[HN Gopher] YouTube's new ads will ruin the best part of a video...
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       YouTube's new ads will ruin the best part of a video on purpose
        
       Author : namanyayg
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2025-05-18 21:31 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.androidauthority.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.androidauthority.com)
        
       | rolph wrote:
       | "If you're an advertiser, this might sound like a brilliant move.
       | For viewers, it's pretty much the worst possible timing"
       | 
       | associating your product with a negative experience is not a
       | brilliant move.
        
         | immibis wrote:
         | Data proves otherwise.
        
         | musicale wrote:
         | Youtube (like every other popular web platform) will keep
         | pushing the button that says "make more money by degrading the
         | user experience" until it (eventually) stops working. It's
         | basically the iron law of encrapification.
        
       | DecentShoes wrote:
       | They want to make it unusable without Premium. This will just get
       | worse and worse until everyone gives in.
        
         | Snoozus wrote:
         | or until revenues drop because people either watch less or
         | avoid buying from companies that pay money to ruin videos...
        
       | immibis wrote:
       | I remember when everyone was wishing they could just pay their
       | own ad revenue in money and not have to see any ads.
        
         | jkaplowitz wrote:
         | Google actually offered something along those lines for a few
         | years, called Google Contributor, though I don't think it
         | applied to video ads like YouTube's.
         | 
         | I have no inside info on why it didn't survive even though I
         | worked for Google when it initially launched (not on
         | Contributor), but the fact remains it didn't survive.
         | 
         | As pure personal speculation, I suspect it didn't receive
         | enough user uptake for Google to decide that it was worthwhile.
         | 
         | To avoid any confusion: I don't work for Google now and am
         | certainly not speaking for them in this comment.
        
           | silisili wrote:
           | You worked there and don't really know much about it. How in
           | the world would Google expect anyone else to have known about
           | it? I personally don't remember such a thing ever existing.
           | 
           | So assuming they did try it, I'd say it died from lack of
           | awareness rather than people just didn't want it.
        
       | conartist6 wrote:
       | If consumers don't own the tech they rely on, they should expect
       | it to be weaponized to control them
        
       | roskelld wrote:
       | I've noticed on iPhone Youtube Premium I've had overlay ad
       | widgets appear. I think they're for a creator's own merchandise,
       | but I'm guessing that there's some sort of revenue mechanism for
       | Youtube being happy to include these. To me it's still an ad and
       | it's what I pay for to avoid seeing it.
       | 
       | I wonder how long we'll go for before we start to see ad-lite
       | Premium, and something like Premium+ to view ad free.
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-18 23:01 UTC)