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An experiment that could become permanent:
YouTube's annoying ads often push those who don't want to pay $120 for YouTube Premium to use ad blockers. But Google isn't happy about this potentially lost revenue, and has decided to experiment with a feature that urges ad-blocker users to think again.
Redditor Sazk100 posted a screenshot earlier this week showing a YouTube popup warning that ad blockers are not allowed on the platform. It notes that ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide, and that an ad-free experience is available via the paid-for YouTube Premium. The message finishes with two options: Allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium, which is $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year for access to original programs and no ads.
Some users who've seen it say they have been able to simply close the pop-up and continue blocking ads on YouTube, but it's likely that Google will clamp down on this, or make the pop-up appear regularly enough to be a distraction.
The moderators of the YouTube subreddit wrote that an employee had confirmed the ad-blocker message was an experiment by YouTube. A Google spokesperson expanded on this in a statement to IGN.
"We're running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium," they said. "Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers."
While most online companies make their revenue from ads, some complain that YouTube has gone too far, citing its increasing number of unskippable and extended mid-roll ads.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday May 12, @01:51PM (3 children)
My problem is, to pay for a premium Youtube account, I need a Youtube account. Therr's no way on God's green Earth I'm opening ANY account with Google: they track me heavily enough when I try my hardest to anonymously evade their surveillance, I have no intention of helping them by voluntarily identifying myself.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday May 12, @04:38PM
I've been on the Google and Microsoft e-mail services for so long, they probably know more about me than almost anyone. Doesn't mean I'm going to accept advertisements from either of them, though. Certainly not the stupid kind, which is most of them.
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"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday May 13, @02:19AM
Aside from the privacy concerns...
Maybe if it didn't cost $12 a month. Really? YouTube is not worth almost $150/year to me. Maybe $5/mo, if I'm feeling generous. Reduce it to $20/yr and I'd probably pay. There's no way in hell Google is hurting, that they have to pry more money out of our hands :P
AKA the "12 different streaming sites problem", which is why I still use DownloadHelper/yt-dlp to rip stuff off bootleg streaming sites. (That, and I've watched like a grand total of 4 shows that were actually on in the last 10 years. Current TV sucks.)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 13, @03:17AM
That's why I have a GMail account, that I use for nothing else: to keep all the Google snooping in one place.
Meanwhile, I've had Google's whole swarm of adservers in HOSTS for so many years that they probably think I'm dead. :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.