There must be some Elon-Musk-emulating dickhead executive behind all this.

They ran out of ideas. That’s about what it comes down to.

Google is still just an ads company at the end of the day.

(Yes Cloud has had net positive quarters but it is still net negative relative to how much SERP dollars it took to prop it up this long.)

Honestly I don't have a problem with it, big-picture wise.

We're in a tug-of-war with YouTube: we want perfect service for no cost to us, and they want all our money with no cost to themselves.

It's great if we can find some common ground. But if not, I'll adapt.

(I'm not denying that YT content has value for me. I just don't think they're obligated to provide it for a price I'm willing to pay.)

If YouTube outright prevents access from browsers that block ads, then suddenly a huge number of the most tech-savvy viewers will be motivated to seek/develop/fund better ad blockers and/or alternative ways to access videos.

It's a difficult position. On the one hand, these users are chewing up compute and bandwidth, without providing any ad revenue. On the other hand, if they leave, it contributes to a vicious cycle (or virtuous cycle, depending on your perspective) of eyeballs being elsewhere, and content creators looking elsewhere to reach those eyeballs.

Sure, initially content creators will be posting to YouTube as well, but even a moat like YouTube's can be filled in over time.

It is less the ads that bother me. Although, I do remember a time with TV where there was a commercial break every 30-45 min if you are luck and every 15 min when not.

Didn't bother me. Bathroom break.

What bothers me with this is the amount of surveillance that comes with it.

Isn't called surveillance-capitalism for nought. And the best part.. it has already been debunked that targeted ads are as effective as they would like them to be.

>content creators looking elsewhere to reach those eyeballs.

If content creator can not monetize those eyeballs very well there is little incentive to target that niche. YouTube would be losing a niche of a niche that are not as profitable to try and platform.

Well here's your timeline:

1. Chrome had to support adblockers to outcompete firefox.

2. Adblockers were really powerful pieces of arbitrary logic making blocking them infeasible, so manifest v3 had to first be introduced to weaken them.

3. With lean times upon us, everyone is understanding of their move to block ads.

All of these steps were necessary, and had to happen with some time inbetween. Sort of an embrace-extend-extinguish play.

Edit: Well it seems manifest v2 is being phased out very very gradually and it's not done yet. No new extensions are allowed but uBlock might still be around for a few more months.