YouTube is one of the undisputed cornerstones of the internet. It offers a vast repository of videos covering all manner of different subjects. Which is why billions of people have visited it since it was launched in 2005. There's just one problem with YouTube... those damn adverts.

YouTube ads come in all different shapes and sizes, but the ones most people will be familiar with are the pre-rolls. These are the ones which play before a video, forcing viewers to sit through them. However, YouTube has now committed to abandoning the worst kind of pre-roll ad.

30 Seconds Is Just Too Long

As originally reported by Campaign, YouTube is killing its unskippable 30-second pre-roll ads. These are the annoying ads which you're not even given the option to skip after five seconds. And 30 seconds is a surprisingly long time to wait to watch a short YouTube video.

Google issued a statement saying, "We're committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we've decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers".

Unfortunately, YouTube isn't killing unskippable 30-second ads until 2018, so you'll still have to sit through them for at least another 12 months. Even then this is only one type of ad, albeit the most frustrating type. So you'll still see six-second bumpers at the very least.

Ads Doing More Harm Than Good

This is a welcome move by YouTube. No one likes ads, but a lot of us put up with them to ensure content creators get paid. So the least YouTube can do is listen to feedback from users and advertisers alike, and abandon ad formats which are doing more harm than good.

How many YouTube videos do you think you watch on an average day? How do you feel about the ads? Which type of YouTube ad do you hate the most? Are you pleased to see YouTube killing the unskippable 30-second ads? Please let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Mike Beales via Flickr