• YouTube is intensifying efforts to combat adblockers, including blocking video playback and warning users of potential account suspension.
  • Increased ads on YouTube have driven many users to adblockers, hurting both YouTube’s ad revenue and content creators reliant on ad-based income.
  • Despite these measures, many users are leaving YouTube or finding workarounds, leading creators to seek alternative revenue streams off-platform.
  • chakan2@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Imagine being on the YouTube ad team…that has to be the most depressing team in tech history. Your whole existence revolves around peddling ads before people can watch the ads they want.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Even better, you work for one of the wealthiest corporations in the world with virtually unlimited resources at your disposal, and you still get your asses handed to you by a handful of people with laptops.

      • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If they didn’t have to support the web, and various legacy platforms, the could lock it all down with drm more easily.

                • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  most normies i know don’t care about it.

                  i have no idea how they use the internet without them, but here we are.

                  • ticho@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    Yep, most of my non-tech friends just say “Ads? Oh yeah, I don’t even notice them anymore, I got so used to them.” whenever that topic pops up in a conversation.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      At least you can tell your boss “I’m working on it!”, sit on your ass, and every 6 months add one more little UI or formula change which “finally stops adblockers” but is defeated within 3 days.

    • limerod@reddthat.com
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      2 months ago

      Your whole existence revolves around peddling ads before people can watch the ads they want.

      Ah, what. Who wants or likes to watch ads at all?

      • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        A lot of creators have just turned into corporate shills. I stopped watching ETA Prime’s channel about tech reviews because it was becoming pretty clear that mostly everything he got was paid for by the company. Also, most creators are putting their own ads into their content.

        • Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win
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          2 months ago

          Welcome to Youtube. It’s ads all the way down. Unless:

          Firefox browser, Ublock Origin extension, Sponsorblock extension

          Save 40% of your viewing time for actual content and send tips through creator’s Paypal or whatever.

          • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            YouTube is just on demand TV with extra steps these days. I’ve stopped watching videos, I have an LLM transcribe and summarize for me now. 99% of the content of a 10-15 minute video can be summarized into 1 or 2 pages and read in under 2 minutes.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              I have an LLM transcribe and summarize for me now.

              Only a matter of time before LLMs start injecting their own ads into these responses.

              • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Nah, local LLMs are easily in the range of transcribe/summarize. I bet you could do that nicely with llama 8B without even needing a gpu.

                  • Gigasser@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    You already can I think? Ollama is something you can install, and then you can set up a webui like sillytavern for roleplays, or some other more fitting ui for whatever you want. Also, Linux is great for projects like these, on windows it’s fucking a pain to set up, Linux it’s easy.

              • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                By that point I’m pretty sure we’ll have an effective compact model that can run locally and transcribe downloaded videos on reasonable hardware. Or you can just sic a paid model like chatgpt on the task. The corporate Internet is entirely focused on subscription service models now, unless you run the model yourself on local hardware you’re going to end up paying someone somewhere a service fee.

                Edit: y’all need to learn about minified models designed to run on edge hardware, they’re a thing and often work shockingly well.

            • med@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              I think I need this, finally a real use for ‘ai’.

              The amount of how to videos you have to watch through, when all you want is one little piece of info you should be able to search or scan for has been a problem since before the internet figured out how to increase clicks by making a web page in to slides.

              Can you link me a how-to video on how to get startedt and send me a summary from your working setup?

              • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                It’s just two steps, first get a transcript from the video somehow (use the whisper API if you’re willing to pay a small amount or just Google “transcribe YouTube video” and look for an ad supported site that’ll do it via Google.) Second: use chatgpt or local llama to summarize the transcript.

          • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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            2 months ago

            I hope nobody lets them know that Firefox on Linux has never shown ads for any of their content.

          • x4740N@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            You don’t have to actually watch sponsorships since most of them are paying the creator excluding the ones where they pay by clicks on a custom link

        • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I don’t follow those creators!

          The best part of YouTube is the small creators who are just making videos as a hobby. Once they get so big they start shilling products they wouldn’t use themselves I drop them like a hot potato. For the most part that doesn’t happen though because I prefer niche topics and creators that don’t have “sellout” personalities.

        • John Richard@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I know right… Why should content creators be able to make money from content. Am I right?

          • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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            2 months ago

            You’re joking, but you’re right.

            Once the content has been created, the near-zero marginal cost of online distribution makes the concept of charging for copies wholly untenable.

            The furry community figured this out years ago, our creators work on commission or paid subscription through Patreon or one of its ilk. They (mostly) don’t care where you freely share their work because they already got paid.

            • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              The knives are out for Patreon. Apple is looking to carve a big chunk out of that revenue. Google and Amazon (owner of Twitch) will not be far behind. Believe me, Google and Twitch are very unhappy that creators skip the platform monetization methods and just tell viewers to go to Patreon to bypass the heavy commissions.

              • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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                2 months ago

                Patreon deserves to die, their cut of the subscription income is extortionate for what amounts to a very limited web hosting platform.

                Open-source alternatives like Mirlo or Cloud Patron will take its place, it’s only a matter of time.

                • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  2 months ago

                  Patreon is jacked to the tits with vc money and enshittifying at a breakneck speeds. Done expect goods innovations from it in the future

      • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
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        2 months ago
        • Reviews
        • Trailers
        • Reactions
        • Travel vlogs
        • Beginner tutorials

        To some extent, these types of videos advertise or promote a product, service, or experience.

      • bruhbeans@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I’ve clicked in to see a movie trailer, which is basically an ad, and had to watch an ad before I could watch the ad

        • chakan2@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Yea…I’m old enough to remember when that was the content that paid for the platform. Putting an ad on top of that is fucking soulless vampic greed.

        • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I have no problem watching a ad for a video but when I have to watch an ad just to see if I am interested in watching the video is where I draw the line. Forced ads before the video starts is the worst. Give me a min or two before forcing an ad. If I am looking for help for a particular issue I don’t want to watch ads after ad while trying to gauge the video.

          • InternetUser2012@lemmy.today
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            2 months ago

            I get what you’re saying but I’ve reached a point in my life where I really don’t give a shit and there is absolutely no way I’m watching ads. I’m also not paying google for anything they offer.

    • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I’m sure they make enough money to not care. Being in the part of the company that brings in the dough is generally a pretty good position to be in as well.

    • suction@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      All corporate IT jobs are depressing, because working in a corporation isn’t something that a thinking person is equipped to do.

    • John Richard@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      So tell the content creators you like that you don’t like YouTube. While YouTube Premium is the same price as like two coffees a month… Maybe your content creator will help you if you can’t afford it.

      • claudiop@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Well, to begin with, both the watcher and the creator are clients of the platform. Both sides feel bound to it, even if both dislike it.

        Then, YouTube premium is literally 20 machine coffees a month in my first world country. 15 if they’re done by someone. You seem to be speaking “privileged minority”.

        • John Richard@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I’m sorry… I didn’t realize the reason that there are so many Starbucks in America, like literally caddy corner from one another is because their customer base is the “privileged minority.” I’ll have to remember that line.

          In all seriousness, you could argue that ads prey on poor vulnerable people unable to afford YouTube Premium that just want to use it to learn, and that would be a semi-coherent argument.

          • claudiop@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            What you are trying to point is that in the United States of America (and maybe Canada) you people have coffee that’s so expensive that two of them pay for YT premium. You’re only missing out on most of the internet (eg. Not the US).

            Starbucks is notoriously expensive and nobody refers to it as coffee round here. Starbucks in my first world country is considered something for hipster digital nomads. You can’t find them outside areas with tourists as everyone else is happy with “regular” coffee that’s literally 10 times cheaper.

            Saying that two coffees equate to YouTube premium while using Starbucks as a metric is like saying that a car only costs a watch or two while using a Rolex as the reference watch. If you consider a Rolex to be your reference watch, cool, you’re a privileged minority.