The following report is by The Verge:
It’s been nearly six years since we warned you that ads were coming for your pause button and 18 months since Google revealed that YouTube would serve them up, too.
Now, YouTube confirms advertisers can broadly target your paused screentime: “As we’ve seen both strong advertiser and strong viewer response, we’ve since widely rolled out Pause ads to all advertisers,” YouTube comms manager Oluwa Falodun confirms to The Verge.
Technically, YouTube started piloting pause ads in 2023 with a limited selection of advertisers, but Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler revealed this April that they were unsurprisingly a big hit with ad firms and lucrative for Google.
Last week, Redditors started posting that the pause ads seemed to be rolling out more widely, as noted by 9to5Google.
YouTube claims that the pause ads are actually designed to let the company offer you a “less interruptive” experience, but it didn’t tell us that its normal ads will appear any less frequently as a result. (It has experimented with longer but less frequent ads before.) The company also introduced unskippable ads in 2023.
YouTube follows Hulu and AT&T in selling pause ads; Sling TV also just introduced pause ads in July, though at the time, you could turn them off from the settings menu.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
I use the Brave browser so I do not see ads on YouTube, thankfully. I am not a fan of Brave’s search engine, but the browser is great at blocking ads and other annoying plugins.
YouTube is such a garbage platform. The algorithm is a joke, the censorship is ridiculous, and the bot scamming is out of control – which, maybe, just maybe, the clowns at Google would think to reinvest all this money into actually preventing literal scams and bot attacks on their site!
SEE: YouTube’s Updated Policy Threatens To Terminate Nearly All Firearms Channels
“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: […],” 2 Peter 2:3 says in part. Paul prophesized that in the end times the second thing on the list of 18 sins that would be on full display would be “covetousness.”
2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, […]
The covetousness in the world today has gotten so grossly out of control. Not a second goes by where we are being prodded to buy and be indebted with useless trash that we don’t need. Slavery takes on different forms. American slavery is to turn everyone into a debt slave and a consumer that is never satisfied, beguiled into believing that they must never stop feasting over and never be satiated, thankful for what little they have; and in doing so it keeps the cycle going that makes believe they are rich and prosperous when they really aren’t.
Ecclesiastes 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
Proverbs 13:25 The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Brother Jacob and/or brethren,
What are your thoughts on DuckDuckGo? I’ve never heard of the Bravo web browser. I use DuckDuckGo currently. Not sure if you or anyone can tell me what may be the better of the 2 browsers?
Thanks!
Oops…the “Brave” web browser
Hi sister Tara,
DuckDuckGo is a pretty good search engine, I’ve been using it full time for perhaps 5 years. I use it primarily with the FireFox web browser.
It’s not perfect, as I seem to remember even they have certain contractual deals with Microsoft (not really good at all): https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/25/duckduckgo_browser_microsoft_privacy/
Thank you, brother Andrey for your insight!
To be honest was thinking of web browser and search engine were one of the same.
Duck Duck Go is garbage. They USED to be good, but then they started hiding pro-Russian content in their search engine when the whole Ukraine-Russia invasion happened. So basically they do the same thing that Google does: censor information. The Duck Duck Go company said they would NOT do this, originally. Brother Jacob has a report on it too.
I personally like the Brave search engine, and I use it daily. It’s not perfect, but I believe it’s better than most. They’re browser is also one of the best privacy-based browsers, but I personally took to Vivaldi (which is unfortunately not open source like Brave, but I still like it).
Brother Jacob also has a report on how Duck Duck Go was found to have been secretly allowing Microsoft to track users.
If you want privacy, I think your best browser options are Brave and LibreWolf. I use both, but primarily Vivaldi with privacy-based extensions. Avoid Chrome and Opera at all costs.
https://winepressnews.com/2022/03/10/duck-duck-go-will-now-start-down-ranking-sites-associated-with-russian-disinformation/
I cycle through a number of different search engines. Basically there really are only two: Google and Bing. A lot of these other search engines buy the data from Microsoft (Bing) and then recategorize it, but it’s still the Bing engine; so if Microsoft wants to start censoring something in particular it will become harder and harder to find it.
Thanks, brother Anthony for your insight as well!
https://winepressnews.com/2022/03/10/duck-duck-go-will-now-start-down-ranking-sites-associated-with-russian-disinformation/
https://winepressnews.com/2022/06/02/duck-duck-go-found-to-be-secretly-allowing-microsoft-to-track-users-brave-steps-up-to-fill-the-void/
I still use it here or there, but I have learned that you need to use a number of them to do thorough searches based on how they prioritize certain items.
Thanks, brother Jacob! You and the brethren have been quite helpful!
On the original post, yep YouTube is garbage. The ads are getting longer and longer. I don’t use it on my PC much unless i’m downloading something with a downloader. On my Roku they update it so unfortunately there is no control over that. I haven’t experienced the ads on pausing yet but I believe they’re doing it. I used to put content on there years ago but they shadow-banned me so I stopped using it. And like Jacob said between the ads and censorship I would rather not use them but unfortunately in truth there is still some good stuff though it’s hit and miss anymore. Though there are alternatives like Rumble and Brighteon, I see it only as a matter of time before they too go down the same path. It’s all about greed for these platforms and really they’re more or less just becoming another extension of social media and it’s been going that way for years.
Browser wise; like others have said, DuckDuck Go is just a search engine. Brave, like Anthony said is a browser. I use Brave but really it’s just an extension of Chrome as it is based on Chrome (a google product). It is good at blocking ads but what I don’t like is the constant prompts to save things left and right and no clear way to disable it without looking extensively for how to shut off these features. Firefox is my secondary browser and used to be my main one up until about four years ago, but ever since they sold it, I don’t believe it can be fully trusted. But Brave now is even implementing AI and has been for sometime. I disable it and use an older machine from 2013 that I upgraded so hopefully it can’t work the way it’s designed but who really knows.
Search engine wise, In my personal experience I began to use DuckDuck because I don’t like Google, but really all of the search engines whether it be Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc. all aggregate content between each other.
Most are now ran by A.I. so I’m beginning to think it doesn’t really make a difference because what you get for results is based on the amount of hits the site gets -not necessarily what provides the best content out there. The only way you can find something is by digging through pages of results or if you know specifically what your looking for and even then the search algorithms are so confused they often don’t work correctly (much less like searching for something on YouTube).
The best recipe for privacy is to use a decent VPN, block ads where possible, and do adware and spyware scans on your computer often (I personally use CC Cleaner and Spybot S&D). NEVER save your passwords and clear your history (I set my browsers to clear history and cookies upon exit) frequently, in addition to scans for spy and adware just due the amount of tracking and ads on everything anymore.
In time I think tech is honestly just going to shoot itself in the foot. It already is beginning a death spiral and the good news is more and more people are saying no.
Thank you, brother Ray for your help and insight!
As I shared with brother Andrey, I thought that a web browser and search engine were the same. I never really differentiated the two before.
One more thing (privacy wise) if you happen to use Windows, there is a program you can get called, ‘Shut Up 10/11’ and this allows you to disable many of the features and privacy as well as updates. Though if you go this route you may want to ask someone who is more computer savvy to install and set it up because you don’t want to lock it down so hard you break your system.
YouTube’s comment section is a test of patience for sure. Never mind trying to convince the Jews on Tovia Singer’s channel for one; on top of YT’s censorship, you have moderators there who will make your clean, civil comments disappear like bubbles; can’t take the heat of the King James Bible scriptures. Meanwhile, some attack Jesus Christ and his word there with hatred and malice.
Likewise, speaking directly against Rome’s Catholic system is nigh impossible.
I used to be able to have an ad blocker, which was great, but then Chrome said NO, I can’t have it, so now I am inundated with ads everywhere. I can’t even play a game without having to wait until the ad is completely posted before my game can resume. It’s maddening. I click on skip ad as soon as 4 seconds are up, but still very annoying. I do NOT watch ANY of the ads, so they are a waste of time for them to post them on my computer.