Using Adblock

Probably the last five years, I have used Adblock. It's one of those internet tools that is used to block ads that appear on websites and videos all over the web. But do companies understand why people do this? Do they get the complete picture?

When YouTube got big around 2007 and into 08, companies wanted in on the pie. As a result, ads for various products, films, etc. became the norm. That being said, it would usually be the same commercials. For example, it seemed like all I got was the T-Mobile ads with the one girl in the pink polka dot dress. Whatever flavor of the month film was coming out seemed to get a lot of internet air time. Typically it was horror films.

Using your own computer or laptop, you can pretty much get away with not seeing ads. However, colleges and schools don't use adblock, so you'll see commercials. The last ones I saw on a college computer was the same repeated Burger King ad for french fries that were healthier (Satisfries I think was the name of the product) As time has gone on, companies and sites have gotten wiser on what people have done and counteracted with stuff that forces you to see sponsored ads. In regards to that, it's really shitty.

Look, I get sites need money from advertisements. We are in an era where DVR and streaming is big and people can skip through commercials. The way they do it, however, needs to be changed. Sites need ads that aren't going to clog computers with viruses or malware. They also need to stop shoving the same things down everyone's throats. It's annoying when one sees the same Progressive image of that idiot Flo constantly. I remember one site constantly showing a Netflix advertisement image of Shutter Island from 2010. People understand that a business needs to thrive. They would rather not see a site get clogged and slowed down because they need to promote something that will be replaced with something else in a month's span.

Luckily, Adblock can still be used on YouTube via computers. When it's all said and done, sites and advertisers  have to think smarter and cater to what people want. Otherwise, more and more ways of blocking ads will still be a huge problem, (which I will still block ads) with no way to stop it.

YouTube Boycott: Advertisers Hating Hatred

I don't use monetization on YouTube. I use AdBlock on my laptop to avoid the same five to ten advertisers. When I did have to use a computer outside of my home, it's bombarded with phone ads, car insurance, and other stuff like McDonalds and Burger King. Recently, advertisers are pulling themselves out of YouTube advertising because of some of their stuff being on videos that shouldn't exist.

The list is staggering how many have decided to leave. Some big companies like Wal-Mart and Pepsi have made the decision to pull out. YouTube exploded on the scene in 2006 and has been a huge thing for advertising. How do they not know about all the content being made, even back to when the site first started in 2005? Way before I used AdBlock, I typically saw the same ads over and over. It was for stuff like T-Mobile with the red dress girl and whatever movies were hitting theaters at the time. And this was on videos for video games like Doom for example. On one of the college campuses, I watched some older NFL stuff and I kept getting the same Burger King ad for french fries. You can put AdBlock on there, but on vacations, they reset those computers.

Here's a hypothetical situation on what I think advertisers don't want to see. Let's say I want to talk about seeing Tom Brady and the New England Patriots organization die in a plane crash in a video. It's gets a couple hundred thousand views. Maybe I might want ads on it. That's what they don't want to see in this hypothetical. They don't want their stuff on videos that have hatred in them or sensitive material like domestic violence or rape. It doesn't make sense considering all the crime shows that depict violence like NCIS, The Blacklist, and so forth getting ads for car commercials and other things. Even for stuff on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. It doesn't add up.

I'm not sure if Google really has a choice. Their responses are very poor and robotic when it comes to certain things. They don't really listen to others. With the advertisers pulling away, this might be the one time they actually will do something. It's a long road ahead. Several articles on this matter have said per minute that 400 hours of content get uploaded. Millions upon millions put up all sorts of videos. It's up to Google to look at all the videos and judge them on their content. They need a large chunk of people to look at them and satisfy the advertisers. Otherwise, it's going to be next to impossible. Whether users go somewhere else is a problem. If some of them can't monetize, they might try a different site (if it's as big as Google) and upload their stuff there. Certain users have left YouTube and come back to it following a certain amount of time on another video sharing site.

Google has to handle this very delicately towards the video creators and advertisers. They can't rush this. If they do, it's going to piss off quite a bit of people who aren't in the top 1000 for video views and creations. Let's hope they find a way to fix this. I really doubt they will.