If you've ever wondered why YouTube goes so hard on ads when they make the experience so miserable, well, there's your answer.
  • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    29 minutes ago

    I say this every time the topic comes up, and I’m always downvoted for it but here goes again:

    YouTube is going to do this suit because YouTube CAN do this shit. It’s their company. They can enshitify it as much as they’d like. And they WILL enshitify it as much as they like as long as people continue to use it.

    How long have they been in existence now? 18-19 years? And with every year they gets worse and worse, while growing bigger and bigger. Why do you think that is?

    Could it be because they know that although everyone will bitch about them, complain about them, and write scathing tech articles about them- people will still gobble their shit up regardless.

    Don’t like what YouTube is doing? Maybe think about not using it. Because as long as you’re participating- either by creating content or viewing it- you are a big part of the reason they’re getting away with doing this shit.

    Downvote away.

      • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 minutes ago

        Me too. I never try to come off as pushy on the topic. Just suggesting an option, but man… people haven’t responded well to it in the past.

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
    151·
    1 hour ago

    Those poor suckers. I don’t think I’ve seen an advertisement on YouTube in something like five years.

    Edit: And I sure as hell ain’t paying Google either.

    • gamer@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      52 minutes ago

      Fuck yeah.

      For anyone out of the loop, look into Freetube and Grayjay. There are other apps that do the same thing too, but those are good to start with.

    • potustheplant@feddit.nlEnglish
      11·
      22 minutes ago

      If you see 0 ads and don’t pay anyone, I’m not sure how the service could be sustainable. I’m also against ads but only if you’re actually paying. That’s why I do pay for a yt family plan but also use adblock+sponsorblock.

      • Excrubulent@slrpnk.netEnglish
        1·
        6 minutes ago

        It’s not. Why do you want it to be? It’s one of the most enduring social media monopolies, and it should be brought down. The more they lose revenue, the more they are forced to squeeze, the more they enshittify, the more people are pushed to make and use alternatives, and the stronger those alternatives get.

        Honestly once youtube’s network can be usurped by something like peertube, I think that might be the ballgame for centralised social media. It is the hardest one to topple because of bandwidth costs, which means once it goes the case for needing a corporation to fund our networks kind of collapses with it.

  • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    61·
    60 minutes ago

    Google’s ad-pocalypse is a self-licking ice cream cone. Bragging about $10.4 billion squeezed from advertisers while users rage-install adblockers? Masterclass in delusion. The “diminishing returns” of shoving 15 unskippable ads into a 3-minute tutorial is peak platform decay.

    Creators churning out AI slop just to feed the algorithm? Pathetic. But why innovate when you can monetize desperation? The ad bubble’s bursting—soon we’ll all laugh at brands paying billions for bots and ad-blind zombies.

    Keep stacking those unblockable trackers, Sundar. We’ll just keep finding new ways to mute your digital serfdom.

  • pls@lemmy.plaureano.nohost.meEnglish
    4·
    1 hour ago

    I have no issue in paying creators with my YouTube Premium subscription. What annoys me is seeing creators feed the algorithm with “regular posts” or create filler videos for sponsors when they have nothing to say.

    That and seeing explainer videos from someone who learned something five minutes before recording… the number of copycats and regurgitating the same news content is depressing.

    The same goes for the epidemic of faceless AI videos narrating generic content… horrible. The “don’t recommend channel” must be worn off by now, from me alone. :-)

    Fantastic exceptions from talented creators make it worth it, so I am happy.

  • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pubEnglish
    581·
    5 hours ago

    Ads didn’t make 10 billion, Google charged advertisers 10 billion. IMO ads have gone so pervasive they’ve hit a point of diminishing returns. They’re everywhere, we hate them, and those 10 billion spent would have to bring many more billions in sales to be an attractive service.

    I can’t wait for the ad bubble to burst, as advertisers understand they’re just giving money away to megaadvertisers for paltry conversions.

    • _wizard@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      3 hours ago

      I’m an admin in Google Ad Manager for a few hundred sites. Saying that to say I’ve read a lot of their documentation. They have a great graph showing this very concept. Less ads, less money, happy users. More ads, more money, unhappy users. They’re aware. They aren’t pouring the poison. They’re designing the pitcher and selling different size cups.

    • win95@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      Influencer sponsorships, especially for beauty influencers, have already been declining. Companies realize that these influencers are just posting ads now and people don’t believe their “honest opinion” anymore. So it’s a mystery to me why companies still pay so much money for regular online ads.

    • RobotZap10000@feddit.nlEnglish
      33·
      7 hours ago

      I have to see them at school all the time, because our teacher’s teachers don’t bother installing adblockers.

    • dan1101@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      When I watch YouTube on the Roku in my bedroom I see ads and it’s terrible. If I see a 30 second ad I go back and hit play again, usually I have to do that two or three times and then I get a 5-second skippable ad. Even then I’m often only two or three minutes into the video before it plays another ad.

    • rockter@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      3 hours ago

      It really is a pro tip, when installing more than one ad blocker is just gonna make for a worse experience, never mind the fact that it’s going to make the ad blcokers themselves actually not work the way they’re supposed to.