Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company) is the largest technology company by profit and among the world’s most valuable companies. ~ Wikipedia
Google has recently upped the ante in its fight against ad-blockers, targeting YouTube users with a new round of anti-ad-blocker pop-ups. I received this pop-up very recently while browsing YouTube:
- You Also Might Like: How To Mitigate YouTube’s Ad Blocking Detection With Brave
At the same time, Google has announced that it will be increasing ad content in its Premium Lite subscription plan, an obvious attempt to push subscribers into the more expensive YouTube Premium plan.
It’s been said many times that Google is essentially an advertising company, and that assertion is becoming more and more apparent. I cannot even bear to watch YouTube on my TV (in the absence of any ad-blocker) as the ads are plentiful and frequent. I can barely get through a few minutes of video without an ad break. And these ad breaks can occur at any time, not just at the start and/or end of a video clip, but often slap bang in the middle of a critical moment.
- You also might like: YouTube Ads Are Beyond A Joke
Furthermore, Google search results are no longer predicated on closest matches to the user’s search term but rather on whoever pays for the privilege of topping the list of results.
I just performed a Google search for Best Free Portable Screen Capture Tool, which matches the title of one of our published articles verbatim, and the listing for Dave’s Computer Tips is buried deep into page 6 of the results.
It seems that, as far as Google is concerned, there is no such thing as enough money; the company’s greed knows no bounds.
I have never been a Google fan, which, if you’ve read up to this point, is probably pretty obvious. My original beef with Google was always about privacy (or lack thereof), and now I can add Google’s policy of saturating its offerings with ads to the equation.
There are methods available to avoid YouTube ads, but that is not really the point of this dissertation; it’s more about the ongoing greed of an already mega-wealthy company. By the way, I can add Meta into this discussion, yet another mega-wealthy company whose greed knows no bounds.
I will never pay Google even one cent for an ad-free experience, not because I cannot afford it, but rather based purely on principle.
Is Google the greediest company on the planet? As usual, your thoughts are welcome via the comments.
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Hey Jim,
I decided to do a quick comparison on placement for a search of “Best Free Portable Screen Capture Tool” among some search sites
Mojeek #1
Qwant #3 (less AI and Videos)
Bing #4 (less AI and Videos)
DDG #6
Brave #6 (less AI and Videos — note was a link in AI stuff)
Google Bottom of page 7 (I wasn’t going to count all that)
JD
Hey John,
Interesting results. Which just go to show that, when it comes to matching precise search terms, Google search is comparatively way out of whack.
John,
When I ran the same search in Brave, I got a standard list of sites like PC Mag, The Windows Club, The Geek Page, etc., all with lists of their own. I’m not making sense of your list. Could you please elaborate?
John is talking about the Brave search engine, not the Brave browser. All in his list are search engines. He searched for “Best Free Portable Screen Capture Tool” in each of those search engines and reported where DCT’s article appeared in their respective list of results..
HTH
Sounds like some of us could use an article on alternate search engines. I use Brave as my browser and search from there. I never heard of any those other search engines. If I’m not in Brave, I duck, duck, and go!
Hey Granny Geek,
There are lots of different search engines and there is a setting in most browsers where you can choose which search engine to use.
DuckDuckGo began purely as a search engine and the developer later released a browser of the same name. John mentions the DuckDuckGo (DDG) search engine in his list.
I’ll write an article explaining browsers and search engines, no problem. Keep an eye out.
Cheers… Jim
Hey Granny Geek,
While we are waiting for Jim’s article on search sites, here are a few past articles on DCT that may interest you:
Mojeek — https://davescomputertips.com/mojeek-a-search-alternative/
Brave Search — https://davescomputertips.com/brave-search/
Reverse Image Searches — https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-perform-reverse-image-searches/
JD
Jim, there are five ads on this page, three for AdBlock. Did Dave’s Computer Tips allow these ads or did Google insert them? Also, within the past week I have noticed a big uptick in the number of ads on many of the websites I visit, so much so that I suspected malware. But my machine works fine otherwise. And I have no increase in pop ups or anything weird. So I am no longer convinced I have malware. I use Avira as an extension. Would switching to DuckDuckGo eliminate all these ads? What will be the downside if I switch from Chrome to DuckDuckGo? Thank you.
Jim, I meant of course “switch from Google to DuckDuckGo.” Not enough sleep these days.
Hey Robert,
The ads that display on DCT are from Google, we have very little control over ad content. About 2 1/2 years ago Google changed its payment system for sites displaying ads from Google, naturally in Google’s favor, so websites earn less revenue while Google gets a larger slice. That’s probably the reason you are generally seeing more ads.
No, changing from Google search to DuckDuckGo will not stop the ads. Search engines only provide a link to websites, they do not block ads. In order to block ads on websites, you need a browser that includes an ad-blocking feature (such as Brave) or an ad-blocking extension (such as uBlock Origin).
That said, most smaller sites, such as DCT, rely solely on Google ad revenue to survive so blocking all ads is almost certain to have a detrimental effect for smaller sites. What you can do though is install an ad-blocker extension and then whitelist those sites that you find useful (such as DCT 🙂 ) so the ads will still display on sites that you choose to allow them on.
I vote for the Brave browser for ad control. I’m almost afraid to type this lest I jinx things, but well, the Google video app. Figure it out. Brave is so good that I specifically allow DCT to display ads to support them.
I don’t mind ads but YouTube definitely has a lot more than it used to. I remember when you’d get 1 ad and now you often get at least 2. I’ve also seen YouTubers complaining that when they tell the system where to put mid ads it often puts them other random places which can disturb the flow of videos. I’ve seen some videos have ads like a minute in etc.
I also find it interesting how many people left cable TV due to commercials and now a lot of the streaming channels include these unless you pay more. I recently had an Amazon prime trial and was annoyed to find the standard version now includes ads but I don’t think they reduced the price (could be wrong there though)
Hey Peter,
You are not wrong mate – Amazon didn’t reduce the price for the standard plan, they started charging more for an ad-free experience.
Hi Jim
After I got the same message as you did in Chrome I switched to Firefox on my main PC. Firefox allows UBlock Origin and I also throw in Sponsorblock for good measure (not on DCT’s site I hasten to “ad” !
I can’t remember when I last saw any advertisements using that combo 🙂
Google and Microsoft are the Evil Empire as far as I am concerned. May your Browser be with you !
Cheers
Reg
Are any of the ad-blockers you link to in your article still effective?
UBlock Origin used to work great, but not anymore.
Dan
Hi Dan. I used AdGuard. There is a free version and extension that works with the Firefox browser and has the ability to whitelist sites, Mindblower!
Apologies to Jim for jumping in here.
Dan, the answer to this question is time relevant. There is a war going on between Youtube and ad-blockers. I use Brave with Brave shields, and I hadn’t seen an ad in Youtube for a long time. When Youtube upped the ante in its fight against ad-blockers as Jim mentioned, I started seeing the new anti-ad-blocker pop-ups Jim mentioned. After a day or so, they disappeared, and I haven’t seen an ad since. I explained this tug of war in an article (How To Mitigate YouTube’s Ad Blocking Detection w/Brave) two years ago in more detail.
https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-mitigate-youtubes-ad-blocking-detection-w-brave/
I believe Brave Shields and UBlock are using the same filters. Assuming UBlock is still being updated, this should apply to UBlock, also.
JD