YouTube, the popular video-sharing platform, has once again launched an experiment targeting users who employ ad blockers. This time, YouTube warns users that their video playback will be limited to just three views unless they disable their ad-blocking software or whitelist the site.
Firefox users are reporting an ‘artificial’ load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it’s part of a plan to make people who use adblockers “experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using.”
I knew I wasn’t just imagining things. I like to listen to music on YouTube when driving to work. And sure, the internet reception there is spotty (danke, Merkel), but for a couple weeks now I’ve consistently had a very long “buffering” period every time the next video/song loaded up.
Well, joke’s on them. I found out about NewPipe and its built-in video/audio downloader, because I complained to an acquaintance about it.
I only seem to barely notice the difference… At first i couldnt understand what everyone was talking about…but yeah its a small delay over what it used to be. Also it seems any bookmarked vids will no longer autoplay… you have to click play… is that a thing anyone else has to do ?
I tried Edge and it seemed only a small bit faster to me, but it did autoplay. Are there any other anomalous strange effects google has done to youtube that i might have missed ?
I never had issues with adds on FF and ublock … still don’t.
Needing to click to play a video is a Firefox feature, and it’s been there for ages already. It doesn’t allow any audio to play until you interact with the page.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@beehaw.org
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
YouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users
Honestly, staring at a blank page for 30 seconds would be preferable to 30 seconds of ads.
As someone that watches Twitch through MPV, I can confirm watching “Ad Playing” is preferable to actually watching an annoying ad.
I knew I wasn’t just imagining things. I like to listen to music on YouTube when driving to work. And sure, the internet reception there is spotty (danke, Merkel), but for a couple weeks now I’ve consistently had a very long “buffering” period every time the next video/song loaded up.
Well, joke’s on them. I found out about NewPipe and its built-in video/audio downloader, because I complained to an acquaintance about it.
I only seem to barely notice the difference… At first i couldnt understand what everyone was talking about…but yeah its a small delay over what it used to be. Also it seems any bookmarked vids will no longer autoplay… you have to click play… is that a thing anyone else has to do ?
I tried Edge and it seemed only a small bit faster to me, but it did autoplay. Are there any other anomalous strange effects google has done to youtube that i might have missed ?
I never had issues with adds on FF and ublock … still don’t.
Needing to click to play a video is a Firefox feature, and it’s been there for ages already. It doesn’t allow any audio to play until you interact with the page.