No, it couldn't. People who didn't use adblockers aren't going to suddenly start using them just because YouTube started blocking adblockers. People who didn't use adblockers aren't impacted at all, nothing has changed for them.
I don't see how? This is targeting people already using ad blockers. People not already using them should not see any difference in service so why would they change their behaviour? At most a mild rise of awareness, though I bet most people following these news stories are also already running ad blockers. It is all the other aggressive shit they are doing with ads that will turn people towards ad blockers/premium.
It doesn't say more people overall use ad blockers. It says people that were already using them are now switching between different extensions. Let's wait and see if this increases Firefox's market share. This could be the real good outcome of all this.
It pushed me more towards degoogling. Was already using newpipe on Android and ignoring the YouTube app, and now I'm on freetube on desktop. No need for Google account anymore to look at the feed I want.
Invidious has been a saviour for me on mobile. The ads were so painfully long. To make it worse, I’d use YouTube to help fall asleep, adjust it to the right volume, then BAM! Loud advert. I didn’t use an ad blocker on PC for ages because I get that bandwidth is expensive as hell, but they really started taking the piss and I gave up.
At the moment, I am in a hybrid state. I also use Indivious to watch the videos, but I still use the subscription view of YouTube to see what video is new. I have 145 subscriptions. I installed a new addon Redirector, which you can guess what it does, and it redirects each new tab to an Indivious instance if it's a YouTube video page. So YouTube thinks I stopped watching videos at the moment. Sometimes I forget to middle click instead and get reminded how bad the ads are.
The reason I am doing that is, because I feared Google could delete my account, if I keep blocking ads with uBlock Origin. It probably never happened to anyone, but the uncertainty was too high to risk for me, as I need this account for other things. Also sometimes I want to like or comment on the video too.
On the off chance you aren't aware, you can export your YT subs and import them into Invidious via a json file.
I still occasionally visit the actual YouTube frontpahe for the algorithm's suggestions, but all my subscriptions live on Piped, FreeTube, and on my phone, LibreTube.
t doesn’t say more people overall use ad blockers. It says people that were already using them are now switching between different extensions. Let’s wait and see if this increases Firefox’s market share. This could be the real good outcome of all this.
That's literally the first thing after I install any new system.
get firefox on a stick so I don't have to open deprecated explorer or have to download Edge
install firefox, get ad blocker extension
then remove/turn off all the recommended shit that are now embedded to your start menu and task bar and lock screen. (I wish there is a github FOSS script that does this for new windows builds. )
I will abandon windows when the games can all be played on Linux properly.
I will abandon windows when the games can all be played on Linux properly.
I feel you there. I'm just about at that point, although I also need better support for music software (FL studio, VSTs, etc) and hardware before I can fully switch.
I’m about a week off coming back to Windows from Linux.
Some things that chased me off:
Alan Wake 2 used too new of GPU features
Once after playing a game, my cursor was just gone—not invisible, just not there. Only keyboard.
A few times after quitting games, something was broken about the desktop experience and I had to reboot the machine to get things working again
Discord crashed any time the machine went to sleep (or woke up? Hard to tell which)
Several games only worked if I manually put in Proton launch options
No support for DLSS framegen
Cyberpunk had to be given a fake driver version to support ray reconstruction
No support for GamePass games still, which is how I’d been playing Starfield and Lies if P, and planning on Cities: Skylines 2.
No native support for middle-click scrolling without pasting (I don’t count editing low-level X config files)
[edit] Also Lords if the Fallen thought I was using a modified game and wouldn’t let me online—solo play only, thanks to EAC
I keep feeling like Linux is just a year or two away from being good enough for common folks to switch over, and I guess if all you need if Firefox, it’s probably there. But the experience is just so subtly, but consistently, bad year after year.
For reference, I was on Pop!_OS (whatever their latest stable was, I think based on Ubuntu 22?). I had read that Pop!_OS was one of the better distorts for games.
The real villainy here is that Google is trying to project this practice as stealing. They have started dictating what you can or can't do on your system (this has parallels with their crooked WEI efforts).
Just in case you are worried about the moral implications of using ad blockers on YouTube, remember this - they didn't become the video hosting monopoly by playing fair. They waited till all their competitors were dead, to start demanding money and aggressively pushing ads. If you are worried about the income of the creators, please pay them directly - don't feed a false 'dont-be-evil' corporation.
Google doesn't give a shit what their advertisers think. It's not a "please buy our ads" situation, it's a "where else would you advertise online, you stupid fuck?" type of situation.
People that were running ad blockers were not seeing ads and business owners were not paying for those blocked ads. So I don't see why they would care at all.
I was going to buy premium then I saw the price. It's like 14 a month, 24 for family, per month. To add on top of that, every subscription service has been increasing prices so in a few years it's probably going to be 20/30 dollars a month. Additionally, I already pay Google for 2 TB drive space for personal for 11 dollars a month and 13 dollars a month for a company workspace with one user. So why would I pay 24 more dollars to Google, and 30 dollars down the road?
Honestly, if Protonmail had better prices I'd likely switch but right now a more expensive service for fewer features isn't what I am going for. It's currently 30 dollars a month for only 3TB. I get 2 TB for just 11 dollars, family is free. Not to mention switching the whole family is a whole conversation and getting it to work on everyone's device is a headache with any service. As much as I would want to degoogle, I use Android, I use Google Voice, and I likely am not going to switch those. It's not really going to help me untie from Google and would just cause me headaches.
I use Hetzner's Storage Share (which is a nextcloud instance) as my drive and pay around 5€ / mo for 1 TB. Depending on the features you want you could also use their Storage Box which is more like a plain network drive, and cheaper.. like 13€ / mo for 5 TB.
I've had YouTube premium from the inception of their subscription model prior to/at the beginning of YouTube red, as I initially had a paid Google music subscription.
Personally, there isn't a better option for the amount of hassle involved in my opinion. It's a family account, and managing so many people's YouTube experiences on at least a dozen different devices would be a nightmare I don't want to think about. (Multiple of each TV's, Roku's, Android phones, iPhones, pc's, etc)
This isn't really relevant to your friend, it is quite silly when it's just one person not willing to do it for just themselves.
Only reason they are seeing so many uninstalls is because ublock origin is the big one that works and that requires uninstalling other blockers to get it to not be detected.
Ublock origin doesn't track uninstalls but it has gained quite a few users in the last 8 days
Are there any services that provide an alternative to YouTube history? I primarily watch on my Chromecast with Google TV and I haven't been able to find any
Have you tried Piped? It can be self hosted, but there are also public instances. Features also include Playlists and Feed, probably also History. Maybe you need to create an account for that. Never tried that, because I use it through the Android App LibreTube which also has these features without account.
And equally, Google is yet to use the big guns they have. Don't get me wrong, I hate Google with a passion, but they have way too much power over the internet for us to leave even a dent on their plans.
They have a lot of power, but that power is tied by goodwill.
Right now they are cashing in all that goodwill with price increases, more onerous privacy invasion and “sponsored” links in lieu of actually accurate search results.