Articles about YouTube

YouTube hates ad blockers, and the site has been trying to discourage visitors from using them for quite some time. After introducing warnings last year, the site now appears to be reducing performance for anyone who tries to make use of an ad blocker.

While there has been no official announcement about it, the slowdown has not gone unnoticed by YouTube users. Posts on Reddit reveal the laggy site experience for people using an ad blocker -- lag which disappears as soon as ads are re-enabled.

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Ad blockers tend to make the internet a more palatable place to explore, but in recent times there has been an increase in ad block detection. Coupled with this has been the introduction of nag screens or content being rendered inaccessible until ad blocking is disabled.

YouTube is one of many big-name sites to have ramped up its efforts to discourage -- and ultimately stamp out -- the use of ad blockers. Now the company is expanding its attack on users who try to avoid ads, and is using the effort to simultaneously promote YouTube Premium.

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New research from Bitdefender reveals a rise in 'stream-jacking' attacks against high-profile accounts in order to spread fraudulent messages.

The attacks may involve a full account takeover or simply luring followers to a mimicked channel with the promise of rewards using various techniques including livestream pop-ups, QR codes, and malicious links.

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Open-source video broadcasting, recording and streaming tool OBS Studio 29.1 has been released for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The chief highlight is added support to allow users to livestream on YouTube using AV1/HEVC over Enhanced RTMP, resulting in lower bandwidth requirements and widening access to 4K60 streaming. The app also makes several improvements to the program’s preferences.

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Right now, it feels like the US economy is in shambles. Tech companies are having huge layoffs, banks are failing, and inflation continues to eat away at people's savings accounts. Hell, many people can't even afford eggs anymore.

And now, YouTube TV is joining the inflation party with a new price hike. Sadly, Google has decided to increase the monthly cost of YouTube TV from $64.99 to $72.99. Thankfully, this jump in price isn't astronomical -- it is a mere 12 percent bump up. On a positive note, the 4K Plus add-on package is getting a price cut.

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On my YouTube home page at the moment is a promoted 'live' ask me anything from Taylor Swift. Seeing as her latest album Midnights is currently breaking records everywhere, that’s not surprising.

The thing is this live video isn’t what it seems to be.

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Ads are now part and parcel of using the internet and many apps, and much of what you see is because of Google. It is going to be a long time before Google changes its business model and is no longer reliant on showing you ads, but the company is aware of the annoyance people experience when they see advertising that is is completely inappropriate or touches on sensitive topics.

As such, Google has announced My Ad Center, a portal through which it is possible to gain more control over your ad experience. What this means in practice is that you will be able to do things such as choose whether or not you'd like to see tailored ads, control what sort of information Google is able to use to personalise your ads, and even opt out of seeing ads for certain topics.

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Google has started the process of informing YouTube Premium subscribers about an impending price rise for its Family plan. The hike is a significant one, with subscribers in the US looking at a $5 jump from $17.99 per month to $22.99.

The new pricing takes immediate effect for new subscribers, but existing users have at least 30 days from the date of receiving the email from Google. For those who signed up for YouTube Red when it existed, there is a brief stay of execution.

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YouTube has announced that creators can now make use of @ handles for their channels. The move is a long time coming and the aim is to help increase engagement on the platform.

With the introduction of handles, YouTube is making it easier for users to mention others in their comments and more. Handles are rolling out over the next month, and YouTube says that it will notify creators when they are able to choose one for their channel.

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I decided to cut the cord and switch to YouTube TV over four years ago, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. No longer do I have to rent clunky boxes from the cable company to watch live television. Instead, thanks to YouTube TV, all of my devices serve as makeshift televisions! I can watch live TV anywhere on all my devices -- my smartphone, tablet, laptop, Apple TV, and more.

While the price of YouTube TV has gone up over the years, I never really minded the cost increases too much. Why? Because YouTube TV has remained consistently excellent thanks to the unlimited DVR, top-notch customer service, and ever-expanding channel lineup. It is rare to be completely satisfied with a service, but with YouTube TV, I literally have no complaints.

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The British Army confirmed yesterday that its Twitter and YouTube accounts had been breached by hackers.

The Army's YouTube channel was changed to feature videos on cyptocurrency and images of billionaire businessman Elon Musk under the account name ArkInvest, while its official Twitter account was used to re-tweet several posts relating to NFTs and had its name changed a number of times.

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Although the likes of Tesla’s Autopilot have brought self-driving cars to the roads, they still require active driver supervision and it will likely be a while before full autonomy arrives, although we are getting ever close.

The idea of self-driving vehicles isn’t new, however. Indeed, early prototypes were being tested way back in the last century.

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For years now, Google has been down-ranking -- or even removing entirely -- pirate sites from its search results. Privacy-focused search alternative DuckDuckGo has resisted taking similar action, making it a good choice for anyone seeking out such services.

Back in 2018, in a bid to avoid potential copyright liability, it did remove access to around 2,000 'bangs' -- shortcuts that let you run a search directly on a particular website -- for copyright infringing sites like The Pirate Bay and 1337x, but this didn’t affect the results in the search engine itself. It seems that has now changed.

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For the past month, I have been updating a story on the Russia-Ukraine war from a tech perspective, covering the many online entities being blocked by Russia and the ways groups like Anonymous have been feverishly working to cause Putin, his government, and the Russian military as many headaches as it can. I've even looked at the ways that have sprung up to track things like weapons and Oligarch private jets. Those updates are officially over now, as the number passed twenty, and the page became too much to reasonably expect a person to scroll. 

The end of the daily updates does not, unfortunately, mean an end to war and the deaths and displacements it is causing. So, we'll continue to bring you the important news as it happens. 

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TikTok’s massive success caught the major social networks napping. While they might not have anticipated the meteoric rise of the platform, they weren’t slow in rushing to produce their own takes on the popular short-form, video-sharing app.

While rivals Byte, Triller, and Clash all have their fans, it’s Instagram’s Reels, and YouTube’s Shorts that have the best chance of dethroning TikTok. You might scoff at the idea of that happening, but YouTube has just announced the all-time views for Shorts so far, and they are massive.

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