would probably be massively de-emphasized by the youtube algorithm or even outright banned is apparently okay to show as long as you pay Google a few thousand dollars to run it as an ad. So now I just use Invidious.
- ramesh31 3y agoThis is the real problem. I don't mind good ads at all. But youtube ads are terrible. Seriously the worst of the worst crap.
- realusername 3y agoSame for me, I don't have adblock on my mobile yet and I evaluate that less than half of the ads I see on youtube are even legal in my country. Conspiracy theories, fake products, casino type games, get quick rich schemes and fake medical products are common. Then I hear PR ads on the radio on how Google supports small local businesses, when you are big enough, the reality doesn't matter anymore.
- RajT88 3y agoI had the same experience. I will say this: at least I have not seen malvertising campagins slip through (that I have seen). That is the biggest and perennially relevant reason to have an adblocker installed.
- hermitdev 3y agoMalware is the reason I continue to run an ad blocker. The ad purveyors won't accept responsibility for the shit they shovel (and good luck attributing to which ad network something slipped through after the fact), so they don't need to run shit on my computer. I have been bit my ad delivered malware before while at work. Not a pleasant experience, and of course everyone assumes that you _most_ have been doing something dodgy like watching porn.
- wing-_-nuts 3y agoI wonder if this will increase subs to nebula? I have ubo and sponsor block installed but I still prefer to watch people over on nebula vs youtube, not only for the lack of ads, but also sponsor spots (sb doesn't always detect them) and the massive amount of begs for patreon, subs, etc. Honestly, if I have to pay $14 / mo or watch ads? I'm just going to focus on other hobbies like reading.
- nfriedly 3y agoI hope so, Nebula is great. +1 to reading, also. I used to spend way to much time on "junk food" articles & podcasts on the internet, but switched to reading more books & audiobooks about 5-10 years ago. Much better content-to-fluff ratio.
- wing-_-nuts 3y agoI used to read a LOT as a kid, but it gradually wound down in adulthood for some reason. Then I tried audio books and man, they're fantastic, esp for non fiction.
- nfriedly 3y agoYeah, same. I get through maybe 1-2 paper books or ebooks in a year, but I average 1-2 audiobooks per week, because I can listen to it while driving, walking the dog, cooking food, doing yardwork, etc.
- qntmfred 3y agoI've been a paying YouTube user since 2016 when it was YouTube Red. YouTube is imo one of the best sites on the internet. Both in terms of content that I personally enjoy and improves my life, as well as its role on the internet overall, where they provide a FREE service that allows EVERYONE to upload as much video as they want, and see what kind of response it gets from a global audience, and even to get paid for their content. I am 100% happy to pay for YouTube. And the bonus is, I don't have to see ads. Sure, many of the videos I watch these days are sponsored and have some short shout-out to the sponsor, but it doesn't bother me.
- jszymborski 3y agoSee, I like a lot of content creators on YouTube. I also think that Alphabet has such an immensely negative impact on society. Deeply and thoroughly. I just cannot bring myself to give a red cent. Not by viewing ads, and much less by giving them my credit card.
- thunky 3y ago> I also think that Alphabet has such an immensely negative impact on society. Care to elaborate? Good news is that none of this matters to you since you avoid Google products.
- mostlysimilar 3y agoThe web was one of the best opportunities we had to steer the ship in a positive direction. Instead of encouraging and fostering the creative and self-expressive web, Google optimized for sucking the wealth out of us at the expense of everything else. And no, I don't buy the "SEO gamification ruined it, Google just responded" argument. They have billions of dollars and hordes of brilliant engineers. They could have done this differently. This was intentional because it made them fabulously wealthy.
- Gud 3y agoThere is no way to avoid "Google products". Google are everywhere via Google Analytics.
- jordigh 3y ago> and also a record for new ad blocker installs as people sought alternatives that wouldn’t trigger YouTube’s dreaded popup. Good, the fight isn't over. We cannot let ads win. We cannot be forced to be manipulated into buying things we don't need for the good of capitalism. It is not our duty to be allowed to be indoctrinated for the good of Google's bottom line. Ads are driving consumerism which is literally burning the planet. Fighting against ads is necessary for our survival as a species.
- nickdothutton 3y agoNote: Dog that didn’t bark in that wired piece, any mention whatsoever of alternate video platforms to YouTube.
- carapace 3y agoThe thing the gets me the most, maybe, about this situation is that there can't be that many of us using ad blockers, eh? As big and as profitable as Youtube is, do they really need to come after such a small segment? It seems so petty and venal.
- zeroCalories 3y agoPetty? Do you think someone at Google decided one day to spit in your face out of spite? Lol. Some product manager looked at the metrics and determined it would be worth the engineering effort to try out.
- rchaud 3y agoThe average user has seen an enormous increase in the # of ads on YouTube in the past few years. Multiple, unskippable pre-roll ads before a 3 minute video. They’re downloading the blockers in enormous volumes nowadays.
- Kim_Bruning 3y agoSometimes I'm on another computer and foolishly try to use youtube. I'm not sure how people can use it without an ad-blocker, but I wish them the best of luck!
- llm_nerd 3y agoThe YouTube app on my AppleTV never showed me ads until the past few days. I do use NextDNS, but by all accounts it did nothing for YouTube ads. On my desktops I have ublock origin so I didn't see ads there and attributed it to that extension. It was glorious. Then suddenly YouTube started showing ads. Terrible. Literally worse than classic "free" television in its prime. Multiple ads pre-roll. Frequent ads just injected randomly at times through the video. Horrendous.
- metajack 3y agoThis is probably because of Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rules, which prevent personal data from leaving the device for ads without consent. This means YouTube on AppleTV can't target you at an individual level, and thus the ad inventory is less valuable. Maybe now they have more demand side budgets and are finding ways to spend it even on Apple devices. Or maybe their privatization technology is finally mature enough to make that inventory valuable enough to sell.
- boomboomsubban 3y agoMy opinion of the for profit ad blockers is so low that I assume this article is sponsored content from at least one of them. I'd guess Adlock refused to pay, as bizarrely they're the only one who don't get their product linked to despite claiming to have solved the problem. I always find it strange to hear so many people still use non uBlock Origin ad blockers. I feel like any discussion I've seen about ad blockers in the past decade has been overwhelmingly full of recommendations for uBlock Origin, deservedly so.
- clowncity 3y agoRecently Xboxes have been starting up with a huge ads for some dumb game. People are outraged and claiming they'll go game on PC. And what're they gonna run on those PCs? Linux? Unlikely. They'll load windows. And get the same treatment. There's that George Carlin joke "imagine how stupid the average person is then realize half of all people are stupider than that."
- pd33 3y agoThis wasn't sponsored content. Not sure why you assume that. A link to AdLock was accidentally not included. It's in there now
- boomboomsubban 3y agoThings like the complete lack of a mention of uBlock Origin, despite it having a rather drama filled few weeks. Or that a similar article was posted elsewhere claiming that though uninstalls were way up, it was mostly people moving to ad blockers that work. Your article feels like pandering for what I view as rather scummy companies.
- yedava 3y agoI would gladly pay for Youtube, except for the fact that Google will still sell me out to advertisers. Ad companies like Google have destroyed the possibility of a consumer trusting a company. As far as they are concerned, our only purpose in life is to be persuaded to buy stuff based on the ads they show.
- charles_f 3y agoRevance and redpipe don't seem to have a problem (yet).
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- meiraleal 3y agoI've being waiting for this since the day1 I've used ad blocks! And glad this day is finally coming that Google will seriously try to crack down on ad blockers and hurt itself badly while doing it.
- gpas 3y agoA whole article about adblocking and no mention of gorhill's uBO? DNS level filtering? Come on Wired...
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- Justsignedup 3y agoI've been running youtube with: - youtube revanced on my android - sponsorblock + adnauseum on firefox no ads, no sponsorship messages. so far works well. my daughter switched to this from chrome when chrome started to complain, it works for now.
- happytoexplain 3y agoMy first thought was, "There is no way that's true. Most people would just toggle it off for YouTube. Most of them give you a big on/off button." Sure enough, the headline is a technically-true lie (emphasis mine): > Previously unreported figures from ad blocking companies indicate that YouTube’s crackdown is working, with hundreds of thousands of people uninstalling ad blockers in October. The available data suggests last month saw a record number of adblockers uninstalled—and also a record for new ad blocker installs as people sought alternatives that wouldn’t trigger YouTube’s dreaded popup.
- bastard_op 3y agoI never, repeat, never open links on my phone for youtube, as I'm immediately blasted with annoying ads. Using everything from noscript to ublock on my desktop, I started getting these warnings on youtube, and simply closed the window every time I was blasted with it or an ad. Way to go youtube, I'll go back to pretending you're not there. I stopped buying cable tv in the 90's because commercials were disgusting, and simply found the internet then to replace it. I simply _do_not_want_ads_ period. If you force me, you will lose a customer.
- nusl 3y agoThis is somewhat interesting. YouTube seemingly started losing enough money to ad blockers to start caring to combat them seriously, and the number of ad blocker install/uninstalls supports that there are very many folks interested in blocking ads. I’m not sure of where this will end up but I can only see hatred for ads and adoption of ad blockers increasing over time. I’m not sure YouTube will win this war. The nice thing is that YouTube is now forcing ad blocker devs into attrition, or to try harder and innovate. I suspect the latter will be the result and YouTube/other ad providers will have an even harder time combating it. Disclaimer: I pay for YT premium but also run a combo of extension and DNS based blockers. Premium is mostly so that I don’t have to care about ads on the many devices I use, though their change in stance is making me rethink the subscription
- pragmaticalien8 3y agoI wouldn't mind paying for Youtube if they promise not to track and sell my info. Ads I can tolerate, paying for them to track and profile me on the other hand is what I object to.
- Geojim 3y agoYoutube should be paying us for watching ads Take a 1M view clip on youtube, say 4 ads, $0.15/view; Revenue 600k, Creator: 3k That's a money fire hydrant only a monopoly can have. Advertisers are desperate to reach consumers, and right now they have to go through Youtube. What Youtube is actually selling is our attention without paying us our cut. That's why we end up with this false dilemma between being force fed ads, or paying a hefty subscription. Tbh google don't want you to buy a subscription, they make more off the ads. No wonder we're all pissed. The vintage Google thing about this is right in the middle of anti-trust hearings they start this fight with ad blockers/consumers - are we really that dumb?