YouTube Tests Showing Ads When You Pause a Video, Calls it ''Pause Ads''

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-pause-ads-3437531/

YouTube first spoke about pause ads last year when it started trialing them in select regions. At the time, the company said that when you pause a video, it will shrink, and an ad will appear next to it.

Example: Image

“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler noted. He went on to share that YouTube’s pause ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”

Schindler didn’t share any timelines for when pause ads will start appearing on YouTube, but we know they’ll first roll out on smart TVs. The nature of these ads, including their duration, skippability, and more is still unclear. We also don’t know if Google plans to introduce these ads on YouTube’s mobile apps.

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Comments

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jqubed@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
But usually I’m pausing a video to try to read text that appeared too briefly in the video!

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- hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Not anymore, you don’t!
  
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- variants@possumpat.io ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Wait you watch the video? I thought everyone just went there for the ads and emailed YouTube executives to please keep adding more
  
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  - quaddo@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    A fellow Marlboro Coors Lite Ford Chevy SUV pickup banking insurance sportsball enthusiast, I see
    
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- Deebster@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Same, I had to ad-block some custom elements on YouTube ages ago because they kept covering the screen with “related videos” whenever I paused to read something.
  
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  - umbrella@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    DF youtube addon is great for that and similar annoyances.
    
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- assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  ‘Drink verification can peasant’
  
  Google
  
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empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Wait y’all still see ads on YouTube?

If I can’t block ads on a device, I’m not using YouTube on that particular device.

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- Neato@ttrpg.network ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  A major reason we only watch YouTube via a browser on a media center PC.
  
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  - theareciboincident@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Normies genuinely turn on their Smart TV, watch start menu ads, open the YouTube app, wait 90 seconds for the shitty cpu to load the web view, scroll through hundreds of Spider-Man Elsa brainwashing, open a video, watch 3 minutes of ads, straight into a 3 minute sponsor segment. All before seeing any actual content.
    
    And they see no problem with this at all, the thought that you can make ads go away literally does not even occur to them as a possibility.
    
    Humanity deserves extinction, I’m gonna go release some refrigerant real quick
    
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  - Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You can use SmartTube on Android TV, Yattee with this guide on iOS/iPadOS/tvOS or this app on webOS
    
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  - sandman@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You can block ads on youtube on mobile devices by using firefox in desktop mode with ublock origin.
    
    Fuck youtube. Fuck ads. Fuck useful idiots defending either.
    
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- Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m not sure I even own any devices that can’t block YouTube ads. You can do it on anything running android, including Android TV.
  
  If they ever fight this and win, I’ll simply stop using YouTube altogether.
  
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- TheFederatedPipe@kbin.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  @empireOfLove2 I don't get it, how can they use the internet without an ad blocker? The first thing that I do is download Firefox + uBlock Origin on any device before of using it.
  
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  - empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I honestly don’t know. far too many people are just conditioned or browbeaten into just dealing with the cancer of ads that the modern internet is. feels a lot like it’s a bit of a “frog in boiling water” situation where most people don’t even realize how bad it’s gotten over so many years.
    
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- Cheems@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  For real, the ads are freaking insane on there nowadays. I couldn’t handle it.
  
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mark@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Google says pause ads on YouTube are getting a very positive reaction from advertisers

Bc screw the users and their reactions 😄. We really need a good YouTube competitor. This is beyond ridiculous at this point.

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- Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also, The new ball-bearing guillotine is getting rave reviews from guillotine operators!
  
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  - lando55@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    For all you know the victims rate it positively as well but they don’t submit feedback
    
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  - AtariDump@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Image
    
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- ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Google has great customer service, your just not the customer.
  
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- hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  We really need a good YouTube competitor.
  
  Will we have two of them, Odyee & Rumble.
  
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  - Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I don’t know anything about Odysee, but Rumble is a shithole.
    
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  - werefreeatlast@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Both seem/are single point of failure choices. I like a fediverse YouTube alternative.
    
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  - 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Never heard of rumble. Looks interesting
    
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- jonne@infosec.pub ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s definitely something I want to see when I pause YouTube to take a phone call or whatever.
  
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HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Shit like this is why they stopped making new Black Mirror episodes

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- irreticent@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It was supposed to be a warning, not a manual.
  
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  - HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I still get chills thinking about that guy who gets blocked from communicating with ANYONE AT ALL EVER! Especially as companies like Reddit go ban-happy on a power trip and Youtube destroys channels with bullshit content strikes.
    
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foggy@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I can’t wait til YouTube fucks around and finds out.

I got hobbies that are way more fun than ads.

I’m addicted to their shit because it provides a constant stream of dopamine. You fuck that up with ads, I will break the addiction. Seamlessly. It won’t even be difficult to do if going back kicks me in the balls with ads. I’m gone. My guitar is right here. My home server is right here. My GitHub profile could use some TLC. I got a long Todo list.

Do it. Go full enshitification.

I’m actually kind of excited for it.

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- Mkengine@feddit.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This was me with Reddit, my worst days were 8 hours a day. Now I spent 30 mins per day at most on Lemmy.
  
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  - Buddahriffic@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, my first reaction to seeing the API changes on Reddit was actually more of a glee/relief response than upset/disappointed. It meant that its grip on me was going to be over once those changes went through. I was worried the protests might get them to back down because I hated it there but always knew that the easy dopamine was just an app away.
    
    Now I’m here though. I don’t hate it here, at least not yet, but I haven’t freed up the time like I was hoping to.
    
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- CosmoNova@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  While I share your sentiment, they’ve got a backdoor for exactly that scenario: Youtube Premium. We are addicted to the algorithm and a lot of us are willing to pay good money for their stream of dopamine. Of course Google will eventually mess up there too, but it could easily give them another decade of intense money milking.
  
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  - foggy@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    lol I’m not paying for shit.
    
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  - tal@lemmy.today ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’d pay for a premium service if it meant that YouTube couldn’t profile me. I don’t really want to pay for it just so that they can reliably link financial data to the profile they build on me.
    
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  - ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I use it all the time but I definitely don’t use the “algorithm”.
    
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  - Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I pay for it. It gets rid of the ads when I need a video of how to do XYZ thing. It lets me watch channels that I care about without interpretations. The main thing for me though is when a friend or family member sends me a YouTube video, I don’t have to watch ads.
    
    It’s weird to me that folks are so hostile towards paying for things they use on the Internet. I mean, I get that venture capital fueled a seemingly endless “free lunch” of new services with small amounts of advertising… but it had to end at some point. It costs a lot of money to run a “YouTube.”
    
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  - PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I pay for the family bundle for YT Music. The ad free YT is just a bonus.
    
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- Nommer@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This right here. Cut off the dopamine with overly aggressive ads and I’m out. If they ever get it so ad lockers aren’t effective then hopefully we’ll see it die off.
  
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electric@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve had this for about a week or 2. Super annoying because you can’t continue the video by pressing the play/pause button, need to “Ok” the video window. Come on Google, you just bricked a button on your OWN OS. Awful.

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- northendtrooper@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What OS are you on?
  
  What Browser are you using?
  
  Are you using any ad blockers?
  
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  - mean_bean279@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They’re running Android (Google) TV
    
    No browser, likely app based (hence the TV)
    
    You could theoretically run a PiHole, but I don’t believe that works too well on YouTube anymore. Especially considering the tight integration Google utilizes for their ad services with their non-paid services.
    
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NutWrench@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Damn. YouTube is just SO desperate to squeeze every bit of ad revenue they can, wherever they can.

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- SendMePhotos@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Remember when YouTube wasn’t riddled with pests? I remember… It was a pleasant experience.
  
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  - chiliedogg@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    When it was hemorrhaging money?
    
    We’re in a weird time where all the tech companies are being told at once that they need to start being profitable, and at the same time the EU is cracking down on lots of the shady shit they’ve been using to control the bleeding to this point.
    
    The internet has spent the last 20 years developing an economic model that’s quickly becoming unsustainable, and none of the big web companies seem to have been prepared.
    
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- MrPoopbutt@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Capitalism in a nutshell
  
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Corno@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Laughs in UBlock Origin

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- cryptix@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also SmartTube
  
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- ilikecoffee@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Revanced :)
  
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- Joelk111@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Laughs in… Supporting creators by supporting them in other ways than watching ads on their videos, right? Right???
  
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  - Corno@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, such as Patreon. Less hassle with more substance.
    
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- Llewellyn@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  There are ways to completely neutralize ublock power: put ads on the same server, as content + randomise div identificators
  
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  - ours@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, they could put the ads in the same stream but it would be too costly or inflexible. Ads have to be targeted to the specific market or even user so that would kill their advantage and turn them into generic TV ads.
    
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Toneswirly@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lol Google is going to die by their own hands

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- woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I don’t think they will because the competition is too incompetent. I give you two examples:
  
  I’m a subscriber of Nebula, a paid streaming service where educational YouTubers get a better cut and users don’t get ads. Those creators almost always fail to promote their Nebula uploads. “Hey guys, new video.” And they link to YouTube only. Also they leave their Patreon shout-outs in which is not what I’m paying money for. YouTube with Sponsor Block just is the better experience at this point and I just keep paying for Nebula because I hope it’ll get better and I like its idea.
  
  Second example: I try to watch live streaming on the websites of the broadcaster or so. And more often than not it’s a shit show: I can’t properly pause the streams because they don’t support time shifting and bitrate adjustments are also not as smooth as YouTube.
  
  It’s 2024 and internet video is over two decades old at this point and yet almost nobody else manages to get their shit together. Companies like Netflix have good tech but their business is completely different, so those compete with YouTube at best tangentially.
  
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  - gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Also they leave their Patreon shout-outs in which is not what I’m paying money for
    
    No, but it’s what other people have paid for. Usually at the end of a video past it’s actual content, in what’s considered the “credits”, people who helped pay are tradiditionaly part of that.
    
    If it’s elsewhere in the video that fucks with flow then yeah, that’s bad, but the normal process has been in place for longer than either of us has been alive
    
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  - sandman@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The competition for youtube is peertube, not another centralized platform.
    
    It just needs content.
    
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  - CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The only company that can compete with YouTube is pornhub. People have been begging on their hands and knees for them to enter the hard space. It’s fertile territory, with lots of the kinks worked out. I really hope they spank YouTube in the nuts and give it a go.
    
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  - HopingForBetter@lemmy.today ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’ll agree that competition is not as robust.
    
    However, it will be interesting to see how many “non-techy” people discover how easy it is to find content for free without ads.
    
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JustZ@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
YouTube is unwatchable for me with all these ads. Even without ads, content creators mostly all follow the same generic bullshit format.

It used to be a great resource for visual aids and explanations, now it’s filled with money making schemes and scams and every video has 14 minutes of bullshit and 1 minute of content.

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- PlexSheep@infosec.pub ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I watch a lot of YouTube, but not without udblock and Sponsorblock. It’s just not enjoyable otherwise. Whenever they do something that makes my stuff not work for like 2 days I just watch something on my home server.
  
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- Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  15 minutes videos of some over excited guy overlayed on or overlayed by lots of cutesy/flashy/cartoony pics, interspected by irrelevant/low-brow-humour “I’m so cool” video segments, padded with tons of fluffy talk and with every silly post-production effect conceivable, to make a point that could have been made in 2 minutes.
  
  I barelly every watch Youtube nowadays, especially if I’m looking to actually learn something or for the solution for a specific problem.
  
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  - JustZ@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah all that stuff.
    
    Everyone is a celebrity.
    
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cryptix@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Enshitification

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- FleetingTit@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  If this comes on top of the current ad-load then it is enshitification. If it replaces mid- or pre-roll ads it might make youtube somewhat usable again, even without adblocking.
  
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fidodo@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
So they’ll stop injecting ads in the middle of videos at the worst possible times right?

…

So they’ll stop injecting ads… Right?

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- Legend@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  RIGHT ?
  
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slaacaa@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
DRINK VERIFICATION CAN

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Got_Bent@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My Roku is doing this and has been doing this for quite some time.

Of all the ad delivery schemes cooked up over the past ten years, this one is the least offensive to me.

Like I’ll come back from the bathroom or whatever, and all that registers before I hit play is that some random graphic is covering the screen while on pause. I cannot name a single thing that’s been in any of those ads.

In general, I do wonder how effective this constant onslaught of marketing is. At some point there have got to be diminishing returns, right?

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- Wogi@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  We’re in the era of diminishing returns. There’s so little left to squeeze out of the working class that every extra dollar they want costs more than the last one. They’re running out of options on how to convince us to let go of those dollars.
  
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- SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I agree. But at the same time, if I pause something, I want it to pause and I want the noise to stop.
  
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  - Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I think these are image based static ads, not video ads
    
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  - HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    In this comment, old man yells at cloud:
    
    When the phone rings, I need to be able to press one button to pause my video and stop the sound. Not two. I still have to hunt for my phone (assuming they are different devices) and find the right button on that thing, since I now have five different phones in my house and they all accept calls differently (unless I program them, and since they belong to people who aren’t me, I don’t get to). I’m turning into a goddamn luddite and I love technology, I just am running out of attention span.
    
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- PhAzE@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Roku is a terrible product. It’s cheap, and they have full control over every part of it and aren’t afraid to exploit it to users’ detriment. Like the recent user agreement changes that bricked TVs until you agreed.
  
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  - Got_Bent@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, yes. I’m sure I’ve got several things in my home that are terrible. I’ve cut off streaming and Amazon, have never owned a gaming console or gaming PC, quit reddit, quit Facebook, never had Twitter, Instagram, Tok Tok, used wish, etc. I do not use cash transfer apps. Neither my appliances nor my HVAC connect to the Internet.
    
    But I can’t become a complete Luddite overnight. It’s a series of steps. So until this Roku that I bought about six or seven years ago craps the bed, I will continue using it, mostly with antenna broadcast local stations, but also with some of the free streaming sites like Tubi.
    
    If you would like to come audit the entirety of my existence and personally fund immediate replacement of everything I have that is evil or offensive, I invite your benevolence.
    
    Otherwise, let a guy use an illustrative example while engaging in casual Internet conversation in peace.
    
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ElderberryLow@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Tomorrow YouTube is introducing ads when you think about YouTube.

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Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Please drink verification can

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nl4real@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Oh noes, another ad I don’t see because of ublock! Trollface

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azenyr@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
To be fair, if they are like the example (static silent ads) they would be the least intrusive ads that YouTube ever had. To the point that I don’t even mind them. All of YouTube ads should be like this, not annoying, silent, and easily ignored.

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NutWrench@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ads are a way for corporations to steal your life from you, 60 seconds at a time.

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jacktherippah@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Can we have a YouTube competitor? Pretty please? 🥺

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homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
YouTube. Google. Alphabet.

“driving strong brand lift results”

FUCK. YOU.

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uzay@infosec.pub ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ah, taking inspiration from what porn sites have been doing for decades to trick you into clicking on ads. Nice work, Google.

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postmateDumbass@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Soon testing new version thay shows some of your video when you are allowed tp pause your ad.

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Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Well to be fair this only affects users that are not blocking ads in the first place.

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archchan@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’d sooner stop using the internet than be forced to imprint that carefully crafted poison into my psyche. They will not steal my life with ads.

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Showroom7561@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
An add-on that simply overlays a black box when you pause is easy enough.

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hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Use Youtube frontends. Like Freetube & NewPipe. All of Youtube’s BS will disappear.

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Plopp@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is great, because I usually pause videos because I want to watch ads.

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victorz@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They already do that on my TV. Except it’s after I press play and when it’s been paused for like a minute or more, or something.

But this is a whole new level of making it shittier. Like, I want to pause so I can hear something else, or something needs my attention, and there’s an ad playing? This can’t become a reality. Can’t.

I mean I already rock the best ad blocker so it’s whatever to me on desktop, but on my TV? I’m gonna have to get a pi-hole.

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SteefLem@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
So youtube is now basically an advertisement channel with some user content in between.

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