Does it annoy you when you view a video that has an ad that you must watch first?

Yes. If I want the information contained in the video, sometimes I will just google it and get pointed to a news source.

Or, if I really want to watch the video, I just mute the ad.

I hate it. The websites are normally covered with advertisements already. Watching one is invasive in my opinion.

“The websites are normally covered with advertisements already. ”

Use Ad Block as an add in for firefox or chrome. No more ads. Works great.

It’s annoying because I obviously didn’t click on the video to watch an ad. But usually, they’re not longer than 30 seconds, and it’s not like it’s as bad as a commercial break on TV.

I do not have any ads.

Dislike it very much and the advertisers know exactly what they are doing.

I keep clicking the stop box until it ends.

It annoys me to no end! I can understand having the ads on smaller websites that might need the advertisements to make decent money, but I find it hard to believe that a website as huge as Youtube really needs the revenue from the ads at the beginning of the videos.

I don’t like it either. On youtube I can usually find another version of the same thing without the ads but on other sites I can’t. Usually I pass on the video unless it’s something I really want to see then I mute it, like @Charles.

No, so long as it’s reasonably brief or, if long, offers the X button to skip the ad. The video is free, and I recognize there are no free lunches. It costs to produce it, to host it, and to fund the bandwidth to deliver it. The advertising makes it worthwhile to keep a site like YouTube filled with millions of useful videos (and yes, lots that may be entertaining to amusing, if not useful).

It’s mildly annoying. Fortunately, some Youtube videos allow you to opt out of the ads after 5 seconds, which reduces the annoyance somewhat.

The videos themselves don’t bother me. Commercials and adds never have. I just click it away when the X pops up.
But what pisses me off is the whole principle of the matter, and I feel insulted being told that I can skip this add in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…it frustrates me to have this shit shoved in my face, and it insults my intelligence when these adds think they can persuade me that my life isn’t complete without whatever they’re advertising.
I gave up cable television because commercials are much too excessive…but I just can’t escape. They find me in another way.

@ETpro You do have a point, but I notice that all the vids that have these adds are ones of popular and mainstream stuff. Search any Lady Gaga video, and you’ll be accosted by such adds. A lot of things made by people or stuff that doesn’t answer to the apex of society when it comes to entertainment and big time budgets just have the little ads that appear on the vids, which you can get rid of right away. There certainly seems to be some specific selection when it comes to what gets those bomb adds, and I wonder just how necessary they actually are?

Not so much if the video I want to see if at no charge.

Not really. I would much rather watch a few ads than pay for youtube/hulu.

I’m thrilled I can find useful info on the Net for free.
If I can find the video clip ad free, I try.

If I can’t, no biggie unless:
* the commercial is inappropriate for children
* extremely loud
* over 15 seconds long and you can’t X it.

Not if the ad is just informative and not sexist for example.

I don’t really mind them unless their loading interrupts my playback, they’re significantly louder than the program, or they repeat themselves to no end. But it’s not a issue in any event because I use Ghostery, which blocks all the ads (and, more importantly, trackers) for me.

Yes. I would say that around 80% of the time, when I get an ad first, I bail out and find the information somewhere else. Advertising like this is like fireants. THey sting you and once they have started it is difficult to avoid the pain.

Lately, I’ve noticed ads on Youtube videos have become more prominent. Most of the time, I’ll just skip the video altogether if I see an ad. Don’t Youtube users know this is a huge turn off?

@AshlynM , not just youtube, but also VNN, CBS News, anything with information.

Of course it is counterproductive in my case, because I not only don’t watch the ad, but I lose my patience and leave their site entirely, which hurts them in the long run.

Its all about the money. ALways is

Yes! It drives me to drink!

@Symbeline With all the money her recording company showers of Gaga, you can bet they aren’t going to allow ad-free, cost-free videos when they can still be selling you a music video download. If I were in their shoes, I’d do exactly as they do.

Adblock seems to have killed them all. It’s very nice.

It mildly irritates me but it very rarely stops me waiting to watch the video as ads tend to only be around 30 seconds long.

Yes, especially when I’m trying to link a video for someone on Fluther to watch. I don’t want to subject them to the ads either. I will click off immediately and look for another version of the same video.

Oddly enough, I don’t mind at all watching commercials on TV, even if it’s something that I’ve recorded. I guess it’s just that with youtube, there is something that I want to see immediately and usually the video itself is shorter than the stupid ad! And when you’re trying to answer a Fluther Q and give a video example, the ad gets right in the way and kind of throws your mind off in another direction. It’s exasperating. Here you are trying to remind another jelly of exactly what Darth Vader said during a crucial moment, when all of a sudden there’s an ad for vaginal itch!!! It’s kind of a buzzkill.

@wildpotato I’ve started using Ghostery. Watching it block the Google is oddly satisfying. Thanks.