this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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Those YouTube ads everyone hates made $10.4 billion in just three months (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 6 months ago by ryujin470@fedia.io to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 56 points 6 months ago (3 children)

That's absolutely unbelievable to me. I block ads on everything. I just can't handle it. For the few ad-based services that I pay for, I mute it for every commercial. Seriously, I just can't handle it.

But... clearly tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of people do watch them... which makes a massively lucrative business. I'll just never understand it.

When I need something, I look it up and get it. If i don't need something, I don't want to hear about it in any way, shape, or form.

Ugh.

10 billion. 😖

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 28 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Most people using a smartphone use the default YouTube app. And that app does not have any ability to block ads. Most people don't know they can block ads or even if they did, they don't know how.

[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 6 months ago

I've heard of enough people wanting ads too. And people complaining that they want them back after they were blocked.

It gets harder and harder to have any faith in humanity these days.

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yep. It's becoming more and more common for folks to know that they can do it, but it certainly isn't ubiquitous. It wasn't that long ago when I caught my partner listening to music on YouTube with all the ads and I blew their mind away by installing NewPipe. They just had no idea.

[–] three@lemm.ee 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This is kind of a sticky situation for me. While I'm pretty tech savvy, my partner is not. I'd love to have them use NewPipe. But as a NewPipe user myself, it has been very buggy lately due to YouTube changing things. I understand why it's buggy but they would not and I think it would be more annoying than helpful.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 months ago

Firefox+U-block Origin works pretty well on mobile

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 6 months ago

I've had no problems with ReVanced. It's a little complicated to set up so I wouldn't blame a non-techy for not doing it, but if you can set it up for them, it works great. And it has the huge bonus of being able to connect to your YouTube account to let you do things like comment and add to playlists, to work well when switching between desktop and mobile.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 months ago

I use YouTube in Firefox for Android because it has ublock. That's by far the easiest way. All the other apps wouldn't work for me or don't show my recommendations.

[–] pedz@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 months ago (3 children)

My pet peeve about ads everywhere now is on Android.

Your Android phone doesn't come with a voice recorder? Download one, with ads every time you record.

You want a different calculator? Ads!

Flashlight app? Ads!

Notepad? Ads!

And people just apparently accept ads in nearly every app, even the most basic ones.

I don't remember the Sound Recorder, or Notepad having ads. But because people are now used to ads everywhere, it's certainly coming as MS is trying to jam ads in everywhere possible in Windows too, now.

I'm so grateful for Linux. The apps I get through apt-get don't make me watch ads. Unfortunately even if based on Linux, the Android world is so infuriatingly crammed with ads.

I wish I could find a "phone" or portable device in that format, with an OS that works like "true" Linux.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 24 points 6 months ago

Use f-droid. The apps may not always be as polished (hell, some play store apps look like they came out of 2005), but you can filter apps by anti-features such as ads, tracking, permissions, etc.

As for what you've mentioned:

The fossify repo of apps is privacy friendly, no ads, etc.

Fossify Voice Recorder (Record anything with this Open-source and Ad-free recorder) https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.voicerecorder/

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 23 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Uh, may I introduce you to F-droid, the FOSS "appstore".

Edit: adding a link and also the community:

https://f-droid.org/

!fdroid@lemmy.ml

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

Fortunately, you can block all those ads on Android. Check out Tracker Control: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.kollnig.missioncontrol.fdroid

TrackerControl allows you to monitor and control the widespread, ongoing, hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behaviour (tracking).

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

You can also just set your private DNS to something like dns.adguard.com and block almost all ads in every app, no installs required

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago

Yep, that can work per device or per network. I'm a big fan of Tracker Control because it's going to work on any network. It's also highly customizable.

[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm personally using p2.freedns.controld.com for anyone looking for an alternative.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I actually use adblock.dns.mullvad.net, I just recommend adguard for beginners as it seems more stable (though I've not had a stability issue with mullvad for years)

[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

Always good to have options. People need to find whatever works for them.

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

or just use DNS servers from Mullvad, no additional app required https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls#android

[–] limerod@reddthat.com 1 points 5 months ago

If you want something that's simple, fire and forget. You can try PersonalDNSFilter.

[–] Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

For the few ad-based services that I pay for, I mute it for every commercial. Seriously, I just can't handle it.

Why would you pay for something with ads?

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 months ago

Because I'm not privileged enough to afford it without.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 25 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

It's a scam:

  • Add ads
  • People ignore the ads
  • Companies still pay for the ads
  • Profit! 🤑
  • Let people pay for no ads
  • Profit!! 🤑🤑
  • Content adds product placement
  • Companies pay for product placement
  • Profit!!! 🤑🤑🤑
  • Make ads more obnoxious
  • People use more advanced ad blockers
  • Companies still pay extra for new ads
  • Profit!!!! 🤑🤑🤑🤑

...etc

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 8 points 6 months ago

i hope nebula stays nice and clean

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In what sense is this a scam?

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

At every step they get someone to pay for less than what they promise: advertisers pay for more than their effective reach, consumers get more ads than what they pay to remove, content creators get paid a fraction of less than what they generate.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure Google can be blamed for people using ad blockers - but from that perspective actively preventing ad blockers would be the "right" thing to do. Unless you want them to ban creators securing in video sponsor deals, I'm not sure what you want Google to do here or how that's a scam. YouTube premium removes Google's ads, I don't think it claims to do anything else. Do Google make claims about creators getting paid everything they generate? Was anyone under that impression? The platform does need to be paid for and the revenue generated through some content creators is subsidising others.

YouTube isn't perfect by any stretch, I don't enjoy ads any more than anyone else, but calling it a scam just seems very far removed from reality.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 2 points 6 months ago

Google Ads should get their algo audited, be held to offering a fair pricing for advertisers, let content creators have their sponsors, and give paying users what they pay for: no ads. YouTube already has a channel subscription and reward system that they skim off the top, and if Nebula can offer quality content for less than half the price of Premium while giving creators a larger chunk, I don't see how YouTube can justify its current pricing structure.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

everyone

youtube has ads?

[–] jdeath@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago

what ads?

[–] beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's possible to dodge the deluge of ads, of course, by signing up for the YouTube Premium subscription service.

Oh yeah! That's another way to do it. I forgot.

[–] Alice@beehaw.org 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Newpipe, Pipepipe, Tubular, Revanced, a half-decent adblocker........

[–] B0rax@feddit.org 10 points 6 months ago

And companies belief, that this spending was worth it an people spend much more than that on their products.

[–] InevitableList@beehaw.org 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

This is from Q4 when ad spending doubles in the run up to Christmas. Q1 would probably earn half as much.

Plus it was an election year so loads of money from campaign ads, too.