Think YouTube Ads Are Getting Longer? They’re Allegedly Testing 5 Ads Before a Video

By
Li Liping
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Last Updated on 2022-12-14 , 2:46 pm

First-world problems are becoming harder.

Not only did Netflix recently announce that they’re going to add advertisements to their services, but Youtube, which already had advertisements shoved in our faces, is making it even worse. By adding more advertisement.

If you have only 30 seconds to spare, you can watch this instead:

From Two to Beyond Two

The Google-owned social media platform for sharing videos quietly introduced a new ad style this year. Youtuber viewers without a Youtube Premium subscription will have to now ensure up to five adverts for the video they want to watch begin.

This isn’t something they have just implemented this month, but rather, back in September.

At the time, Youtube was still displaying only two advertisements. But some users quickly noticed that they were being shown as many as five to eight or even ten unskippable advertisements in succession.

The only saving grace to this awful implementation is that each unskippable ad lasted between five to ten seconds long.

Youtube’s Twitter account had responded to a user’s complaint at the time, stating that these are considered “bumper ads,” a format that appears at the beginning of a video and displays a few extremely brief ads.

Of course, the sudden surge in ad load raised questions about how this might be a market tactic to pressure users to purchase Youtube Premium, a monthly subscription plan where users can enjoy ad-free videos.

Youtube, however, informed PCMag that the sudden rise in unskippable adverts was only an experiment.

A representative added that the company was dedicated to helping other companies connect with their audiences across the world, and thus is continually experimenting with innovative methods to display advertisements that can enhance the viewer experience.

Sounds like corporate excuses to me. But anyway. 

They further explained that the experiment focused on displaying more adverts at the star of the Youtube video rather than distributing them evenly, which is commonly seen for videos that are more than an hour long.

With fewer commercial interruptions throughout a video, it will increase the likelihood that the viewer will watch the whole video and the accompanying adverts. This explains why the ads are shifted to be shown at the start.

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Nobody Buying It 

Back then, they declared that they were already finished with their experimental implementation, but uncertainty still exists around the platform’s potential future increase in the unskippable ad rate.

Naturally, no one is really buying Youtube’s explanation. The online community has shared how unpleasant the platform has become in recent months.

Right now, thankfully the norm is still two ads per video. However, if you’ve noticed…they appear to be rather long nowadays.

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Pretty sure it’s just me.

But who knows when Youtube might decide to make our lives miserable when they decide to roll out five.

No More Adblockers?

As we all know, modern problems require modern solutions.

On a Reddit thread discussing the ad tests, many users commented on using adblockers to solve the problem.

But it looks like Google has caught on to this loophole as well and is determined to make hell for its users.

Google’s web browser Chrome might be undergoing a significant update next year. The change is specifically on how Chrome browser extensions function works, or what they are also referred to as “extension manifest”.

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An extension manifest provides the browser with data about the extension, which may include information about important files and features the extension requires.

Google’s new manifest, titled “Manifest V3”, may alter how network request modifications operate. With regards to its Adblocker extension, it may remove the extension’s ability to perform dynamic filtering to detect and remove advertisements.

The number of adverts the extension manifest may prevent is predicted to be reduced by 90% or more, by cutting down on the list of banned URLs.

The new manifest isn’t a surprise move from the company’s side; it has been a four-year-long project, and will soon be one of the biggest changes to the extensions’ platform since its inception a decade ago.

According to Google, the tighter restrictions would deliver “enhancement in security, privacy, and performance”.

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How the Manifestation Will Happen

In their most recent blog post, Google outlines the revised schedule for moving to Manifest V3, which includes discontinuing support for older extensions that use Manifest V2 and requiring everyone to use the new system.

And they sure are making sure you will follow along.

Google had stated that they may perform trials to switch off the support for Manifest V2 extensions in their Canary, Dev, and Beta channels, starting in January 2023 with Chrome version 112.

In June 2023, they will then move on to perform tests to switch off support for Manifest V2 extensions in all channels, including their stable channels. Chrome stores will also cease accepting Manifest V2 extensions, and those that are still available will be pushed out.

By 2024, they assert that Manifest V2 will completely cease operation and, in its place will be the new version.

Of course, with every move made by filthy rich mega corporations comes waves of skeptics and critics.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF), a privacy advocacy group, disputes this description and asserts that if Google were truly concerned about the security of the extension store, it would actively police the store by using real people rather than limiting the functionality of all extensions.

But hey: on the other hand, we’re helping creators make more money, right?

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Right?

Featured Image: Shuttershock (KVASVECTOR) / Twitter (@sondesix)

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Li Liping
Email: [email protected]