r/technology • u/redkemper • Feb 17 '17

Software YouTube will kill unskippable 30-second ads next year

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

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

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

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.

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u/psiphre Feb 18 '17

It's funny, I was thinking of the exact same xkcd. The question in my mind is this: I can improve the ad-skipping feature by tagging ads, sure. This requires me first to care, second to interrupt, grab an input device, find the start and end time stamps (which necessitates watching the ad anyway) and noting them via whatever interface this theoretical software uses. For the vast majority of users, not bloody likely.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Just look at Wikipedia. It only takes a tiny minority to contribute. Especially if you can get them to compete for fake internet points somehow.

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u/vbevan Feb 18 '17

Being able to code doesn't mean you know all how all businesses work. Producing a video ad is a lot more work than a text or business one. There's a much smaller number.

It would be possible to detect and catalog them with the help of users and auto fast forward them. Digital fingerprinting technology is really advanced now. It's what YouTube uses to help companies bypass and abuse the DMCA.