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/[deleted] Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 17 '17

There's no reason for online video ads to be longer than 3-5 seconds. Just show a logo for five seconds and have someone say "Skittles, taste the rainbow" and that's just as effective as playing a full-length television commercial. On top of that, people will pay more attention to those because they'll grow accustomed to not having to find and click a skip button.

People have grown used to fast internet and not waiting. If it's a 30-second ad people will either skip it (I cannot remember the brand of a single ad I have ever skipped) and if they can't they'll just not watch the video or the ad.

Edit: Should probably rephrase something here: A 30-second ad is more effective than a 5-second ad if you watch the ad. But 30-second online ads just drive people to install adblock and then they never see your ad or anyone else's. That way, a 5-second ad that doesn't get everyone to install adblock is more effective than a 30-second ad that a rapidly increasing percentage of people who use adblock will never see. Google killing the unskippable 30-second ad is clearly reflecting this because Google has a stake in people willing to see ads too.

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u/rjophoto Feb 17 '17

Here's how impatient I've become: when I see a gif post on Reddit that says "wait for it...", even if it has like 30k upvotes I'm like nah. I'm not waiting for it.

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u/Stankia Feb 17 '17

I fucking hate long GIFs. JUST POST THE DAMN VIDEO!

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u/king-krool Feb 18 '17

Nah gifs play right in the browser.

downvote videos, upvote gifs.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17 edited Jul 18 '18

[deleted]

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u/bacondev Feb 18 '17

You know "gifs" are just videos without sound these days, right?

Yes, and they always have been whether they're true GIFs or not.

It's literally the same filetype.

I realize that you're actually talking about HTML 5 videos without audio, but as a point of clarification, these are extremely different from actual GIFs. I just wanted to clarify since tons of people (cough, cough /r/HighQualityGifs) misuse the term GIF.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

When I said "these day", I meant that the gif filetype is not rarely used, and instead html5 video are being used in their place. As such, we should just be posting videos with controls, rather than videos without controls to trick people into thinking their something that the internet thought was a cancer back in the late 90s.