The Verge reports that YouTube is rolling out advertisements that show up when you pause videos, continuing experiments that the company started a year ago. A YouTube representative confirmed that the practice will now become commonplace “as we’ve seen both strong advertiser and strong viewer response.”
The representative said that advertising on paused videos is designed to create a “less interruptive” experience. But as The Verge notes, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to see a drop in the increasing load of obnoxious and often unskippable advertising on YouTube. And since I’m seeing more and more creators pack their videos with sponsorships, I somehow doubt that the people making YouTube’s content are going to get a bigger slice of the advertising pie.
“We estimate we can sell up to 80 percent of an individual’s visual field before inducing seizures,” said the fictional CEO (of a company that bears more than a passing resemblance to Google) in Ready Player One.
Apropos of nothing, it’s possible to block every single ad on YouTube — even the sponsorships that are baked into the videos themselves — on both desktop and mobile.
There was a Black Mirror episode where if you close your eyes, the ad stops playing and continues only when you open your eyes again.
This is next.
And a deafening high-pitched sound started to play, until the character opened his eyes to resume viewing the ads.
You’re not doing that scene justice. It blares a loud siren and bright lights until you open your eyes again.
That’s true.
I glossed over the worst parts.
IIRC, it was a high-pitched sound, like a screeching cicada.
The only thing stopping them doing this right now, is that they know it would get regulatory pushback. It has a real chance of causing laws to be made about when and how advertising is appropriate, and those laws might stop some of the things they’re doing now. So they sit as close to that line as they can without crossing it so they can keep self-regulation.
The moment they believe world governments wouldn’t stop them doing it, is the moment they’ll do it.
And in terms of benefit for the advertisers and service providers, it’s a no-brainer. Advertisers know that a large percentage of people tune out, or even leave the room when an advert is on. I think it’s part of the reason they kept them so short on youtube, because if they showed you that there’s 1:30 ad break you might go to the toilet, get a drink, or anything else that takes you away from the ad. If they show you 15seconds, well you’ll probably just sit that one out.
An advert they know people are actually watching is worth a LOT more to advertisers.
On my Galaxy S24+, I have this option:
Creepy. I wonder if Samsung can do this if this option is on…
The second Apple rolled out face ID, I knew this tech was ready and waiting for forced ads
Yes, the tech exists already on phones. Not sure how they’d enforce it on pc.
“Sorry, YouTube is not available to systems without a functioning camera.”? Perhaps with a link to premium :p
Actually, a fixed camera (on a laptop, for example). Because any webcam connected by cable can be moved, which means the algorithm cannot detect whether you are actually looking at the screen.
If they cannot see a verified human gaze they won’t let you even load the site!
Genuinely one of the all time best Black Mirror episodes
So many good episodes. This episodes, “Fifteen Million Merits” stands out. It’s really good.
My favorite is “Shut Up and Dance”.
I’m sorry to tell you that you’re not even the first one thinking of this. I’ll have to look for the source but a company was trying to do this on phones. Basically they’d track your eyes with the phone camera to stop the ad when you’re not looking at your screen.
Edit: found it
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moviepass-relaunches-ads-track-eyeballs-face-recognition/
How the fuck did they get access to the camera?