YouTube's next move might make it virtually impossible to block ads

boem@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 601 points –
androidpolice.com
411

You are viewing a single comment

Youtube doesn't pay attention to what ads get approved, or where they get served. Ive heard stories of people getting served two hours full amateur movies as ads, Ive heard of people getting soft core porn served as an ad, to actual scams and crypto pitches. It's like Facebooks new AI enabled algorithm. There is actual danger, considering children and the elderly get sucked in to youtubes black hole?

I watched a couple videos on the Diddy case, and a couple days later my whole feed was filled with the worst conspiracy theories and Christian preachers.

I watch one Youtuber talking about pyramids, YouTube fills my whole suggestions with ancient alien conspiracies.

I watched one cover of a song, I get recommended the same song for weeks.

I watch one reaction video, the whole feed turns into reaction videos within minutes.

It's a fight against the algorhytm and it isn't fun. It's incredible how dumb it is after all these years, and those algprhythms are partly to blame that everyone feels more miserable than they are.

I just turn off recommendations (disable watch history) and use a third party app where I can disable recommendations (Grayjay and NewPipe). I just want my subscriptions and search, that's all.

Why Download a 3rd party app if the mobile browser works the same?

But it doesn't... Here are some features I like about Grayjay/NewPipe:

  • adjust volume/brightness by sliding finger on screen
  • download videos to watch offline
  • watch videos from other sources (less of an issue in a browser)
  • picture in picture

So, what's the difference to Firefox with some add ons then?

That someone else gets my login data and view data to sell?

I don't login. Grayjay/NewPipe doesn't send any data to its servers, so they're not tracking viewed content. I also get subscriptions and playlists (again, w/o Youtube account) in addition to the features I mentioned. Afaik, you can't get any of that with addons.

How do they make money then? Nothing is free, and usually when it sounds too good, it is.

Grayjay sells licenses for the app ($10), which doesn't provide any benefits other than helping support the project.