Today's rage is about advertisements and YouTube, where I waste an hour writing about wasting thirty seconds every once in a while.
I have an interesting relationship with advertisements. On the one hand, they're a great way for a person or company I like to generate money without me actually have to pay them. On the other hand, they're incredibly annoying when done improperly.
The Internet's methods are, thankfully, very different from those of television. While it used to be full of epilepsy-inducing millionth visitor banner ads and obvious scams, modern wonders such as Adblock and Common Sense on the websites' part have led to a much better place, where those who hate all advertisements can cheerfully block all of them, those who don't mind them don't have to deal with seizures every other web page, and those who fall between, like me, can white list any websites that they trust or want to support.
Today, advertising on the Internet is a multi-million dollar industry, one that Google has pursued full steam ahead with user friendly and accessible advertising programs like Adsense. Companies pay Google for advertising space, and people get paid by Google for letting them host advertisements on their web pages. It's a nice little set up they have going.
After YouTube was bought by Google, Google was quick to implement a variety of changes, the most prominent of which was the ability for just about anyone who doesn't post copyrighted videos or music to get paid for advertisements they allow on their videos. It's a win for everyone: Google
easily makes hundreds of millions of dollars off of this program, and individual users earn a modest income from their own channels. Some become popular enough to quit their day jobs and pursue their love of making fun, informative, or entertaining videos.
Well. It's a win for
mostly everyone. There are a few things that have risen out of the whole process that have become increasingly rage inducing for me. Things, such as...
