this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2024

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YouTube Tests Showing Ads When You Pause a Video, Calls it ''Pause Ads'' (www.androidauthority.com)

submitted 6 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

363 comments fedilink hide all child comments

YouTube first spoke about pause ads last year when it started trialing them in select regions. At the time, the company said that when you pause a video, it will shrink, and an ad will appear next to it.

Example:

“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler noted. He went on to share that YouTube’s pause ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”

Schindler didn’t share any timelines for when pause ads will start appearing on YouTube, but we know they’ll first roll out on smart TVs. The nature of these ads, including their duration, skippability, and more is still unclear. We also don’t know if Google plans to introduce these ads on YouTube’s mobile apps.

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[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 293 points 6 months ago (4 children)

But usually I’m pausing a video to try to read text that appeared too briefly in the video!

[–] hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 129 points 6 months ago

Not anymore, you don't!

[–] variants@possumpat.io 76 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Wait you watch the video? I thought everyone just went there for the ads and emailed YouTube executives to please keep adding more

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[–] Deebster@programming.dev 25 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same, I had to ad-block some custom elements on YouTube ages ago because they kept covering the screen with "related videos" whenever I paused to read something.

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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 180 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Wait y'all still see ads on YouTube?

If I can't block ads on a device, I'm not using YouTube on that particular device.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 43 points 6 months ago (9 children)

A major reason we only watch YouTube via a browser on a media center PC.

[–] theareciboincident@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Normies genuinely turn on their Smart TV, watch start menu ads, open the YouTube app, wait 90 seconds for the shitty cpu to load the web view, scroll through hundreds of Spider-Man Elsa brainwashing videos and thinly disguised ads, open a video, watch 3 minutes of ads, straight into a 3 minute sponsor segment. All before seeing any actual content.

And they see no problem with this at all, the thought that you can make ads go away literally does not even occur to them as a possibility.

Humanity deserves extinction, I’m gonna go release some refrigerant real quick

[–] micka190@lemmy.world 78 points 6 months ago (4 children)

I know people IRL who get offended whenever I mention that I just block ads. Shit's insane.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 24 points 6 months ago

Ikr? I throw some money at creators I care about, but I'm not watching their stupid ads.

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[–] Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 6 months ago (4 children)

You can use SmartTube on Android TV, Yattee with this guide on iOS/iPadOS/tvOS or this app on webOS

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[–] mark@programming.dev 150 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (27 children)

Google says pause ads on YouTube are getting a very positive reaction from advertisers

Bc screw the users and their reactions 😄.

We really need a good YouTube competitor. This is beyond ridiculous at this point.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 59 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Also, The new ball-bearing guillotine is getting rave reviews from guillotine operators!

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 94 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Shit like this is why they stopped making new Black Mirror episodes

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It was supposed to be a warning, not a manual.

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 76 points 6 months ago (11 children)

I can't wait til YouTube fucks around and finds out.

I got hobbies that are way more fun than ads.

I'm addicted to their shit because it provides a constant stream of dopamine. You fuck that up with ads, I will break the addiction. Seamlessly. It won't even be difficult to do if going back kicks me in the balls with ads. I'm gone. My guitar is right here. My home server is right here. My GitHub profile could use some TLC. I got a long Todo list.

Do it. Go full enshitification.

I'm actually kind of excited for it.

[–] Mkengine@feddit.de 44 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This was me with Reddit, my worst days were 8 hours a day. Now I spent 30 mins per day at most on Lemmy.

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[–] electric@lemmy.world 70 points 6 months ago (4 children)

I've had this for about a week or 2. Super annoying because you can't continue the video by pressing the play/pause button, need to "Ok" the video window. Come on Google, you just bricked a button on your OWN OS. Awful.

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[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 56 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Damn. YouTube is just SO desperate to squeeze every bit of ad revenue they can, wherever they can.

[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 29 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Remember when YouTube wasn't riddled with pests? I remember.. It was a pleasant experience.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

When it was hemorrhaging money?

We're in a weird time where all the tech companies are being told at once that they need to start being profitable, and at the same time the EU is cracking down on lots of the shady shit they've been using to control the bleeding to this point.

The internet has spent the last 20 years developing an economic model that's quickly becoming unsustainable, and none of the big web companies seem to have been prepared.

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[–] Corno@lemm.ee 54 points 6 months ago (13 children)

Laughs in UBlock Origin

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[–] Toneswirly@lemmy.world 48 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Lol Google is going to die by their own hands

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 24 points 6 months ago (15 children)

I don't think they will because the competition is too incompetent. I give you two examples:

I'm a subscriber of Nebula, a paid streaming service where educational YouTubers get a better cut and users don't get ads. Those creators almost always fail to promote their Nebula uploads. "Hey guys, new video." And they link to YouTube only. Also they leave their Patreon shout-outs in which is not what I'm paying money for. YouTube with Sponsor Block just is the better experience at this point and I just keep paying for Nebula because I hope it'll get better and I like its idea.

Second example: I try to watch live streaming on the websites of the broadcaster or so. And more often than not it's a shit show: I can't properly pause the streams because they don't support time shifting and bitrate adjustments are also not as smooth as YouTube.

It's 2024 and internet video is over two decades old at this point and yet almost nobody else manages to get their shit together. Companies like Netflix have good tech but their business is completely different, so those compete with YouTube at best tangentially.

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[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 42 points 6 months ago (3 children)

YouTube is unwatchable for me with all these ads. Even without ads, content creators mostly all follow the same generic bullshit format.

It used to be a great resource for visual aids and explanations, now it's filled with money making schemes and scams and every video has 14 minutes of bullshit and 1 minute of content.

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[–] cryptix@discuss.tchncs.de 41 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Enshitification

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 41 points 6 months ago

DRINK VERIFICATION CAN

[–] ElderberryLow@programming.dev 41 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Tomorrow YouTube is introducing ads when you think about YouTube.

[–] InternetUser2012@midwest.social 31 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Next week: Youtube has removed all videos. You will now watch ads only. It's really no different than what you're doing now.

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[–] fidodo@lemmy.world 41 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So they'll stop injecting ads in the middle of videos at the worst possible times right?

...

So they'll stop injecting ads... Right?

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[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 38 points 6 months ago (12 children)

My Roku is doing this and has been doing this for quite some time.

Of all the ad delivery schemes cooked up over the past ten years, this one is the least offensive to me.

Like I'll come back from the bathroom or whatever, and all that registers before I hit play is that some random graphic is covering the screen while on pause. I cannot name a single thing that's been in any of those ads.

In general, I do wonder how effective this constant onslaught of marketing is. At some point there have got to be diminishing returns, right?

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[–] Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world 36 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Please drink verification can

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[–] nl4real@lemmy.world 35 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Oh noes, another ad I don't see because of ublock! Trollface

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[–] azenyr@lemmy.world 33 points 6 months ago (3 children)

To be fair, if they are like the example (static silent ads) they would be the least intrusive ads that YouTube ever had. To the point that I don't even mind them. All of YouTube ads should be like this, not annoying, silent, and easily ignored.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 33 points 6 months ago (1 children)

YouTube. Google. Alphabet.

“driving strong brand lift results”

FUCK. YOU.

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[–] jacktherippah@lemmy.world 32 points 6 months ago (8 children)

Can we have a YouTube competitor? Pretty please? 🥺

[–] Wiz@midwest.social 46 points 6 months ago (8 children)

Support PeerTube. It's needing content, and it's a little janky, but it's federated.

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[–] Plopp@lemmy.world 32 points 6 months ago (3 children)

This is great, because I usually pause videos because I want to watch ads.

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[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 30 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Soon testing new version that shows some of your video when you are allowed to pause your ad.

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[–] uzay@infosec.pub 29 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ah, taking inspiration from what porn sites have been doing for decades to trick you into clicking on ads. Nice work, Google.

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[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 28 points 6 months ago (17 children)

Ads are a way for corporations to steal your life from you, 60 seconds at a time.

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[–] archchan@lemmy.ml 27 points 6 months ago (11 children)

I'd sooner stop using the internet than be forced to imprint that carefully crafted poison into my psyche. They will not steal my life with ads.

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[–] hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works 27 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Use Youtube frontends. Like Freetube & NewPipe. All of Youtube's BS will disappear.

EDIT: Here is Privacy Guides' page about Youtube frontends.

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[–] SteefLem@lemmy.world 27 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So youtube is now basically an advertisement channel with some user content in between.

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[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 26 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Well to be fair this only affects users that are not blocking ads in the first place.

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[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 26 points 6 months ago (4 children)

An add-on that simply overlays a black box when you pause is easy enough.

[–] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 24 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Won't you please consider how this might make the advertisers feel? They might get very upset.../s

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago (2 children)

They already do that on my TV. Except it's after I press play and when it's been paused for like a minute or more, or something.

But this is a whole new level of making it shittier. Like, I want to pause so I can hear something else, or something needs my attention, and there's an ad playing? This can't become a reality. Can't.

I mean I already rock the best ad blocker so it's whatever to me on desktop, but on my TV? I'm gonna have to get a pi-hole.

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[–] exanime@lemmy.today 23 points 6 months ago (9 children)

I vow never to buy anything advertised to me in such intrusive way....

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago

Sigh. Yeah it's not like I ever pause to look at a graph or something (/s). I already hate it on Chromecast because pausing brings up a big blur bar on a third of the screen.

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