Youtube is waging a war against their customers. If they win, they lose; and if they lose they win.

On the one hand I understand they aren't serving billions of hours of video for their own health. Not sure how one can justify the expenditure as a "loss leader". But at the same time, the ad experience is horrendous.

In the last month I have consumed YT on desktop browser, mobile, and regular TV. Guess which is by far the worst experience?

On desktop, you can use an alternate browser or do a reg edit to re-enable manifest v2 plugins (for now) in Chrome, and continue blocking (for now). On mobile you can use alternate apps and frontends.

TV viewing of YT is the worst experience, as there are no native alternative apps and DNS ad blocking doesn't block YT ads. The native YouTube app (on Samsung and LG TVs at least) is horrendous. You get midroll ads sometimes mid-sentence as the content presenter is speaking. Sometimes you get pre-roll ads, disruptive mid roll ads, and then wash it down with a POST-roll ad at the end of the video. Depending on how the content is structured it is disorienting as to whether the video has ended or not.

Say for example its a 30 minute video. I would rather they show 5-7 minutes of predictable ads at the beginning of content, so I can at least have the same experience as broadcast TV, and make an informed decision to get up and use the restroom and feed the pets while the ads roll. Then once the content starts, don't randomly interrupt it.

Imagine the YT model applied to broadcast television. The quarterback drops back to throw a deep pass towards the endzone, and suddenly you find yourself watching an undskippable ad for diarrhea medication, while the football is in the air.

And we wonder why people have ADD.

Just got a one-minute unskippable ad for the first time yesterday (no way to use adbockers on a PS5). I'd rather not watch at all.

I pay for YouTube Family. I consume a lot of YouTube and I want to support the creators I watch. At its current price point, YouTube Family is reasonable. Several households in my family get ad-free YouTube for what is a reasonably low price point for each household.

If the price goes up much (eg if I were paying the single price of $11 per household), the creators I really enjoy continue to get pushed out or change content because of shitty ad rules, or they pull the whole “must be in the same household” bullshit I would drop it in a heartbeat just like I’ve dropped most streaming providers. Streaming has become cable and YouTube has been shooting itself in the foot by forcibly changing content for advertisers. I come to the platform for content, not advertisers.

MMW: Google plans to make Chrome a locked down browser for a proprietary web. But this is only the intermediate step before all web services will be accessed via an app. The commercial web and the public web will hard fork and the kids will never know what a "browser" is.

Any one else watch the Linux tech tips video (degooglefying) where he tried to claim blocking ads was Piracy.

That pissed me off because blocking ads is honestly just protecting yourself against viruses which appear even on ads on Google etc.

Also who am I depriving of their property by blocking ads, F you linus.

Remember when videos had to be at least 10 minutes long, so more ads could be added to the play time? Now they don't give a fuck.

And Sponsorblock. Can't imagine going back.