I was watching a video on landscape mode on my phone on YouTube. And then when a wild midroll ad appears, the ad thinks it's a good idea to play a ultrawide-screen video inside a TikTok style vertical phone window, and then puts that in a widescreen video. The whole thing also got smaller to display the CTA at the right.
Which reminds me, I hate how YT ads on mobile try to forcibly cover up the entire screen. It's like seeing a billboard that suddenly expands to fill most of your vision. They didn't used to do that, instead they just took over the video portion of the screen, but you could keep browsing comments while the ad plays.
This is basically YouTube's fault. I was one of those who initially did not block the ads to "support" creators I watched, and just used the app. Now they've made that completely insufferable and think my alternative is going to be to pay the subscription. Idiots.
First they started kicking you out of incognito and then add whatever you were watching to your account. It used to be that the video you were watching would also close.
Then if you don't skip the first ad, they play a 5 minute ad after with the most obnoxious shit hoping you're not there to click.
Then they tripled the amount of ads you have to skip, and making part of them 15-30 seconds unskippable ones. Now ads are about 1/4 of my watch time which is on par with the old cable model.
The straw that broke the camel's back is now when you open the app, IT AUTO PLAYS SHORTS FULLSCREEN! At least if it was the creators I normally see in my shorts, but now it's some garbage trending youtuber I don't know. AND NOW THAT IVE WATCHED 1 SECOND OF IT THEY ARE NOW RECOMMENDED IN MY CONTENT.
I used to juggle accounts to focus the algorithm of certain type of videos for certain accounts, and youtube has completely ruined that too. Fuck that, went with the webapps and skipped the ads entirely. Fuck you youtube, you spat on those who gave you the least trouble. Never going back to the app.
Like, does this approach yt is taking really increase viewership, revenue, watchtime, whatever the metric is?
I seriously can't imagine, that it works. If you're savvy enough, you'll use AdBlock of some kind and for the less techy people it gets insufferable. That can't be good for yt.
I'm not really a fan of sponsor block. It's pretty much the most privacy respecting way of advertising and safe income for the creator. Seems like a win−win. I don't like watching ads but I'd rather watch a sponsor segment than a YouTube ad
I see your point, but I really wish we could go back to a more innocent internet, when people make slightly crappy videos as a hobby, rather than overproduced shows as a profession.
Hang on, let me fax you a Polaroid of the printed spreadsheet I've been using as a database. I'll be sending it through an amateur radio repeater with autopatch.
Hosting video content must be insanely expensive so I have some amount of sympathy for YouTube. However, ads earn such a paltry amount that I can hardly fathom how anyone can put up with it.
The total amount of ad revenue between all sites is only like $12 per user per year. So IMO it is a net benefit to block all ads (save your sanity!) and simply pay the creators of content you like.
Even just one $5 Patreon sub is worth more than all ads I'm likely to see so I block everything I can and IMO my conscience is clear
I know i get Downvotes all the way, but just pay for YouTube Premium.
I do it a while now and me and my wife use YouTube Music for Music Streaming (wich i like more than Spotify).
NewPipe is no Solution for me, cause i watch YouTube on my TV and listen Music on my Smart Speaker.