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YouTube is experimenting with server-side ads
(lemmy.world)
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
YouTube has two options:
Inject the ad into the stream making it indistinguishable from the video. This allows users to skip it if they don't want to watch it. (I would prefer this honestly)
Try to force users to watch ads by making them unskippable, this makes them easy for add-ons to detect.
That, luckily, is completely illegal over here.
I meant indistinguishable to the software. If the ad comes from the same source, and doesn't inhibit playback controls (such as fast forward), then it is significantly more difficult for an add-on to block it. Of course that would mean users can just fast forward if they don't want to watch it.