I had the following experience and would like to verify, if possible, whether youtube would show less ads when cookies are cleared.
Note: I have set my browser to forget cookies and history upon restart.
Steps:
- I searched for a youtube video.
- Started watching the video (~25 minutes long).
- Before the video starts a video ad appears.
- I leave the ad play for more than 4 seconds, then open the ad url in a new tab, watching to the end a couple of times. I search the advertised company on google and also click on a couple of related youtube video links.
- Then I continue watching my original video. From then on, a video ad, from the same company, appears around once every two minutes (I skip everytime). In the current point, I see no way to notify youtube that I don't want any more ad prompts.
- I'm around the middle of the video, at which point I copy the video url, restart the browser (cookies are cleared), paste it again and move to the resume point.
- No ad appears until the end of the video.
Based on the above experience I have the sense that when cookies are cleared, youtube (under no login) has a tendency to show less to zero ads.
My question is, are there any source of information or research justifying the above assumption?