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Did youtube give in already? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I use youtube across different devices with the same account. sometimes, i even use it in multiple browser profiles or apps on the same device (with the account logged in).

the ad reminder got me. it actually stopped serving any youtube video on my laptop. so i made a new profile in firefox, logged in, and it was fine. for a couple days.

so i made a new profile, logged in, and... was foiled. but not to be deterred, i did what any reasonable person would do: i sought out one of the DOZENS of alternative frontends and used youtube's recommendation algorithm on the main site to pull videos from the alternative frontend.

for one day.

today, on my laptop, with my old profile, never changing logins or browser settings, youtube started working again.

did we win?

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 1 year ago (7 children)

did we win?

Just because they paused this offensive, does not mean the war is over.

I believe it was a case of testing the waters. These are some of the questions they were looking to answer

Did the pop up cause those who received it to buy premium?

Did the pop up cause those who received it to turn off add block for that site?

Did the pop up cause those who received it to not use youtube at all?

Did the pop up cause those who received it to move to third party front-ends?

My guess is they are looking at the data now to answer this question: (the only one they care about)

From the data gained, is it likely that going on a full offensive against add-blockers make us more money?

If yes, the offensive will begin.

If no, they will look at other alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

And finally: "Did the popup and the massive media attention to it cause an increase in overall adblocker usage that will do more harm in the long run to Google/Alphabet than they could ever recoup from Youtube whitelisting or Premium sales."

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep, good addition and probably the really important one.

Personally I think they are going to find that the people who use add blockers will never view adds on youtube.

They will either find a workaround or stop using it all together.

If the publicity around this action causes more people to move in the direction of using addblockers it could be really counter productive for youtube.

[–] ElectroNeutrino 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If the publicity around this action causes more people to move in the direction of using addblockers it could be really counter productive for youtube.

That all depends on if the revenue loss from an increase in ablocker use is more than the revenue gain from people either disabling adblockers or purchasing a plan.

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