I was wondering if this was coming. I don’t use YouTube in-browser much if at all, so I don’t see this. But I am not surprised. The fact that they’re slowing down people who pay for premium is kind of an act of war. It shouldn’t be a thing, and the fact that it’s happening at all is a misstep on Google’s part. Not that the whole slowing down people who use ad blockers isn’t. But this will detrimentally affect adoption of premium subscribers which I thought was the last thing they’d want. Because they obviously don’t make enough off ad revenue to support the platform. That’s part of why they push premium so hard. They need more premium subscribers. This is idiocy.
Comment on YouTube is slowing down for users with ad blockers in new wave
davemeech@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
So I have YouTube premium but also have ad-blocker, for the first time yesterday I was noticing absolutely abysmal speeds on YouTube and I suspect this is why. I thought my computer was starting to shit the bed initially it was so brutal.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 8 months ago
davemeech@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I can’t remember what video I watched that talked about the unsustainabilty and likely the late stages of an ad revenue driven internet content model, and this situation reeks of that.
I don’t know what new paradigm might replace it if this is the case, but the current model feels like it’s absolutely failing.
Steve@startrek.website 8 months ago
Ha! Serves you right
CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have premium, uBlock Origin, and Mullvad VPN. I can stream in Duck browser fine, which has built in ad blocking, but in Firefox the other day, the stream was dying every 10-30 seconds. Like it would just stop and give me a spinner. I would havr to “Copy URL at current time”, open a new tab, and paste it in to get it to go any further. I do have bad internet, but this was nuts. And then I gave up and used Duck, and it played flawlessly in their embedded player.
Good job, Google.
Vlyn@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
After getting premium I just switched the adblocker off for YouTube. Premium would be far too expensive if it didn’t also include YouTube Music :-/
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 8 months ago
uBlock Origin works on YouTube Music, too.
If you want to throw a few bucks at the people providing you a service, then donate to an ad blocker for helping make the Internet a better and more user-friendly place. …not the big fuckers like YouTube who contributing to the enshitification of the entire web.
danafest@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Ublock doesn’t accept donations
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 8 months ago
While uBlock would be most deserving of a donation imo, there are others that do accept. Even if it’s an ad blocker you don’t actively use, you’d still be supporting a developer who’s using their time and skills to improve the web.
Donating to no one would be better than paying YouTube.
Vlyn@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
YouTube already has ways to block users with adblock. They just haven’t fully rolled it out yet.
Lately they blocked playing videos when I had uBlock Origin running, but it was just a warning I could click away. They might also slow down page loading and playback.
YouTube has the ability to lock users with adblock out, they are just very careful about using it. Mostly starting with trials in smaller countries and getting more bold over time.
Hawke@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Wow, so you pay them and they still screw you? Glad that’s a product I’ll never buy then!
CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have YouTube premium and an adblocker and I don’t have this problem. I’m skeptical that it’s related.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I too am a YouTube premium customer, and my video performance is horrible lately.
Funny enough, on my living room smart TV YouTube app my performance has been bad as well, even though I am logged in to my premium YouTube account.
Something is going on, and it does effect some (at least) premium customers.
PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi 8 months ago
Wasn’t that exactly how the adblock blocks went out in the first place? Only a few areas at a time were affected.
essteeyou@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Same, YT Premium, Firefox, ad blocker, no issues with streaming.
davemeech@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I know, right? But I suppose their reasoning is that my ads are also blocked across the rest of their ecosystem, my subscription isn’t covering those losses.
Still though, a model that requires that customers look at something they don’t want to nor will engage with smells like failure.
Hawke@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m generally okay with the idea of “you can get it for free and we’ll include ads to pay for it, or you can pay instead”.
Where I’m definitely not okay is “you can pay, and we’ll include ads anyway.”
buddascrayon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The sick twist is that I use Ublock Origin and won’t ever pay for YouTube premium and I haven’t experienced even the slightest issue streaming videos on YouTube. 😂
essteeyou@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Anecdotally at best. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but you’re making a conclusion based on something one person said.