Why all of a sudden tech companies are not being favorable to their users?

lionkoy5555@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 1571 points –

YouTube disallowing adblockers, Reddit charging for API usage, Twitter blocking non-registered users. These events happen almost at the same time. Is this one of the effects of the tech bubble burst?

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Google needs to understand, that is not a choice that they have.

So much of the internet is covered by sites that don't take the time the vet their advertisers and the ads that are being placed on their platform.

Advertisers who, in turn, advertise on legit sites spreading scams and malware wherever they go, and Google and YouTube are no exception to this. These companies really brought The Age of the AdBlocker on themselves, by not making sure that the ads they are allowing on their platforms are safe for users.

So now, me and about a bajillion other people are in a position where we don't go out onto the internet anymore without protection. Ad blockers for everyone.

So, YouTube's actual choice is this: do they want me to continue to visit their site and drive their traffic metrics?

Because that's all they are getting from me, and if they find a way to disable all ad blockers, than they are clearly saying that they don't want me and others like me to boost their visitor numbers. Simple as that.

I've been using the internet since the 90s. Originally I was very pro ad, since it meant that we wouldn't end up with paying subscriptions for every site on top of internet utility bills. But around 2010 or so I got malware from an ad I didn't even click on - all it had to do was load on the page. The site issued an open apology but it's not like they were going to pay repair costs for everyone's computers. After that I knew neither websites nor ad suppliers were vetting what they display to users. Companies only get more complacent as time goes on, and once the option was out there bad actors would only get more creative. I've used ad blockers ever since.

I'm against them doing that they are doing but you talk like you don't have the choice to add YouTube as an exception to your adblocker of choice. Yeah having an adblocker is crucial but nothing is impeding you to do that and see the adds on YouTube.

I don't think you understood what I was saying.

I try to take no ads, from anyone, because it's a digital safety issue. YouTube included.

Then buy YouTube Premium and the ads go away.

YouTube is not a charity and needs to pay for servers hosting the content people view. That money comes from ads/YouTube Premium

I'm going to quote @morgan_423@lemmy.world from elsewhere in this thread:

I’m not going to reward them for these misbehaviors toward their user base by buying their “Premium” service. Same for any other site that does this and offers a “Premium service” to fix the problem that they, themselves, created. There are ways to have safe ads, and fair user experience even with them in play.

You can also pay for YT premium and have no ads. Plus… what’s unsafe about YT ads? You’ll definitely get some fucked up ads on small websites that just plug in a stack of 3rd party ad networks but everything on YT is native first party ads they sold and implemented themselves. Viewing them is about as unsafe as viewing YT videos in the first place.

Yeah, I really enjoy the ads showing how I too can earn hundreds of dollars a day at home doing _____-

Those ads are shit. All ads are shit. But unsafe means it’s installing Russian malware on your computer, etc. I don’t think much of that is happening via YT.

Unsafe to me includes the naive (and dumb) losing all their money to a scammer. But I see your point.

I can definitely see your definition, too. But it departs a little from the ad blocker conversation. I don’t need an ad blocker so I’m not fooled by a pyramid scam. I do need one to keep malicious code away. The kind of person who falls for this sort of scam doesn’t know how to install an ad blocker, probably.

But then again, there’s the “I install the ad blocker on my mom’s computer to keep her from falling for scams” argument, which is definitely valid. Yeesh the last time I visited my elderly father he had all kinds of XXX push notifications popping up from calendar spam he’d fallen prey to. He was in a state of desperation, always afraid someone was going to see his phone do something embarrassing.