Over the weekend, users (self included) noticed a slightly redesigned player UI on YouTube. The new UI has a slightly larger play/pause button and relocates the volume slider to the right side of the player. The following are on the desktop browser.
The following is the original player UI (a design which has existed somewhat intact for around a decade).
None of my other accounts have the updated player UI; this might either be a limited test to gauge feedback or part of a slower rollout. The muscle memory associated with the location of the volume button was easy to overcome in a few minutes. Either way, I don’t really have any positive or negative impression about this player interface change.
On a separate note regarding their constant whack-a-mole with ad blockers, they’ve been getting a lot more aggressive recently (Ghostery is one of the main browser extensions that assists in dealing with it along with a couple of others that handles ads across an array of platforms including Twitch). Recently, I’ve seen a lot of the following.
Ghostery in those cases will continue to work in a private window until they can update their code (it usually takes a few days and then the next round of whack-a-mole happens). This extension also blocks tracking (I also use AdGuard and Privacy Badger for good measure).
I’m very much over and done with these major companies giving users the “guilt trip” when they are engaging in some of the most questionable conduct with regards to privacy like tracking your usage, finding any loophole to datamine and monetize your personal data (take their privacy policies/terms of service with a huge block of solid rock), and in the case of companies like Google and Meta (amongst the bigger tech companies), engaging in all of that previous stuff PLUS continuous infringement of copyright/intellectual property via their AI model training. The double standard BS are just small reasons why I’ve been highly motivated recently to reduce usage and/or self-remove myself from as many of these platforms as reasonably possible. If these companies weren’t so full of it, I would gladly pay for their premium services that allow ad free viewing.
And because of this corporate induced hypocrisy, I mercilessly block their ads and even entire sites now. On mobile iOS/iPadOS devices, this is a bit more challenging because only mobile Safari supports content blockers AND you need to use very specific ones to kill these YouTube ads where their system has a difficult time determining there is an ad blocking system running. Like if you use only AdGuard or Adblock Plus, YouTube will detect those (giving you the countdown) and eventually prevent video playback. I’m obviously not going to mention which other content blockers are needed since it will then allow YouTube to figure out how to circumvent that system.
This most recent challenge attempt by YouTube lasted almost a week before Ghostery began working again. Note that I tried seeing what YouTube was like now without any blockers, and it’s terrible. On one video, it was multiple pre-rolls (maybe 90 seconds worth), content played for around 3 minutes before another ad played but had a skip button that at least popped up (the video itself was at least 12 minutes long – I just closed the tab and ended that experiment).
I realistically know YouTube is going to be one of the most difficult to get 100% off of (thus the above being important on the viewing side) while for hosting media, am still evaluating those options (including a hybrid approach with a backup plan to quickly switch since I know that ones channel can quickly be disappeared by the company whenever they want).
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