The vast majority of apps, websites, and internet services are free in terms of user access, and the “price to pay” in addition to our data is to see advertising while browsing the internet through videos, posters, interruptions in playback, and other variants.
The problem is that this trend is increasing, meaning there are more and more ads wherever we look on the internet. Behind every click, new tab, or login, users have to go through this detestable process.
One of the platforms that has succumbed to this trend in recent years, and each passing year includes more ads, is YouTube. The video app owned by Google introduced advertising at the beginning of content playback, so in order to watch a complete video, you had to watch an ad for several seconds.
Then they decided that one ad was not enough, and therefore now before watching a video, generally two different ads appear before the video you want to watch. And, as they thought there was still room, YouTube also included advertising in the middle of longer videos, so while watching one, an advertising break may appear.
Now, as Google executive Philipp Schindler announced in the latest Alphabet results presentation, the company would be testing new ways to include advertising, specifically, now on many YouTube accounts when you pause a video, an ad starts playing.
“In the first quarter, we had strong traction with the introduction of a pilot of pause ads on connected TVs, a new non-disruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler explained.
Logically, this is a way for YouTube to get more money from advertisers; what is striking is that they are willing to pay to advertise when the user pauses the video, because the user only pauses the content when they have to stop paying attention to the video for whatever reason.
This means that this advertising would appear when supposedly they are not looking at the screen, which apparently doesn’t make much sense. Another aspect that catches attention, and that makes this change more annoying to users, is that if an ad starts playing because you paused the video, if you return before it finishes, you will have to watch the ad until the end.
Google has announced that the measure has been successful in the regions where they have tested it, so it seems that sooner rather than later, this change will reach all YouTube accounts.
