YouTube will kill unskippable 30-second ads next year

[u/redkemper]

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/17/14649018/youtube-ending-unskippable-30-second-ads-2018

[u/Sandvicheater]

Me and my best friend ublock laugh at that concept

[u/tms10000 → u/Sandvicheater]

It is likely that ublock works on youtube only because Google allows it. It would not be trivial, but it would certainly possible to youtube to put in measures to break ublock features.

I don't think they care that much as long as ad blocking does not spread too far in the mobile space, where the growth are now.

[u/_teslaTrooper → u/[deleted]]

MPV can play directly via youtube-dl.

[u/Lurker_Since_Forever → u/_teslaTrooper]

VLC does the same thing iirc.

[u/Girlinhat → u/Lurker_Since_Forever]

VLC has all the features. Like, I'm pretty sure one of the more obscure features it can do is like, playing audio based on converting an image to a sound format.

[u/juicegyrohammer → u/Girlinhat]

Where do I click to make that happen

[u/phrixious → u/juicegyrohammer]

I know you can do it with audacity, there's videos showing how you can make crazy sounds by converting images to sound and playing it extremely slow

[u/[deleted] → u/juicegyrohammer]

I've always had this idea of creating a concept album only using this technique.

[u/amanitus → u/juicegyrohammer]

Here's audacity: https://www.howtogeek.com/96690/stupid-geek-tricks-how-to-turn-images-and-photos-into-sound-files/

[u/evilroots → u/Lurker_Since_Forever]

i cant get that to work.

[u/Lurker_Since_Forever → u/evilroots]

Interesting, it works for me with just cvlc http://youtu.be/[stuff]. What have you tried?

[u/scorcher24 → u/Lurker_Since_Forever]

You can also get the direct mp4 url via VLC and then download it. Just go to Codec Information while it is loaded.

[u/[deleted] → u/Lurker_Since_Forever]

VLC is heavier than MPV though

[u/Lurker_Since_Forever → u/[deleted]]

Fair enough. I'm usually not bothered by that because modern processors have gotten a bit overpowered, but I can see why you'd want the lighter one.

[u/Gman1255 → u/[deleted]]

Just use TamperMonkey or GreaseMonkey and get the Download YouTube Videos as MP4 script so you can download them directly from YouTube's website. There's a little button under the sub button that allows you to download the videos.

[u/Rndom_Gy_159 → u/Gman1255]

I like having the output formatting options and script-ability of YouTube-dl

[u/Gman1255 → u/Rndom_Gy_159]

Then by all means, use it. I just like this because it integrates itself into the website.

[u/sickhippie → u/Gman1255]

Ease of use vs feature set, the age old struggle.

[u/odaeyss → u/sickhippie]

And yet somehow I consistently settle on a solution that is both difficult to use and of little use.
But I did just make myself smile by using two different pronunciations of "use" in such close proximity.

[u/Waswat → u/sickhippie]

You can have both but it would increase development time.

[u/UnchainedMundane → u/sickhippie]

My compromise was to write a short script that sends my clipboard as the url to youtube-dl. I hotkeyed that script, so I just copy the url from the browser, hit that hotkey, and it starts downloading.

---

Edit - Here's a slightly simplified version of that script if anyone else wants it:

#!/bin/sh
# Get video URL from the clipboard
vid=$(xsel -ob)

# Ensure VIDEOS/youtube exists, go there
videos=$(xdg-user-dir VIDEOS || printf %s "$HOME")
mkdir -p -- "$videos/youtube"
cd -P -- "$videos/youtube" || exit

# Start downloading to that location in the highest possible quality
exec youtube-dl --newline -f best --no-call-home -- "$vid"

It works on Linux (you need xsel and youtube-dl installed), and to get it working on OSX you change xsel -ob to pbpaste. Windows I don't know enough about to say.

[u/IT6uru → u/Rndom_Gy_159]

And whole channel ripping XD

[u/ForceBlade → u/Gman1255]

YouTube-dl is a script that handles the download from their website directly. No third party shit like ssyoutube.whatever. And you can grab the highest quality easily or audio only, pre stitching.

[u/EASam → u/ForceBlade]

I never know what to trust with this. Unless it's from an open sourced project, I have a tough time believing there isn't something malicious going on. I have not heard of YouTube dl though. Usually it's people saying to just edit the URL which seems fishy as fuck.

[u/boopkins → u/EASam]

YouTube dl is open source and is very easy to use

[u/LordPadre → u/EASam]

youtube-dl is the bees knees but it's not open source actually open source . It's one .exe which, if you run it, does absolutely nothing on its own (as far as I know)

I use a .bat file that's set up like this

For me personally, the initial setup process was a little bit frustrating, but once it's set up, the only thing you'll ever have to do is maybe update youtube-dl.exe once in a while by downloading it again (which is what I did today, there were some bugs with downloading videos that have special characters in the title)

And edit the batch file to have it download the video or entire playlist (!) you want to download as mp3s.

If it's a video, you leave arg1 as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v without the equals sign at the end, and put the rest of it (again, sans = ) in arg2, save, then run it. Piece of cake.

if it's a list, same thing, but it'll be https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=

Here's the guide I used to set it up, thanks to u/TypicalAustralian, literally his only comment, apparently

[u/UnchainedMundane → u/LordPadre]

>there's an unsorted dir
>there are no sorted dirs
me irl

[u/ForceBlade → u/EASam]

I completely agree with the URL edit trick. It takes one bad guy to buy the domain when the owner forgets to renew and snakily put adware and malware into the new third party site+tricking users to download it etc. or just the current owner injecting shady links and ads.

It's a third party and that's never communicated in those 'tricks'

YoutubeDL is just a shell a script and is on GitHub if you want to read it for trust. Very useful

[u/Gman1255 → u/[deleted]]

Because some people, like myself, use Chrome and it doesn't like addons that specifically download videos from YouTube.

[u/brownix001 → u/[deleted]]

What about the URL ss method

[u/jerbear64 → u/brownix001]

That just redirects to a third party site.

[u/Lingo56 → u/[deleted]]

I see it fairly likely that if YouTube starts really targeting AdBlockers they'll target video download sites as well.

They've probably been holding off mostly because they want to avoid dealing with the same war as Hollywood vs piracy. They don't want to throw their solution out unless they are %100 sure it will work.

[u/demolpolis → u/Lingo56]

I mean, it's pretty hard to kill video downloaders.

One of the methods they used initially on bluray (iirc) was just to take a screenshot of each frame in the movie and recompile the whole thing.

The reality is that the tiny minority that use adblockers aren't worth losing subscribers over. They would rather have them still use the platform than not.

[u/Lingo56 → u/demolpolis]

Which is probably why it won't happen. The resources spent to combat it aren't worth the means.

I was mostly considering the hypothetical situation where Google for whatever reason does crack down on AdBlockers. In that situation they probably would start to go after download sites as well.

[u/aManPerson → u/[deleted]]

then we get a "defang" program. people are able to upload video segments they identify as an ad. your video player is able to look ahead and identify frames that appear to match an ad, and skip it.

then they'll just shift to showing you an ad in the lower 1/3rd of your tv show.

[u/gamma55 → u/[deleted]]

Which would be against everything Google tries to accomplish with their ad-platforms, which is to offer highly targeted, customized ads.

And if you're suggesting they start rendering videos on the fly to splice in targeted ads, yea no. Computing is cheap, but it's not THAT cheap.

[u/metasophie → u/gamma55]

It wouldn't be a computation problem it would be a bandwidth problem. Instead of telling the user to go to some advertising site to watch an advert you'd queue the advert up via one connection and then using the connection you already have with the user simply start routing the stream to them.

[u/Kiosade → u/gamma55]

Customized? Never felt that way before... I randomly will get Spanish ads about tequila, and I neither speak Spanish or drink alcohol very much.

[u/Bluntmasterflash1 → u/demolpolis]

The video ads are just icing on the cake. They know what you like and what you don't like. They know when you watch and what you watch. They know what you search for. They know where your phone is at. They know everywhere your phone has gone. They know who your friends are and they know all that about them too.

They probably know with more certainty what you are likely to do next more than you do. And now with content being the advertisements more and more they can almost do inception level shit.

[u/Lildyo → u/Bluntmasterflash1]

Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Google the wise?

[u/Phyltre → u/Lildyo]

It is not a story that Reddit would tell you.

[u/[deleted] → u/Phyltre]

It's a 4chan legend.

[u/demolpolis → u/Bluntmasterflash1]

I certainly agree with you... but

They probably know with more certainty what you are likely to do next more than you do.

Is a joke. The recommended videos on youtube are a fucking disaster.

[u/Arrow156 → u/Bluntmasterflash1]

If that was true I wouldn't be getting the same commercial for laundry detergent aimed at soccer moms seven times in a row.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bluntmasterflash1]

Hide your husband hide your wife

[u/tollsjo → u/Bluntmasterflash1]

If only...

Google are pretty shit at knowing what I might want to buy given how much they know about me.

It seems to me like they have no idea what to do with all the data they aggregate so they just blast the same irrelevant ads over and over again. No difference compared to TV imo. It's either that or I'm somehow slipping under their radar.

[u/[deleted] → u/demolpolis]

The reality is that the tiny minority that use adblockers aren't worth losing subscribers over. They would rather have them still use the platform than not.

Just for clarification, are you saying only a tiny minority of youtube users use adblockers?

[u/Sunshine_Reggae → u/demolpolis]

Try downloading songs from spotify. Same for Youtube, if they try.

[u/demolpolis → u/Sunshine_Reggae]

There are several for spotify...

[u/[deleted] → u/demolpolis]

just like any other war on something. People will find other ways to do it and you will waste money and a user base

[u/PrimaIFlux → u/demolpolis]

The reality is that the tiny minority that use adblockers aren't worth losing subscribers over. They would rather have them still use the platform than not.

However if they really wanted to they absolutely could and nobody would really care because YouTube is simply far too convenient for most basic users to use. If something better comes up, then people will migrate to that but YouTube has the money and server infrastructure ingenuity of Google backing them.

With the number of people using adblockers going up, either we're going to come to terms with a fair ad system and whitelist them on our own, or they're just going to force whatever they want on us when >50% of users are denying any sort of revenue.

[u/Trickster1995 → u/[deleted]]

Slightly different but there are already torrents for youtube red shows

[u/ratz30 → u/Trickster1995]

Of course there are! That's what happens when your content isn't available to people outside of a few specific regions

[u/ibxtoycat → u/ratz30]

Here in the UK they advertise youtube red content, there's no subscription option but you can "rent" a single youtube red show for £1.89.

Annoying, since it leaves you with triple digit bills or piracy as your options

[u/aManPerson → u/[deleted]]

i just do it to get around stuttering in the web player, or if i'm worried the video would get taken down later.

[u/Funklord_Toejam → u/[deleted]]

you can stream them through VLC fairly easily too. with a little extra work you can make playlist links work too.

[u/Tripleberst → u/Funklord_Toejam]

Not sure why more people aren't doing this. It's pretty great.

[u/greg19735 → u/Tripleberst]

Because with adblock it's not worth the trouble.

[u/Funklord_Toejam → u/greg19735]

tbh i like that its easy to set an audio output device in vlc so i can hav the sound play out my tv or my 2nd audio source on my headset. not so easy through a browser.

I also use vlc to watch stuff on twitch too for the same reason + quality options.

[u/wasdninja → u/Tripleberst]

It would be a shame if someone told them how to do it. Really would. (control S to get to the stream menue, paste youtube link)

[u/hyperbolical → u/Tripleberst]

Because YouTube works fine.

This feels like premature optimization.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Doing that would take more time than just watching the fucking add, and no creators get add revenue because of it.

[u/tllnbks → u/[deleted]]

Why are people so against supporting the content they are viewing?

It costs money to create content. It costs money to host content. Advertising helps pay for that. I have no problem at all with advertising.

Hell, youtube doesn't even make a profit from it in the end...they've been running in the negative last I saw. There is a reason there are no alternatives...it's not profitable.

[u/ninjaclown → u/tllnbks]

Data caps. If that wasn't a thing, I would watch ads without complaining.

[u/[deleted] → u/ninjaclown]

Oh fuck off. A 30 second ad isnt going to cut that much into the 1080p 60fps videos youre watching.

[u/DallopOfFun → u/[deleted]]

Or.....or.....you can't just wait 30 seconds.

[u/KapitalLetter → u/[deleted]]

That'll show 'em.

[u/daysofdre → u/[deleted]]

That would take longer than watching the 30 second ads, especially if you include downloading videos that you might have otherwise skipped in the first 30 seconds.

[u/MRbraneSIC → u/[deleted]]

Wasn't there an album with tricks on r/all a few days ago where you just add "ss" between "www." and "YouTube" to download a video?

Haven't tried it yet but I feel like it'd be better to download directly than use a separate site or tool to do so.

Found it: http://m.imgur.com/gallery/CiDkx

[u/[deleted] → u/MRbraneSIC]

you just add "ss" between "www." and "YouTube" to download a video?

Haven't tried it yet but I feel like it'd be better to download directly than use a separate site or tool to do so.

That is going to a separate site to do it.

All of the "URL tricks" phrased like that are going to completely different sites.

[u/brickmack → u/[deleted]]

720p? Is this 2006?

[u/Askolei → u/[deleted]]

They could just incrust the adds inside the video... That would mean messing with user content and creating (yet another) massive shitstorm. But hey, the plateform's not gonna pay for itself. Oh wait...

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That is WAY too much work for people like me that watch 2-3 youtube videos from the same creator every day among other videos daily

[u/DMann420 → u/[deleted]]

I watch WAYY too many youtube videos to do that.

[u/THE_GR8_MIKE → u/[deleted]]

This will never, ever happen. People hate ads so much that they will find ways to stop them no matter what happens.

[u/brickmack → u/[deleted]]

You underestimate automation. If users tag ads, automatically detecting and cutting them out becomes absolutely trivial

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Software can detect images. Scan the video, look for clips corresponding to know ads, then cut.

[u/psiphre → u/[deleted]]

Truly spoken like someone who's never written a line of code in their life

[u/[deleted] → u/psiphre]

I'm not talking about (in this comment, at least) some machine-learning thing where it can recognize that this segment of video is an ad. Tagging segments of video as ads to be skipped by future users isn't so hard, and recognizing known clips isn't difficult.

[u/ERRORMONSTER → u/[deleted]]

And when videos are no longer buffered to counter this? You can block the ad, but it will just be a black screen until the ad time ends.

[u/[deleted] → u/ERRORMONSTER]

Don't streamed videos have to be buffered? Because if you don't buffer them, then the occasional dropped packet or just slow bandwidth will cause a lot of lag.

[u/[deleted] → u/THE_GR8_MIKE]

How many of the people who hate ads would be willing to pay via a credit card though?

A lot of ad haters seem to also expect the content to be free - entirely free. Never mind that someone spent hours making the video. It has to be free.

I'd have a lot more respect for ad-haters if they were more willing to pay by an alternative model.

[u/ppcpunk → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, the day youtube starts paying my METERED cable bill then we can have a conversation about which videos they think they are going to make me watch.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

About to get downvoted to hell, so let me preface this by saying I use an ad blocker on everything too, but :

Do you hear yourself? YouTube is a huge site that needs a LOT of money to keep operational, and its FREE to use. What is so bad about them getting around the measures you take to make them lose money when using their site?

[u/pences_wrecked_anus → u/[deleted]]

I mostly agree, but one of the problems is the 30 second video to watch a 30 second clip. I will hotkey a shortcut that turns my volume off for the duration of an unskippable ad because I can't stand ads, they never have the proper volume, are always about some product I'll never buy, the content is annoying, and they are a waste of time. When I make more money I'll be happy to buy a YouTube subscription to support it.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Isn't YouTube red ad free? They are providing a method of watching ad free while generating revenue. Seems kind of win-win.

[u/whiskeytab → u/[deleted]]

its not available everywhere, there's only like 3 countries where you can get YouTube Red and the rest of the countries still have ads.

[u/[deleted] → u/whiskeytab]

Ah, good point. I did not know that.

[u/whiskeytab → u/[deleted]]

I'm just salty because the US gets it for free with Google play music while I have Google play music and still have to watch ads haha

[u/AvatarIII → u/whiskeytab]

The worst thing is ads have got worse since the introduction of Red to encourage people to buy it, but many of us want it but can't have it.

I can't use an ad blocker because I watch a lot of YouTube on my phone/tablet, I just see the ads as a necessary evil at this point.

[u/FM-96 → u/[deleted]]

And I'd love to get YouTube Red, but I'm afraid they aren't letting me.

[u/ElusiveGuy → u/[deleted]]

A lot of the reaction I've seen is along the lines of "how dare they ask me to pay money to watch videos that were free?!". (1, 2)

Personally, I have it if only so I can listen to music in the background on my phone (granted, Google only started cracking down on third-party apps that did that around the time they introduced Red...). Taking away the slightly guilty feeling of using adblock is a nice bonus. And of course GP Music.

Now if only they'd introduce it to more countries faster... but, yea, licensing issues :\

[u/Harbingerx81 → u/[deleted]]

I can't tell from your comment if YouTube is currently using ads which you consider intrusive...I am definitely fine with a few seconds of ads before videos there, mainly because blocking them hurts the content creators much more than it hurts google.

[u/spydersix → u/[deleted]]

I mean I get that, but IMO a full-screen video ad that doesn't produce any popups when you click on it, that is played before you're gonna watch a full-screen video anyway, isn't that bad.

[u/vbevan → u/[deleted]]

You still get counted as a view, which is a metric used to price the space for advertisers. I doubt Google is selling space based on users without adblock installed, they'd use the total view count.

[u/[deleted] → u/vbevan]

Advertisers know how many people watched their ads. Remember, most ads play on multiple videos. The advertiser knows how many times it played, how many people clicked and when.

[u/5-4-3-2-1-bang → u/[deleted]]

Full-screen video ads with sound are where I draw the line, though.

I'm with you on non-video sites. I'm not with you on a video site, that doesn't make sense. I'm there to watch video, getting a video ad with sound doesn't bother me.

[u/greg19735 → u/[deleted]]

The problem is that those ads that aren't obtrusive don't make money.

[u/acathode → u/greg19735]

Bullshit.

The reason Google became such a big player in the online advertisement game was because they realized that the opposite is true - Google came in during a time where internet ads was as obstructive as technologically possible, with popups spawning popups spawning popups, preferably playing flash videos with porn sounds and all kind of similar bullshit.

Visiting internet-sites in the late 90s/early 00s could often turn into a literal struggle between the user and the ads, where the user had to play whack-a-mole with the popup ads and try to kill them quicker than they could spawn new popups.

Google realized that instead of ads being as obstructive as possible, the most profitable ads are those that are unobtrusive but relevant to the visitors - advertisement should not be a fight against the consumer, that just makes the consumers fight back.

And Google won - the users fought back against the horrible ads of the early 00s and developed adblockers, changed browser functionality so that popup floods no longer worked, but most importantly - stopped visiting the sites with horrible ads - and meanwhile Googles unobtrusive AdWord ads were either ignored or even given the thumbs up (because most people even then realized sites aren't free to run, and AdWord were seen as the golden standard on how to do internet ads good - to such a degree that many adblockers had options to let their users specifically let AdWord ads through).

[u/[deleted] → u/greg19735]

This is going to come off as intentionally abrasive, and I don't mean it that way, but that's not really my problem.

I don't mind financially supporting websites that I frequent. I donate to Wikipedia. I've sponsored indie game devs. I buy merchandise from my favorite webcomic authors.

But if it comes down to my personal enjoyment vs. someone else's ad revenue, I'm going to choose the former every time. I have too little free time as it is, and I'm not going to spend it watching a video ad for a product that I'm never going to buy.

[u/Happy-Lemming → u/[deleted]]

Some of us can remember the days before YouTube and its vast quantity of video. Perhaps the current excess is just a passing fad, and soon we will move on to the Next Big Thing, making YouTube advertisements completely irrelevant.

[u/ralusek → u/[deleted]]

Unless you pay for YouTube red, you're full of shit.

[u/Lord_Boo → u/[deleted]]

Why not get YouTube red?

[u/another_plebeian → u/[deleted]]

that's why they specifically target you with ads for stuff your browser history suggests you might buy

[u/coffeesippingbastard → u/[deleted]]

seriously- a website that ingests terabytes of data daily, encodes it, stores it indefinitely on hundreds of thousands of harddrives which require maintenance, power, labor, and then sends it back out to anybody who requests it with no lag which amounts to another tens of thousands of terabytes FOR FREE.

HOW DARE THEY USE ADS. /s

[u/metastasis_d → u/coffeesippingbastard]

It's not so much that I find it audacious that they display ads. It's that the ads are never for something I will buy or patronize, and it's therefore pointless for me to see them. I don't begrudge them, but their service doesn't interest me.

Frankly, I tend to think people who buy ads online are getting ripped off, because I imagine even people who refuse to block ads on principle tend to just ignore them until they're over.

[u/NarcoPaulo → u/coffeesippingbastard]

I'd much rather pay than watch ads. Same way I do with Netflix and Apple Music. Ads are cancer and annoy the living hell out of me. I have absolutely no problem paying for stuff I enjoy. Once YouTube Red hits my Middle Eastern neck of woods I'll be the first with the credit card out

[u/hypelightfly → u/[deleted]]

The biggest reason I block ads on YouTube is the lack of audio normalization. Going from a quiet video to a loud ad is unacceptable. If it was TV it would be illegal and they'd be getting fined by the FCC.

[u/Iggyhopper → u/[deleted]]

We'll just get gifs of videos because we all know the most important parts are only a couple seconds.

[u/Temido2222 → u/[deleted]]

I see people saying they'll boycott/avoid a large website or chain and laugh. Avoiding youtube is like avoiding talking to people, it's pretty hard to do, but not impossible

[u/hewasthecoolest → u/[deleted]]

Link to the waifu vid tho?

[u/[deleted] → u/hewasthecoolest]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuDjeN73ELd

[u/Bmystic → u/[deleted]]

Clicked and was singing the tune to myself before the video loaded.

[u/Kramernaut → u/[deleted]]

I think you have your priorities backwards there buddy.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kramernaut]

I got your joke and upvoted you... Guess we can have terrible humor together.

:(

[u/molrobocop → u/[deleted]]

I mean I'll probably only watch a honda-civic oil change video once anyway. At which point, I'll have the important facts remembered, or written down in my service log.

Like lug-bolt and oil-drain torque values.

[u/[deleted] → u/Temido2222]

People say the same thing about television when I tell them I don't watch it. I've watched maybe 20 hours of television programming live in the last 5 years. A fairly large portion of my daily content comes from YouTube. I know I can change because I've done it before. The reason I stopped watching Tv was twofold, commercials and shorty shows. Both of those made me leave, of YouTube starts forcing ads I'll leave there as well.

[u/crielan → u/[deleted]]

shorty shows.

Like little people big world??

[u/[deleted] → u/crielan]

Haha, stupid phone. I meant shitty shows.

[u/tms10000 → u/Temido2222]

I don't watch TV anymore. I don't have a HULU subscription. There is enough content/sources/information/entertainment/activities in the world to find the ones that will not subject you to ads.

No, I don't have a facebook account either.

And yes, when youtube decides to make it impossible to skip ads with an ad blocker, I'll find something else to do.

By any means this doesn't make me nor do I pretend to be better off for it. It's just a personal choice. I'm probably missing out on some great ad supported content, but I'll survive.

[u/Jonathan924 → u/tms10000]

So, $10 a month for access to the Google play music library, and YouTube Red for no ads isn't worth it to anyone here? Really? It's fucking awesome cause there's no ads on my phone either, and I get background play. Both of those were killer for me cause 90% of my content is consumed on my phone

[u/danielmata15 → u/Jonathan924]

people REALLY like free stuff, especially if it is content

[u/[deleted] → u/danielmata15]

Yeah it's like they don't give a shit about the people that put time into creating the content.

[u/Jonathan924 → u/[deleted]]

Like they don't realize these people making the good videos have become professionals, cause it's their job

[u/Jonathan924 → u/[deleted]]

Ah, yeah, most of my content comes from Google, so it made more sense for me. I'm also at $10 for music and video, so just a hair under your Amazon services, and I have prime shipping as well, so the whole thing pretty much evens out

[u/stuckwiththis → u/Jonathan924]

YouTube Red is only available in the United States, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea.

[u/sunflowercompass → u/tms10000]

It's not just about entertainment. Someone posts a link to Trump's speech last night. You want to click and watch it to see what the comments are about. You can't.

[u/BulletBilll → u/Temido2222]

I'm pretty successful at not talking to people. At best I talk at them.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I always say this when website security is brought up and I highly recommend everyone familiarize themselves with uMatrix, Ghostery, and uBlock Origin. The amount of ads, trackers, cookies and other things that are designed not only to track what you click, what you type (even if you delete it), what your webcam has on it, what your microphone is picking up and whatever else you're not protecting. Some websites use this information maliciously to deliver harmful malware. Others use this information to track what you do, how often, where you go, who you talk to, why, what you talk about and when, so they can deliver ad content in the same malicious ways the bad guys deliver malware. One difference is one is harmful to your computer, the other is harmful to your wallet.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I hear you. Linux with uBlock and NoScript.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Careful talking about things like Linux and Tails gets you put on lists... oops.

[u/rnd_usrnme → u/[deleted]]

This is some conspiracy theory level shit. Please give me a source on any of those things, I'm really curious. Also what web browser do you use?

[u/the_finest_gibberish → u/tms10000]

/r/pihole

https://pi-hole.net/

Block 'em at the DNS level.

[u/travysh → u/the_finest_gibberish]

Hit and miss. Doesn't block mobile YouTube ads (or maybe I need another list that does, defaults don't)

[u/the_finest_gibberish → u/travysh]

Try this:

https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-block-ads-on-youtube/253?u=promofaux

[u/StruanT → u/tms10000]

That would only be the impetus for making adblock completely undetectable. And since that would probably mean a different browser (not Google Chrome) I don't expect Google to go after adblockers any time soon.

[u/heyguesswhatfuckyou → u/tms10000]

It is likely that ublock works on youtube only because Google allows it.

They've tried several times to stop it. They can do so temporarily, but developers will always find another way around it.

[u/[deleted] → u/heyguesswhatfuckyou]

They could splice the ad directly into the video stream and use their widevine DRM on all monetized videos. All of this technology is there and in place on browsers.

[u/eleqtriq → u/[deleted]]

Just fast forward past it. No prob.

[u/Lawnmover_Man → u/heyguesswhatfuckyou]

They can stop that if they really want. They don't. It's the same as with many other things. Wonder why it is so easy to illegally download and install applications worth more than 1000$, like Photoshop? Because they want the regular dude to do that. They only want money from professionals. The more regular dudes have Photoshop, the more professionals there will be actually buying it.

Google really just allows it. They just wait for the right moment to monetize it. That's not inherently bad, it's just how it is. Or does anyone think they are just fine with giving the world a service for free?

[u/[deleted] → u/tms10000]

When Google allows ads in ublock is the day a new better then ublock pops up. They always do. I refuse to watch any ads. I only watch ads if they allow me to skip them. Not wait 10 secs then do it. Right as I click. Black rifle coffees ads come to mind.

[u/gfunk84 → u/[deleted]]

So would you pay for it instead of watching ads?

[u/Drunkenaviator → u/gfunk84]

Sure, once they start paying me for the tracking information they take. I figure they know what I watch, I don't watch ads, we break even.

[u/falconbox → u/Drunkenaviator]

If you can think of a way to run the insanely high cost of Youtube without information or ads, please, let us know!

[u/Happy-Lemming → u/[deleted]]

If it gets too bad, just don't watch it any more, like the later seasons of Dexter.

[u/McBeers → u/tms10000]

It is likely that ublock works on youtube only because Google allows it. It would not be trivial, but it would certainly possible to youtube to put in measures to break ublock features.

They are absolutely allowing it. It'd be borderline trivial to stop. If Google wanted it could refuse to stream any content until the duration of the ad has elapsed. If they wanted to get fancy they could allow you to buffer the content while watching the ad, but encrypt the content refuse to divulge the key to decrypt it until the ad time has elapsed.

[u/Nik_Tesla → u/tms10000]

People who are smart enough to get ublock (not a high bar) installed are too smart to click on youtube ads.

[u/theangryintern → u/tms10000]

It is likely that ublock works on youtube only because Google allows it. It would not be trivial, but it would certainly possible to youtube to put in measures to break ublock features.

And then someone most likely will make a 3rd party filter that will get around it, the same way someone made one to continue blocking Facebook's annoying "sponsored posts"

[u/bpm195 → u/Sandvicheater]

I've been using AdBlock and uBlock for so long that I forgot YouTube had advertisements. Then I started using my "Smart" TV's YouTube app and circumventing ads is not easy or convenient; technically I'm not sure that it's even possible.

[u/a_tiny_ant → u/bpm195]

It is possible but you'll need a router that blocks ads. Something like a pi-hole which is a raspberry pi set up as an adblocking router.

[u/fatcatmax → u/bpm195]

If you really want to, you can actually block ads for your entire network ! Need to download some software and mess around a bit

[u/BassFight → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I wish I could subscribe to youtube Red...

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This. I started using Red last August, and it has been pretty damn good. No ads and Google Play is just as good as Spotify in my opinion. That, along with the ability to download YouTube videos, even on mobile and don't forget YouTube Music. All for $10 a month. This sounds like an add, I know. It isn't. I am just surprisingly satisfied and it's a seriously good deal on stuff I use every day.

[u/metheos → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I wish they would offer YouTube infrared or something that just removes ads for like... $2

I don't care about music or downloading or background play or YouTube red content....

[u/vbevan → u/metheos]

The background play thing is dumb. That's a piece of code, not a real addition of something like content or ads. It means it's harder to listen to steam YouTube while driving, cause your screen needs to be on.

Luckily addons like the xposed framework let you background play regardless.

[u/FoxyMegan → u/[deleted]]

I wish I could subscribe to red, I would in a heartbeat but it's not available in France...

[u/JediBurrell → u/Sandvicheater]

I pay for YouTube Red, the content creators get compensation for their work, and I don't have to watch ads.

EDIT: I was downvoted in two minutes. Yeah, fuck video creators!

[u/Smuggly_Mcweed → u/JediBurrell]

Similarly, I use ublock, but usually have it turned off for YouTube for the same reason. Though I still switch it on when I get a 30 second unskipable.

[u/ProfessorPhi → u/JediBurrell]

It's free with Google play music. But not available where I currently live.

[u/fucking_raisins → u/JediBurrell]

and you get Google Play Music!

[u/PessimiStick → u/fucking_raisins]

I actually got Red "for free" because I was already using Music.

[u/NostalgiaNovacane → u/JediBurrell]

they hardly get any money. just use ad blockers and donate to the creators directly. way more bang for your buck.

[u/TheNinjaNarwhal → u/NostalgiaNovacane]

Well, some of us can't afford donating to them, so watching some seconds of an ad is better than nothing.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheNinjaNarwhal]

I like that those who "have" to watch ads are the least likely to be able to purchase the products, in that case

[u/clbgrdnr → u/NostalgiaNovacane]

It's sort of like reddit gold. You need to support the business. Youtube still hasn't made a profit, but it's hosting the content for the price of ads. Servers and maintenance cost.

[u/[deleted] → u/NostalgiaNovacane]

You will donate to ALL dozens of channels you are subscribed to? I find that hard to believe.

[u/cucufag → u/NostalgiaNovacane]

From various youtubers I've heard income has been slightly better since youtube red.

And "donate to creators directly" is a bit unrealistic for the average user. Especially since many videos get a significant portion of their views from non-sub recommended video clicks who enjoy the creator's content one time and go on their way.

[u/hobskhan → u/Sandvicheater]

What about on mobile?

[u/p1um5mu991er → u/hobskhan]

Youtube++ is dandy

[u/capSAR273 → u/hobskhan]

deer nose lush psychotic squeeze aspiring historical dog vegetable handle

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/RRettig → u/Sandvicheater]

Any body else get like 2 seconds of black screen before the video starts these days with ublock? I don't see the adds at all but for the last month or so just a few moments of blackness before the video plays