this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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  • YouTube is testing server-side ad injection to counter ad blockers, integrating ads directly into videos to make them indistinguishable from the main content.
  • This new method complicates ad blocking, including tools like SponsorBlock, which now face challenges in accurately identifying and skipping sponsored segments.
  • The feature is currently in testing and not widely rolled out, with YouTube encouraging users to subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.
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[–] [email protected] 159 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Go right ahead. If they actually manage to do it, that will be the end of my YouTube watching. Except on extremely rare occasions. I don't need it badly enough to deal with that.

[–] [email protected] 192 points 6 months ago (8 children)

As we learned from the reddit app changes, the ending of Netflix account sharing, etc etc the people who will take this action are few enough not to matter. Regretfully.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It does matter because it inspires newer platforms that aren't as shitty like Lemmy, PixelFed, Mbin, and PeerTube.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (3 children)

We're about to have a great big shattering of the internet and I'm all for it. Collating the pieces will be a pain in the ass for a couple years but some handful of nerds out there blessed by the spirit of Ritchie will create a tool for it, and what's left of our world will be a better place for it.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago (3 children)

People will accept anything to not be inconvenienced in a purely consumer society.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

That doesn't matter to me. When a company does shit like this, I won't use it and will actively avoid it. People can do what they want and if they want to be abused constantly that's on them. I don't really care. I make my choice and I stick with it. Change will never happen with companies, they don't care unless they actually get charged more then the money they make from their abuse and we all know that will never happen .

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Well I don't know about the Reddit stuff not mattering—I occasionally still check on it for a couple of niche communities and the Reddit I used to enjoy has basically died, it's like the place is filled with angry idiots now. Those people were always there before but usually buried under a load of downvotes where you could mostly ignore them; they now seem to be a majority of those left contributing over there.

They killed the golden goose in scaring off enough of the people contributing most interesting posts and comments (who were doing it entirely for free!) that the lunatics have taken over and shat on everything

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ngl, I'm torn on this because I'm honestly not sure I could stop using YouTube.

I hate ads with a burning passion, though, so we'll see which wolf wins out there.

If i can't get around this using something like SponsorBlock, I feel like I'll probably just set up some kind of pipeline to download videos and remove the ads myself (maybe using AI if it's that bad) and just serve them over Jellyfin or something. Gonna be a pain, though.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Same.

I'm excited for YouTube to end my YouTube addiction lol.

Please, Google. Do it. Dare ya.

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 6 months ago (8 children)

I’ll just write a greasemonkey script that detects unskippable time and mute audio. Let’s play this game google, fuckin I dare ya.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

The future is now, old man!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ha, nope. But i see I’m not alone. There is hope dear people.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

Can you have it replace the video screen portion with cat videos from another source during the unskippable part?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Sure, popover video of cute cats and turtles eating strawberries

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 6 months ago (24 children)

Enjoying YouTube is quickly becoming a case of the juice not being worth the squeeze

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Hey Googoo, I ain't gonna watch YouTube if it got ads

[–] [email protected] 57 points 6 months ago (1 children)

(I think that's their goal, either ads or no watch)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

Shhh. It is a huge "fuck you" to google to not use their bandwidth or servers for free. Not the actual goal of this.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (20 children)

OK, can I be real about this for a second?

I'm torn about Youtube ad stuff. Genuinely.

On the one hand the ads suck, we have a good way to bypass them and I certainly don't want to watch Youtube videos if the ads are unskippable.

On the other hand, if I'm being honest I watch more Youtube than Netflix or Amazon Prime and I sure give those guys money for a subscription. If I counted the cost per watched minute, Youtube Premium would make way more sense than a bunch of subs I do pay.

But I also don't want to watch a Youtube that is a paid service. That was never the point. The reason I engage with it so much is it's supposed to be UGC, not TV.

So yeah, torn. Youtube is very weird and the relationship we all have with it is super dysfunctional, creators and viewers alike. We made a very strange future and now we have to deal with it.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago (6 children)

I pay for YouTube Premium. I get a lot of value from it, and streaming video isn’t cheap. I don’t think it’s reasonable for anyone to think they should provide it for free.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yeeeah, but my issue with that is they generated the expectation that it'd be free by using their investment money to muscle out smaller competitors. There was a time where Youtube was the biggest of a set of UGC video sites and some of the others were competitive. Now it's the only real alternative.

So from that perspective they made their bed, now they sleep in it.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The problem is that user generated content still takes time. Which means money. Also, people don't want vlogs with a drywall background anymore and the number of creators who can get away with simple prop free skits are double digit, at best. So making the videos also cost money.

People make up this fantaasy land where art should be done with no compensation to be pure. Which ignores that the vast majority of art in human history was either made by the independently wealthy or as a "patron" system where... an independently wealthy person paid an artist to make them look good.

And that even extends to the modern day. People get angry about "nepo babies" but... it takes a lot of time and money to refine your music to a meaningful degree. The garage bands that get discovered playing at a local bar are VERY much the exception and almost everyone universally considers their best albums to be the first couple after they got signed by a label and could drill down and refine it.

Youtube and the like are basically the first time that "the everyperson" could make art for a living. Unfortunately... that means they need to get paid. Ads are of very questionable use. Youtube Premium is almost universally praised by any creator who is willing to talk about it. But we need some way of paying those mid tier creators who are popular enough to do it for a living but not popular enough to get 120 bucks a year from their fans to upload MAYBE one video (looking at you Michael Reeves).

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Damn, this could stop Invidious, Piped and Newpipe from being able to block ads.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 6 months ago (8 children)

It might take a lot more effort, but I don't think this will be the end. Google is required by law to label ads as such, giving these tools an opportunity to detect and skip them.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Is there a loophole where they could delay the ad marking like 5 seconds into a longer ad so you'd have to watch at least 5 seconds before an extension can detect it? Is the law specific about it having to be marked as an ad for the entire duration?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

It will be after the inevitable lawsuit happens about 0.0002 seconds after they fully roll this out.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 6 months ago

How nice of them trying to make ad blocker better

[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Next up: all web pages are full resolution bitmap files.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's ok, I don't need to visit YouTube at all!

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (5 children)

And I'm testing no longer using YouTube.

Cable was gone years ago, followed by all streaming. Soon all I'll have left are games and hobbies.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

With the state of AI and computer vision, and legal requirements to disclose ads, i wonder if a ytdl + editing script will he the nicest way to watch at some point

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I honestly wondered why they haven't done this yet for years

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (5 children)

It's quite likely that the cost actually outweighs the gains. Adblocking really isn't all that prevalent across Internet users as a whole. I think the stats are something like 10% or lower.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If it’s built into the video I watch in mpv can’t I just skip?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yep, can I play it at 2x speed or skip ahead? If not, then it's the ad. At the very least blank the video and mute the sound. I'll enjoy a moment to breath and consider if there's something better I should be doing.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Then, I'll use AI to filter it out.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I’ll just use I and stop using YouTube. I won’t purposefully poison my mind with ads.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Why should I pay or watch ads to listen to someone tell me I need to • like and subscribe • who’s sponsoring them • a life story

... before getting to the small percentage of possible useful information therein?

I've taken to using Ai to summarize video content just to be able to review if the video even contains an answer or information which is relevant.

I know I'm just one use case, that I don't watch a ton of other content. It's usually how to do something or fix something or configuration of something. I've sat through countless ads and videos which just wasted my time and left me frustrated trying to find information.

Panning for gold through endless kaka.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This wouldn't be a problem IF content creators were paid a fair share. I wouldn't actually mind ads nearly as much knowing that the channels I enjoy watching were getting paid reasonably for every ad that I watched. Google has the technology to make it possible.

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