The Verge reports that YouTube is rolling out advertisements that show up when you pause videos, continuing experiments that the company started a year ago. A YouTube representative confirmed that the practice will now become commonplace “as we’ve seen both strong advertiser and strong viewer response.”
The representative said that advertising on paused videos is designed to create a “less interruptive” experience. But as The Verge notes, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to see a drop in the increasing load of obnoxious and often unskippable advertising on YouTube. And since I’m seeing more and more creators pack their videos with sponsorships, I somehow doubt that the people making YouTube’s content are going to get a bigger slice of the advertising pie.
“We estimate we can sell up to 80 percent of an individual’s visual field before inducing seizures,” said the fictional CEO (of a company that bears more than a passing resemblance to Google) in Ready Player One.
Apropos of nothing, it’s possible to block every single ad on YouTube — even the sponsorships that are baked into the videos themselves — on both desktop and mobile.
A YouTube representative confirmed that the practice will now become commonplace “as we’ve seen both strong advertiser and strong viewer response.”
Anyone else get the idea that these two “responses” were vastly different?
What they mean to say is, “Surprisingly, this didn’t annoy people nearly as much as we had assumed. Score!”
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“Did that pause screen ad make you want to quit using YouTube?”
“Yes, but what alternative is there?”
“Success!”
Invidious
Peertube
Yt-dlp script + jellyfin
Imagine… “I just love sitting through annoying unskippable ads so much! And I simply can’t wait to see more ads still when I pause!”
There was a Black Mirror episode where if you close your eyes, the ad stops playing and continues only when you open your eyes again.
This is next.
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blares a loud siren
IIRC, it was a high-pitched sound, like a screeching cicada.
That’s true.
I glossed over the worst parts.
Genuinely one of the all time best Black Mirror episodes
So many good episodes. This episodes, “Fifteen Million Merits” stands out. It’s really good.
My favorite is “Shut Up and Dance”.
a Black Mirror episode where if you close your eyes, the ad stops playing
And a deafening high-pitched sound started to play, until the character opened his eyes to resume viewing the ads.
What is the industry as a whole trying to get out of this advertisement craze anyway? In the 80s many people in the developed world earned more than twice of what they needed for living. They had lots of cash to just shop around. Now most people barely earn enough to get by and we’re bombarded with easily a hundred times more ads or more. Sorry, but I can’t afford your millionth AI powered NFT sneakers subsciption model no matter how many ads you throw at me. I just cant’t.
They’re banking on people spending more than they have, putting them in debt to banks (which they want) so they can own you more. They want you right on the edge so you are never able to achieve true freedom from under their thumb.
I so look forward to seeing an ad when I pause a video to inspect whatever is on the screen at that moment.
I just downloaded FreeTube today after seeing that.
So, aside from numerous other angry words I could say…
How is this going to affect incoming phone calls? Will I be able to at least talk with my friend, without having to hear ads the whole time because I was watching a video?
Just a friendly reminder, https://grayjay.app/ is a thing, screw the YouTube app.
[Google] will shove ads in your face [literally any time any place they can get away with it]
Fixed title
I will often pause educational videos to study something on screen. Putting ads over that ruins the experience.
I have YT premium mainly for YT music, but I do consume a lot (read: too much) YT content. I split the family plan with 4 other members outside of my wife and I, so it’s like $3 per month for just me. I’m not logged in on my work computer, and the amount of ads is insanely intrusive and a off putting. I honestly think that if I didn’t have a premium sub, I’d almost never use the platform because it’s so bad.
How long will they f around, before we make them find out, I wonder…
My monitor has a power switch.
Fuck you, Google.
I guess it’s time for a “mark this time so I can go back to it” feature, to reduce the need to pause. 🤷♂️
Or just… block ads.
Or just… ditch Youtube and de-google the digital life.
I ditched Youtube many months ago. I really try to avoid, at all costs, to access Youtube videos, preferring Odysee, for example.
Yeah, I’ve been moving away gradually. I have a few subs on Odysee, one on Rumble, and I’ve signed up for Nebula which handles a few more. If I had to, I could drop YT and get enough content from those other sources.
>pause to allow video to buffer
>several ads load
>time required to buffer actually increases by pausing
>set a script to jump back 1 second every second
>finally get to watch your videoMight as well just download the video with yt-dlp then.
“Drink verification can to continue…”
Really hate how well that anon predicted the future
One way to fight back is to try to get the video ID of the advertisement from the debug info, go to the video directly and leave a dissatisfied comment. This will work until they hide that ID anyway. Or the advertiser turns off comments. At that point we’re left with sending our disapproval in other public forums, preferably the more public the better.
“Your ad was shown to me on a pause screen where I don’t want to see ads. As such I will ensure that I do not purchase your products for the foreseeable future and that I will recommend that friends and relatives do the same. Thank you for participating in YouTube customer feedback.”
A YouTube representative confirmed that the practice will now become commonplace “as we’ve seen…strong viewer response.”
I have often lamented about those boring times when I have to suffer through a plain old paused screen, with nary an ad to be found.
