So I've been using youtube ad blockers since pretty much when ad blocker extensions were first available. Lately though I've been getting hit more and more with these messages that YT was sending out every 5 or so videos telling me that adblockers aren't allowed. No problem, just gotta wait 5 seconds to x it out and then close my video. The straw that broke the camel's back though was when instead of a close-able pop-up, they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn't let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.
So I disabled it and... wow. It's just so, so, trash. 2 ads before a video plus midrolls and every video ever. I tried listening to a playlist of songs and was getting a midroll ad every single time. Imagine trying to just listen to music for 3 minutes and getting interrupted by a commercial for a chevy silverado! Half the ads were for youtube premium and they specifically mentioned that it would get rid of all the ads. It just felt so damn predatory. I couldn't enjoy anything that wasn't already demonetized.
And you know I'm fine with ads I guess. I could live with an ad before every video, but the fact that I was getting upwards of 5 ads in a 10 minute video was just plain absurd. I also hate that youtube got rid of the yellow markers to show you when an ad was coming up, so now it's just out of nowhere and always interrupts a key part of the video.
E: I've been on Firefox for over a year.
The day YouTube successfullly made it so that it won't work without playing ads is the day I delete every google account I have
I'm not putting up with it
I don't think they'll care or miss you, to be honest. It's not like they're making money off you.
You underestimate the amount of data google collects from it's users, and then sells to advertisers, whether or not they view ads
Who would pay for data on a person you can't advertise to?
Do you seriously think advertisers buy each user's data individually, and sometimes Google goes "oh hey guys just a heads up, that individual is using an ad blocker 👍🏼"?
No, but having a handful of people who will never see their ads devalues the whole package.
I could totally see a company doing a market analysis paying for this data. They'd be looking for for counts of people interested in a thing or in a demographic...then they can determine if it'd be worth it to develop a product targeting that group
They’re absolutely making money
How? How do they profit off someone who refuses to view ads?
With their personal data obviously.
their personal data that they use to show them.. ads
Personal data isn’t only used for ads. In this case a users watching history can be sold especially if it’s connected in some way to a demographic profile. There could be many more ways to monetize many other things the user does.
They don't sell data. They sell ads. Selling data would directly erode their ability to sell ads.
This has a lot more info: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and
You can watch YT without google account.
Sure but it would still be a massively ad filled experience, not worth my time