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... or so some web pages are now saying according to an article published by El Reg:
The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post has become the largest newspaper to refuse to serve readers who filter out advertisments.
The Post described it as "a short test" to gauge what users who use blocked blockers will do next. "Often, we run tests like this not in reaction to a problem, but to learn," said the paper in a statement.
Last week, Google also began to nuke the filters used to block preroll ads on its YouTube service. For extra punishment, YouTube viewers using AdBlock Plus had to sit through the full ad, by disabling the 'Skip Ad' button.
Around one in seven surfers use ad-blocking software, although the proportion rises when the demographic mix skews towards middle class and wealthy, and young and male, according to the latest annual PageFair report... into ad filters.
There is a reason why people use ad blockers. Sometimes it's for purposes of sanity, to avoid the very annoying auto-playing ads that more and more web sites now host. Others block them for security purposes, limiting one's exposure to the nastiness that can sometimes come from unscrupulous advertisers. Still others block them to reduce the draw on their precious bandwidth, especially those who get throttled if they use their monthly limit. Perhaps the Washington Post should be more careful with who they sell advertising to and more strictly limit the format of the adverts their sponsors pay them to publish instead of punishing those who block all of them.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday September 17 2015, @09:08AM
That's all fine and dandy, unless you have no alternative choices. Alternatives to Youtube for video content are pathetic at best. So... you're pretty much stuck with whatever Google wants to shove down your throat if you want to watch videos online.
Same for Google search - sorry, Bing, DDG or Blekko just don't cut the mustard. That's what you get with virtual monopolies like Google.
(Score: -1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2015, @09:13AM
ftfy
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday September 17 2015, @09:19AM
That's all fine and dandy, unless you have no alternative choices. Alternatives to Youtube for video content are pathetic at best. So... you're pretty much stuck with whatever Google wants to shove down your throat if you want to watch videos online.
I just download videos with youtube-dl and use adblockers and other anti-garbage plugins; no problems with ads or anything else. Even if they somehow stopped that, it's not like you need Youtube videos at all. I'm not sure I see the issue.
Same for Google search - sorry, Bing, DDG or Blekko just don't cut the mustard.
I use DDG and it seems fine to me. I have no trouble cutting off Google.
There's all kinds of other garbage in addition to this ad nonsense. I frequently see sites that want me to connect to over 20 third-party sites, all blocked by RequestPolicy. Not surprisingly, these same sites are often completely dysfunctional unless you allow a bunch of the third-party sites to load, and even then it's not certain that they'll work. And then there's "Comments powered by Disqus". "Comments powered by concentrated liquid feces" is more like it. It seems very few people know how to design a proper website, so it's not surprising they're making dumb decisions about advertisement policies.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday September 17 2015, @11:37AM
I use DDG and it seems fine to me. I have no trouble cutting off Google.
Likewise. I still try Bing (you never know...) and Google if DDG doesn't find what I'm looking for, but I can't remember the last time either actually has.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday September 17 2015, @01:15PM
Me too. DDG works fine most of the time for me as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2015, @02:04PM
I love Duck Duck Go with their bang commands. If I want a Google search of cute kittens because I don't like the results of DDG, I type in DDG "cute kittens !g" (no quotes). There is also youtube search (!yt), bing search (!b), amazon search (!a), google maps search (!gm), and pretty much anything you may want. Hell, there is even a kickass torrent search (!kat).
No way I feel stuck with google for their search engine. But point taken for youtube though, all alternatives are bad. We need a DDG of tubes.
(Score: 2) by TheB on Thursday September 17 2015, @05:07PM
I wish I could cut off Google completely as well, but DDG's search results are often lacking.
Until DDG gets functional date filtering I'll be stuck using Google search occasionally. DDG have been working on it for over 4 years and have only implemented a sort by date feature, which is currently broken.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:47AM
Try startpage.com instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2015, @09:59AM
Personally, I'd just stop watching useless video crap without replacing it with another video site.
Ofc, the problem is that this doesn't apply to masses since they are sheep and thus adcrap wins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 17 2015, @01:44PM
Yes, I DO have alternative choice to Youtube. Don't watch the damned thing. Either/or - you either tolerate the advertising, or you don't watch. I'm fine with that.
I can't imagine any morsel of data on the web that is so very important to me, that I'll suffer through tons of shit just to get it. There is no video that good. Hell, I stopped watching television, and I don't miss it.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Nuke on Thursday September 17 2015, @02:04PM
I DO have alternative choice to Youtube. Don't watch the damned thing.
Trouble is, Youtube is not just cat videos. I visit a car enthusiasts website, and very often when a question comes up like "How to change a rearlamp unit", the reply is given in the form of a link to a Youtube clip that shows someone doing it. I have even bought new stuff and instead of instructions being given how to use it, the manufacturer tells you to go to a Youtube clip to see how.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 17 2015, @02:15PM
Yes - I'm aware that Youtube carries a lot of good stuff. I visit frequently. Sometimes, I have something more or less important on my mind. Other times, I just hit the site to amuse myself. Youtube has value. But - I can live without Youtube. An awful lot of the more-or-less-important stuff is found by way of other sites, which often embed the content on their site anyway. To date, I've not been required to view an ad before viewing an embedded video. But, again, if it comes down to viewing ads, or not seeing the content, I'll just pass on the content.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2015, @07:23PM
So don't buy crap. No written instructions (with pictures, if necessary)? Crap, won't buy. Next, please.
Easy deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2015, @10:29PM
...and if it's the manufacturer for the item that you're repairing, with no alternative, then what?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @07:37AM
Get a bicycle instead?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2015, @12:39AM
Youtube's shenanigans don't affect my ad blockers on Firefox. If you use Chrome you are going to get what ever Google wants you to get though.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday September 18 2015, @01:12AM
you're pretty much stuck with whatever Google wants to shove down your throat if you want to watch videos online.
At least for now, AdBlock Plus, NoScript and Privacy Badger limit YouTube forced commercial views to a second or so of an error message then the video runs as usual.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 21 2015, @11:05PM
Duck, Duck Go, is definitely a viable option to Google. Youtube is mostly for the masses. Netflix is what I use for Movies / Shows. Netflix => No Ads => Finish that Season in a day or two. YouTube can be useful, but you get what you pay for. In this case, you aren't paying them anything, so don't gripe about being served up a dish full of Nickelodeon / Game / Must See New Series advertisements.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"