DuckDuckGo's private browser for Mac enters public beta

Youtube's ads are getting denser and denser. I remember a few years ago when they added a second ad to most ad breaks, and now they are occasionally forcing people to watch three ads in one ad break. And a huge percentage of those ads are at least 15-seconds (and longer, if you don't press SKIP ADS.) So 15 seconds times three ads is 45 seconds of ads, just to watch the first five minutes of a video. In my opinion they've hit the threshold of commercial TV ads (if you don't press on SKIP ADS.) And since ads are tailored for each user, that makes the business much more profitable than commercial TV. That gives me a few options:

1. Stop watching Youtube
2. Start using DuckDuckGo's browser
3. Start paying for "Youtube Premium" for less ads
4. Write software to click on SKIP ADS (I won't say if I've already done this.)

For many years I’ve been using start.com (previously known as “ixquick.com”), which is just as private but gives you the top search/searches in the first line or two, without dozens and dozens of similar but different results like duckduckgo.

I’ve found it to be the most efficient search engine out there.

22july2013 said:

Youtube's ads are getting denser and denser. I remember a few years ago when they added a second ad to most ad breaks, and now they are occasionally forcing people to watch three ads in one ad break. And a huge percentage of those ads are at least 15-seconds (and longer, if you don't press SKIP ADS.) So 15 seconds times three ads is 45 seconds of ads, just to watch the first five minutes of a video. In my opinion they've hit the threshold of commercial TV ads (if you don't press on SKIP ADS.) And since ads are tailored for each user, that makes the business much more profitable than commercial TV. That gives me a few options:

1. Stop watching Youtube
2. Start using DuckDuckGo's browser
3. Start paying for "Youtube Premium" for less ads
4. Write software to click on SKIP ADS (I won't say if I've already done this.)

Great point July.  People bitch about the Apple-Android App Store Duopoly but what about the monopoly of internet video streaming that is YouTube?

We don’t have any options in this regard beyond shelling out for Premium but the advertisement burden of YouTube has gotten intolerable.

22july2013 said:

Youtube's ads are getting denser and denser. I remember a few years ago when they added a second ad to most ad breaks, and now they are occasionally forcing people to watch three ads in one ad break. And a huge percentage of those ads are at least 15-seconds (and longer, if you don't press SKIP ADS.) So 15 seconds times three ads is 45 seconds of ads, just to watch the first five minutes of a video. In my opinion they've hit the threshold of commercial TV ads (if you don't press on SKIP ADS.) And since ads are tailored for each user, that makes the business much more profitable than commercial TV. That gives me a few options:

1. Stop watching Youtube
2. Start using DuckDuckGo's browser
3. Start paying for "Youtube Premium" for less ads
4. Write software to click on SKIP ADS (I won't say if I've already done this.)

Not lobbying one way or another, everyone needs to decide what's in their budget and what their priorities are, but I've found YouTube Premium to be my most essential "media" subscription and it would be the last one I would consider dropping. I watch a lot of YouTube, for reference, learning and entertainment, and Premium succeeds in removing every single annoyance or limitation while still allowing you to indirectly support content creators (although, direct support via Patreon, etc. is always better, of course). Plus you get YouTube Music as part of the package, which even if you already have Spotify or Apple Music or whatever is different enough in how it works (particularly in how it can pull from YouTube music content) makes it an interesting value-add. 

neoncat said:

22july2013 said:

Youtube's ads are getting denser and denser. I remember a few years ago when they added a second ad to most ad breaks, and now they are occasionally forcing people to watch three ads in one ad break. And a huge percentage of those ads are at least 15-seconds (and longer, if you don't press SKIP ADS.) So 15 seconds times three ads is 45 seconds of ads, just to watch the first five minutes of a video. In my opinion they've hit the threshold of commercial TV ads (if you don't press on SKIP ADS.) And since ads are tailored for each user, that makes the business much more profitable than commercial TV. That gives me a few options:

1. Stop watching Youtube
2. Start using DuckDuckGo's browser
3. Start paying for "Youtube Premium" for less ads
4. Write software to click on SKIP ADS (I won't say if I've already done this.)

Not lobbying one way or another, everyone needs to decide what's in their budget and what their priorities are, but I've found YouTube Premium to be my most essential "media" subscription and it would be the last one I would consider dropping. I watch a lot of YouTube, for reference, learning and entertainment, and Premium succeeds in removing every single annoyance or limitation while still allowing you to indirectly support content creators (although, direct support via Patreon, etc. is always better, of course). Plus you get YouTube Music as part of the package, which even if you already have Spotify or Apple Music or whatever is different enough in how it works (particularly in how it can pull from YouTube music content) makes it an interesting value-add. 

I don't want youtube music, just no ads. They used to have a $4/mo no-ad subscription but that went away a few years ago. It's now $12/mo for premium and a ridiculous $65/mo for youtube TV plus more for extra sports and movie channels. Crazy thing is Comcast costs less for more channels.