The best part is that it gets worse
Use Invidious while it still exists as a project I'm a fan of the yewtu.be instance. Pretty reliable. The Piped project is good as well. Don't even use the YouTube domain at all, hate giving them analytics and site usage info nevermind ads
For people using smart TVs, consider hooking up an old laptop or desktop to your TV. You can use a wireless mouse/keyboard (or other input peripheral) and you've got a living room setup that allows you to use ad-blockers and your own browser and video player (I recommend PotPlayer), among other advantages.
I would actually pay for Youtube Premium Family, where it not for the fact that it does not work with gsuite accounts (which I have for my family).
We have spotify for the family, and I would cancel that and switch to youtube and music premium of google. For three dollars more we get ad-less youtube as well as music.
Sorry google, gotta pay attention to these things.
YouTube has turned against its users, and user-inertia is the only thing keeping it relevant. Detach yourself from it, read books, go outside, use Firefox (Not chomium or brave), get yourself a nice pirate hat. Maybe consider hosting a peertube or creating content for it. Try to take this negative and make it a positive I'd suggest.
I haven't had to deal with video ads for years simply because I don't use the website and use patched APKs to block ads. I'm thinking it was/is the right choice due to gøøgl€'s ongoing war against ad blocking in general. Don't know a solution to the browser problem outside of using alternative frontends like libretube or invidious or whatever if you don't mind not logging in.
Another option is paying a couple bucks and not having to worry about it. Might even make you feel good knowing you’re supporting the platform.
I don’t fault you for tinkering and finding ways around it - that’s fun. But in the end, you’re leeching off a service you enjoy.
yeah google really needs more money, poor guys
Brave Browser gets around YT's ads.
Not long ago, I was watching 5 skipable ads after 10 minutes of video on Viki. It was a time when they were distributing Korean and Chinese Drama at a pace no independent subtitle team would keep up. The shows were culturally interesting, they were a community spirit you could feel even when not participating in subtitling. The video player was good with nice features like learning mode and timestamped comment. It was an acceptable tradeoff. Today's Viki and YouTube quality is barely sufficient for not favoring pirated website which have in the mean time greatly improved their user experience.
Use Piped as a front end for y--t---. It's open source & non-tracking, but views still count. The creator is active on the fedi too.
Individual servers sometimes go off line or lose quality when they're rate limited. Just try a different server when that happens. If the one you're using at the time shows ads and there are too many, check preferences to turn them off.
(My addiction is Thai. Also watch some c- and k- too.)
Serious question. Can a pihole stop this? I've been thinking about building one for my house.
Pinhole works at the network level. You need browser extensions like ublock-origin to filter this on the client side.
Edit: You also have apps like adguard, which work like Pihole, and do cosmetic filtering like ublock-origin.
YouTube- is a terrible experience.
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