YouTube's server-side ads resulted in a black screen for ad blocker users
Mashable reports that users ran into a black screen on YouTube, and that it stayed for about 6 seconds before the video began playing. The reports indicate it affected several browsers including Firefox, Edge, Vivaldi.
Some users joked that they would rather see a black screen than an ad. While that's certainly a better experience, it does waste precious seconds of our time. A simple workaround for the black screen on YouTube is to just refresh the page, hit F5 as soon as the page starts loading. uBlock Origin's filters were updated with a patch to resolve the problem, the add-on updates its filters automatically. If you are still experiencing the black screen issue, just open the extension's dashboard and manually update the filters. This tug-of-war is getting annoying, but it appears to me that Google's efforts are actively promoting the use of ad blockers, instead of attracting new subscribers.
I've seen a few ads recently that are just random as hell, don't say a product name and don't even have a website or link to find out what it is even advertising. They always make me wonder how they're working, if they're working. They seem like just a waste of money and time for everyone involved, including the advertiser themselves.
The people that do spend the time trying to find out what it is for will remember the eNgAgEmEnT from needing to find out what it is and that correlates with future sales. Just like "rewards" programs that are designed to mentally lock someone into the store/product while harvesting their data.
I use adblockers but my parents don't. Visiting my folks and seeing the ads they get served is just bizarre. They get served ads in Spanish even though there's nothing about the account, device or geolocation that would indicate the audience is Spanish speaking, they get very long ads for medicines, which...you know how they always list an increasingly long and concerning bunch of side effects? Well the last one I saw ended with a full reading of the drug's MSDS. They get ads from car dealers half a continent away, campaign ads for a different state's legislature...Why was there ever a television advertisement even made for General Electric power plant turbines? Who's watching Zeltik, gets a mid-roll ad for gigawatt generator components and makes any kind of decision based on what they saw?
I also get ads in Spanish often when watching on my TV (no adblocker)... Dunno if that's just because I am in California or if my phone or other devices picked up my Spanish speaking neighbors and assumes I also speak Spanish. I mean, I do, but not well or often.
This is on a Smart TV specifically. I haven't seen this behavior on a PC or phone...again because it's my parents' house, they watch videos on their smart TV. So I don't know if it makes system language available the way a web browser does...? I will say Spanish is the second-best guess in this area.