Have you noticed the frequency of ads increasing on free services?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38178374

by bernardlunn • 3 years ago

8 12 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Yes! Youtube ads have at least doubled in frequency and intrusiveness.

I returned to twitter after over a year, so I could see some links on a few email newsletters I get. Lots and lots more ads, mostly video, and mostly from what look like ChatGPT-generated company names: Dulale, Tuzely, Lucazoo, Lureza, Beitro, Keybla, Starcess. I see the exact same video posted by multiple "companies". How do I know? I make a habit of blocking all Twitter ads. If I see the same video, it's from a different "company".

bernardlunn3• 3 years ago

I use YouTube a lot (too much) & Youtube no longer allows AdBlockers. Spotify is the worst offender with way too many ads

alwayslikethis• 3 years ago

No, I've declared a personal holy war on ads. I have many filters enabled on uBlock origin, and I don't own iOS devices on which blocking is less effective. If a website doesn't let me view with an Adblocker, I don't use it to the extent I can. I've had enough with ads and I think targeted ads should be wiped off the face of the earth. Answering the question, I see maybe an ad every 3 days.

gravitate2• 3 years ago

I don't own iOS devices on which blocking is less effective

But if you must use iOS, I recommend ADGuard Pro which intercepts ADs/Trackers at the network level using a pseudo VPN Profile. You can even load up your own custom filter lists.

coolThingsFirst• 3 years ago

Yes, the internet is becoming unusable.

Google search results are horrible and lead to low effort blogs by peacocking beginners who are trying to monetise a paragraph and 2 lines of code.

Paywalls and ads(if using without adblock) on anything interesting of value.

Social media is a information harvesting machine pretending to foster human connections.

Dating apps are designed to keep you single forever and owned by a single corpo.

News are owned by few folks as well and the only interesting discourse happens on X.

gravitate2• 3 years ago

Dating apps are designed to keep you single forever and owned by a single corpo.

Heard good things about Alovoa: https://alovoa.com/

Free and open-source dating platform that respects your privacy.

t-32• 3 years ago

No. I haven't seen ads other than the occasional spam email that gets through the filter in years and I make every effort to avoid using a web browser (by using RSS, yt-dlp, wallabag, etc) to keep my personal attention economy a command economy.

bernardlunn3• 3 years ago

Sounds like the sort of work that about 0.1% of us are willing to do?

t-32• 3 years ago

There's no work to it though? My whole setup is automated, I just read my articles and watch my videos in the morning, everything in it's place, with no ads or fuss.

marssaxman• 3 years ago

I have not, because I filter everything with uBlock Origin.

lbhdc• 3 years ago

I have noticed this as well. I speculate that it is knock-on effects from the tight monetary climate we are in.

I think there are a lot of companies that have an uncertain future and are trying to be "default alive". Perhaps the services they rely on have trimmed free tiers or raised prices?

bernardlunn3• 3 years ago

Yes, companies are trying to boost revenues & profits to compete with 5% risk free treasury bonds

Have you noticed the frequency of ads increasing on free services?

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