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Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#51

Post by ossreality »

jacquesm wrote: post #37

Does that mean they'll block youtube? Try playing a video on a phone that does not have the youtube app installed, it's just about impossible to get it right, it's a roulette that's rigged with more than half the links going to the youtube app page on google play. Highly annoying since there is no reason why the youtube page of some video should even have that app installation link at all.

Huh? When I click a YouTube link, I get an option for the native app or for Chrome. When I click Chrome it just loads the mobile youtube page and plays when I hit Go.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#52

Post by logicallee »

volaski wrote: post #50
LukeB_UK wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Install our app" is annoying but still trying their best to send us where we will have better have better experience Not always, apps give them the ability to have push notifications plus the fact that having the app icon in your app tray is a constant reminder of their service.

No one said these app download guys are awesome. My point was that these newsletter guys deserve much more criticism. A lot of them are pretty famous bloggers, and they know they're being an asshole but do it. The thing is no one criticizes them because they don't want to offend an influential person. It's sad because I used to have respect for many of them.

You have cause and effect backwards. How do you think they got to be so famous and influential :)

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#53

Post by taco_emoji »

volaski wrote: post #18
justincormack wrote: post #10

Does this apply to "please subscribe to our stupid newsletter" that obscures many sites now?

I'm more annoyed with these sites than the app install sites. "Install our app" is annoying but still trying their best to send us where we will have better have better experience (at least that's what they think). These "subscribe to our newsletter" sites do it for their own good and couldn't care less about visitors. They do it so they can spam them with their emails

My favorite is when I click a link in an e-mail newsletter (I'm on one for a local news site) and... get a popup asking me to sign up for the newsletter.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#54

Post by greglindahl »

lunz wrote: post #35

Hopefully Google can distinguish them from the "By browsing this site, you accept the use of Cookies [X]"-popups that EU websites have to implement now.

The EU law doesn't specify the mechanism used to inform the user. If you look around at different websites, several mechanisms are used, some more obnoxious than others. Popups are the worst user experience of the lot.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#55

Post by n0us »

wcummings wrote: post #48

>Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites That Use Competing Ad Platforms

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. I have wondered this myself. Between punishing sites that are not mobile responsive and this move I wonder if their motivations are partly fueled by the fear that mobile users are spending more times within native apps and not enough time on the web.

As you can read here their response to the EU antitrust lawsuit http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/internal-google-memo-respon... google makes the argument that users spend a lot of time inside apps. I would expect they are worried about the ability for users to go directly to content and bypass search from which they make money.

I'm not sure which side of the fence I fall on. The web is arguably a more open technology than native apps but the experience in a native app is often better.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#56

Post by serge2k »

You know, at some point (and we are around that point) Google does cross a line where they are abusing their near monopoly on search. This is a pro consumer move, but it's another instance of Google saying do things our way or we punish you.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#57

Post by Someone1234 »

madsushi wrote: post #29
OJFord wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, seeing as the article you link addresses that? It's like a car company saying "we used to only make black cars, but actually we looked into it, and now we think people want colours; so we're making them".

Continued: "So we're making them, and we're penalizing any dealerships that are still selling black cars."

Unfortunately your continued use of that analogy has backfired.

If a car manufacturer used to sell black cars, then added other colors, if their own dealers refused to sell the additional colors, it would be entirely reasonable for the manufacturer to step in (since it hurts the manufacturer's brand). So in that analogy, the manufacturer is right.

The reality is that Google aren't a car manufacturer, they're more like a car magazine. Suddenly they decide not to feature trucks, and therefore Bobs BigTruckin modal X2000 coming out next month is penalised because they won't be featured in the next issue.

Is it "fair?" In general, yes, but in this specific case because Google holds a monopoly on the market you could argue it is unfair. A lot of sites will suddenly see a large drop-off of traffic if they didn't get the memo, because so many depend on Google for redirects.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#58

Post by matchu »

wcummings wrote: post #48

>Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites That Use Competing Ad Platforms

No need to slippery-slope this one. Google have been very consistent about ranking exclusively based on UX quality. Once they actually decide to rank based on something else, then we can start raising a fuss about it.

Until then, the snark seems unwarranted, though I agree that there's good reason to be concerned: they definitely have a lot of power here, despite not having seemed to abuse it yet. That seems like an interesting conversation to have, especially in a more substantive format.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#59

Post by Vexs »

saidajigumi wrote: post #41

Ugh, maybe this will finally push forums to burn those infernal Tapatalk interstitials. Forum owners: I'm looking for one piece of information from a web search, not a whole dumb app that will completely ignore my search goals.

God I hate tapatalk with a passion. It's even worse when it redirects you to the front of a forum instead of the thread you were trying to get to.

Re: Google Will Soon Start Punishing Mobile Sites that Use Annoying App Install Ads

#60

Post by greglindahl »

knodi123 wrote: post #39
ianphughes wrote: post #8

I still do not understand the popularity of this approach. It seems to crazy increase bounce rates. You would think that negative user behavior would already make these undesirable without Google being explicit?

Seems like it would, but the people who bounce probably aren't your most profitable users anyway. I was shocked to learn how effective interstitial popup subscription requests are: http://optinmonster.com/3-reasons-lightbox-popups-capture-mo...

This article is about exit popups. I suspect everyone here thinks Google is talking about entrance popups.
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