Ad Blockers
I am not going to discuss the history of internet advertising, or the moral or ethical concerns that go hand in hand with it. There is a basic argument that people who make content want to get paid and I suspect that most people appreciate this, at least in principle. However, there is a counter argument regarding the way advertising is managed. For example, how many adverts is acceptable during the course of say a live stream of a YouTube video. Also there is a discussion to be had about what kind of adverts are shown and whether they need to be integrated into the content in a more equitable manner. However, that is not what this post is about. I am going to start from the logical and honest position that many of us use ad blockers. We do so because we find advertising crass and invasive. I guess there is a degree of cognitive dissonance regarding their use, versus the ethics of the matter but humans are like that. We are contradictory by nature.
I have four different web browsers installed on my PC. I mainly use Chrome and Firefox for everyday use and they both have ad blockers installed. Specifically AdBlocker Ultimate. I use this particular extension because I found that others had an adverse effect upon Google Drives functionality, which I use a lot. I whitelist a few websites that I know need the revenue but overall, I am not concerned about the impact that ad blockers have on corporate giants. In fact I would say to anyone smitten with a fit of conscience regarding them, try using a popular website without some sort of means to stop the advertising, pop ups and auto playing videos and other intrusive content. You’ll soon change your mind. As far as I’m concerned the worst offender is YouTube. Not because of the variety of interruptions they throw at you but because of the sheer quantity of adverts they shoe horn into a video. It is frankly egregious and makes the viewing experience shit.
As of Friday 27th September YouTube obviously rolled out an upgrade to their infrastructure. One that negated a lot of existing ad blockers. I, like many others, immediately looked around for a temporary alternative until the developers of AdBlocker Ultimate can put out a patch to circumnavigate YouTube’s shenanigans. I have managed to find an extension called Adblock but it doesn’t appear to actually block advertising, so much as hide it. You still have to endure 10 to 15 seconds or so of a black screen before the video that you actually want to watch begins to play. Fortunately I have SmartTube installed on the media player in our lounge. This is an advanced player for Android TVs and TV boxes which is free and open source. You can play content from different public sources including YouTube, sans adverts, naturally. It would appear that the latest changes made by YouTube have not affected this app at present.
Ultimately, there are long term issues that need to be resolved with regard to the financing of platforms such as Twitch TV and YouTube, as well as more traditional websites. A lot of smaller content creators prefer donation and optional subscription services such as Patreon. However, the public cannot be expected to pay for everything. Hence the point of advertising in the first place. It is a question of implementing a policy that is measured as opposed to just greedy. Sadly, advertising is at most just tolerated. Many people, including myself, find advertising pervasive, trite and frankly insulting. Often the way it is clumsily integrated into content ruins it. Despite paying for both Netflix and Amazon Prime, both companies have seen fit to add advertising to their basic tariffs. Subsequently, I won’t watch content on these platforms any longer and will instead watch “copies” sourced elsewhere. In the meantime, this tit-for-tat battle between big business and ad blockers, drags on. A tiresome diversion from the real problem.
