If there is one thing that annoys everyone on any platform that is free, is advertisements. Ads being the major source of revenue for such companies, they tend to ward-off people simply because they are annoying.
YouTube ads come in two different forms – ones that are skippable after 5 seconds and ones that are not. A lot of communities online has voiced out their strong opinions against such 30-second unskippable ads that make the experience extremely bad before getting down to watching a video.
To normalise this situation, and backlash from the viewers, Google has decided to end the 30-second unskippable ads that appear before a video. According to The Verge, the company will release a new format of advertisements that will keep the viewers engaged.
Especially in a country like India that experiences slower speeds of internet and intermittent connections, this is a huge relief. Imagine going to YouTube to watch a video while you’re commuting to work or another destination, and then getting to watch an ad before the video, when you know the network is terrible.
This usually translates to a long ad because of poor connection, followed by a choppy video. While buffering is not in the hands of YouTube, it can at least offer people the option to skip an ad after 5 or 10 seconds.
“We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” Google said.
Google has not commented on the 15-20 second advertisements, which means that they are here to stay and won’t be going anywhere. The company will also play around the format of the ads, and increase the number of such small ads that last only 5-6 seconds.
For desktop users, Google Chrome allows you to install extensions that block the ads on YouTube. Similarly, for Android users, there are hacks to do the same. However, even if people are willing to watch the ads, they shouldn’t be so long that the viewer gets disinterested in the video.
The company is planning to make this change in 2018, which is 11 months away. We don’t know why Google needs this much time to stop these annoying ads, but we do hope that YouTube creators see higher engagement and views once this feature is turned off.
Source: The Verge