this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023

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525

A Novel Approach to Youtube Ads (9to5google.com)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by atrielienz@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

115 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Instead of blocking them, this extension speeds them up to x16 and also mutes the ad. Experiencing a 30 second ad in 2 seconds is pretty funny. And it works on Edge and Chrome.

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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 284 points 2 years ago (5 children)

While some paid ad blockers seem to work, the vast majority of tools don’t seem to do the trick.

What a bunch of FUD. Firefox and uBlock Origin still work on Youtube just fine.

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 67 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Part of the reason I am not advocating for or against the extension or the source. People can judge for themselves. I thought it was funny (not a great idea but definitely an interesting implementation). For the record I use both unlock origin and Firefox, and I also run a pihole at home. I'm just putting out there that it exists.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I moved back to Firefox like 5 years ago. But saying the vast majority of tools don't seem to do the trick is a pretty true statement, since that's one browser with one app, and the browser only has a sub 10% market share.

[–] SpaceCadet@feddit.nl 10 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Yeah but uBlock Origin still works on Chrome too

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[–] Aatube@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Maybe they mean the vast majority of tools on Edge and Chrome? Plus this approach may or may not preserve dollars for creators

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[–] AlolanYoda@mander.xyz 101 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Everyone's hating on this approach but I think it's nice that we have other options. I'm sure Ublock is going to come out on top of this cat and mouse game YouTube is playing with them, but if YouTube manages to temporarily disable Ublock I'll look into this solution. Thanks!

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 24 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Google will give up eventually. They're definitely burning more money than they would gain from winning the battle

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I do not believe that is the case. Youtube ads are an insanely profitable business. I suspect throwing a couple dozen of FTEs on blocking ad blockers would be <1% of current revenue.

[–] soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

I don't doubt they make tonnes of revenue from ads however you have to remember how small the share of adblocker users are. So the extra money from fighting the adblock user base is a clear gamble. Especially as those types of users are the ones who are more likely to avoid YouTube completely if they can't bypass ads.

Someone in Google would have done the research because it's not a simple case of war profit = adblockusers * ad revenue per user

I strongly believe they'll stop once they hit a certain threshold/target of "reduction of adblock users". They won't go on like this forever.

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[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't think they've gone all in yet.

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[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

That's why I tried to present it without an anti-google seeming bias. I wanted people to just have the facts and not all the BS in the article. I think it's a good option for people who don't want to block ads so creators they watch benefit.

[+] Gabu@lemmy.world 75 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

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[–] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

Let them believe they've won.

[–] pachrist@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't know. I bet it has been pretty effective, but I also don't think I'd trust any data I'd see from Google.

But, their goal isn't to get you or me to watch ads. Hell will freeze over before I spend 30s watching an ad for a video that's barely double that. Their goal is to target the people we've installed ad blockers for: friends, parents, siblings, in-laws.

I'm not going to watch ads, and I sure as hell am not going to click on anything, but my mother in law does now. My mom does too. They now feel like an ad blocker is "too much hassle," so Google won that fight. I don't know if new people are installing, updating, or changing ad blockers enough to offset right now.

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[–] yamanii@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

They all pretend ublock origin don't exist, they only talk about the old stupid for profit AdBlock that let's "good ads" through.

[–] Chev@lemmy.world 72 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Or use Firefox

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 70 points 2 years ago

I said it was novel. I didn't say it was good.

[–] Harpsist@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

My ff got hit by the blanket 'no fire fox' issue. Now even with no mods youtube won't work at all.

Downloaded free tube. Keep thinking to make some kinda macro to auto switch to it when I search in ff search bar.

[–] dynamo@lemm.ee 52 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (11 children)

Yeah, no. I'm not willing to even have the ad for any amount of time. IMO ads should be banned, and before anyone reaponds, no i don't give a shit about the consequences of a change that substancial

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Then this isn't for you. That's fine. Adblockers like ublock origin still work. So do newpipe, piped and other front end services. Firefox and other non-chromium based browsers etc. Do what you want with your devices.

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[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 46 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

and so the cat and mouse game continues...

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago (6 children)

And ublock origin continues to work, thankfully. Disappointing to see the article failed to mention it.

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 44 points 2 years ago (5 children)

uBlock Origin works just fine. I use Firefox btw

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago

I watched two hours of Rocky & Bullwinkle uninterrupted the other day thanks to FireFox and uBlock Origin

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 44 points 2 years ago (3 children)

In before Ads are recorded at 1/16th the speed in order to play at the correct speed with one of those extensions.

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Wasn't this pitched by a character on 30 Rock?

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[–] blahsay@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago (3 children)

F I R E F O X

[–] ours@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

The "Look at what they need to do to have a fraction of our power" Invincible meme comes to mind.

Pathetic to be satisfied with sped-up annoyances when they can be easily skipped altogether with a browser not controlled by the ad company.

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I don't know man. This is actually pretty genius. Because this way creators still get paid. I wouldn't mind using such extension on Firefox. Problem is I still want to block all trackers and other nonsense...

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[–] capital@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

uBlock Origin is still working just fine for me.

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Imagine using Chrome 😂

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Some people have to use it for work. Including me, although I don't have this problem because I don't use it for YouTube.

[–] governorkeagan@lemdro.id 8 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I’ve been A/B testing Chrome and Firefox at work since we’ve had it drilled into us that we absolutely have to use Chrome. I haven’t had a single issue with Firefox, even with internal web apps. Your mileage may vary though.

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

It's cool and all but it's still that annoying break when you are trying to enjoy a video or learn something.

This will take you out of the flow also.

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[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I must be an anomaly but... Ublock still works perfectly fine for me on chrome lol

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

You aren't. I also use Firefox and ublock origin (but sometimes have to use chrome for work).

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[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Use Freetube on the desktop and Newpipe (or the Sponsorblock version) on mobile (Android). No issues or ads

[–] bnjmn@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use FreeTube but hadn't heard of Newpipe before. Thanks for the recommendation!

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Between uBlock and Sponsor Block I've had absolutely no interruption in service and it's the exact same experience that I've had for years

[–] pearsche@lemdro.id 6 points 2 years ago

I installed this other one https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ad-accelerator/gpboiedfklodfhngobidfjecdpmccehg?hl=en because this one seems to the FOSS.

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