I've fallen out of love with Google

I've been trying to persuade my friend Tony to get a cat. He and I are polar opposites in many ways; I solitary, he gregarious and hence while I am very happy living on my own, he is not. One of the reasons he has, at least until recently, always had a dog or two, is that dogs are also gregarious and seekers of companionship. Hence he has a deep suspicion of cats which perhaps are, like me, polar opposites. Would a cat satisfy his need for loving company?

In the spirit of friendship and in response to his aversion to most technology (hence unlikely to use a search engine), I asked my son whence they acquired their large fluffy cat called Poppy. The answer was a charity called Cats Protection. So I Googled that and discovered  the Cornwall Cat Centre.

Obviously I passed this info to Tony but that isn't the point of today's story (I will tell you the outcome in due course). Which is that now, whenever I load up YouTube (owned by Google) on my TV (which is frequently) the first thing that hits my eyes is an advertisement for Cornwall Cat Centre. Extremely annoying, since (a) it's not me that's interested in cats; don't they know that? (b) I subscribe to various YouTube channels and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the latest videos from those channels to lead my feed and (c) I don't like Google knowing everything about me.

Of course there's a simple solution to this. Switch to a different search engine. Then at least YouTube won't have that info.

I'm now trying DuckDuckGo, which says this about itself:

The DuckDuckGo browser is designed for data protection, not data collection. Our browsing protections, such as ad tracker blocking and cookie blocking, help stop your data from being collected. And our built-in search engine never tracks your searches.

Sounds good, yes?

That leads me with the problem of YouTube advertisements.  I don't mind the occasional brief ads, as the price of using an incredibly good free platform, but the length of the ads has increased exponentially, sometimes nearly a minute.

Asking ChatGPT about this:

YouTube has introduced longer, unskippable ads on its TV apps, including platforms like Google TV and smart TVs. These ads can last 30 to 60 seconds and are designed to provide a more traditional commercial break experience. The rationale is to minimize the number of ad breaks during longer viewing sessions, as research indicates that viewers prefer fewer interruptions, even if the ads themselves are longer .

In summary, YouTube's move towards longer ads, especially on smart TVs, reflects a shift in advertising strategy aimed at balancing monetization with viewer experience. However, the reception among users has been mixed, highlighting the challenge of implementing changes that satisfy both advertisers and audiences.

There you go. Monetization.

The solution is to pay for ad-free YouTube viewing. I already do this on Amazon Prime, for just £2.99 a month. Well worth it for watching football and movies. But YouTube's ad-free subscription is a whopping £12.99 a month! I could afford that by cutting down on fresh creams cakes but I just feel I don't want to give in to Google's rapacious greed. Is there a better YouTube equivalent out there?