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

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

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lik…

As some report, you can reproducably get the ads even today. So Google is punishing competitors for something they do themselves. This is all looking like Google just wants to make the EU regulators angry.

This would only matter if punishment was being dished out today - which is not the case. Everyone is being given a heads-up (until November 1). Also, Google has already set a precedent of punishing itself[1] for bad behaviour.

1. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-penalizes-chrome/3...

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

#272

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.

I hope so. This is why I don't bother watching youtube videos on my phone anymore...

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

#273
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that's because for the most part it just siphons off the traffic that would have mostly been a waste to serve anyway, being that they were either looking for such a small bit of information to be encapsulated in the excerpt, or they determined they were looking for something else, they would be hard to monetize. Then again, I could be wrong or there could be usefulness to users hitting the end site that isn…

Not saying you're wrong, but one strength of Wikipedia is the density of internal links, which even the summaries are full of. Perhaps some users would explore a topic if they saw their many options to do so. This is just pure speculation, though.

I think by now most people in the English speaking world know that if they want to start getting more depth on a topic then Wikipedia is a decent place to start. However, sometime you just want a quick summary/single fact.

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

#274

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.

How else do you open YouTube on your phone? :-)

By opening the web browser and surfing to youtube.com :D

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

#275

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.

Tapatalk splash is a sure sign of a phpBB forum, meaning I won't find what I'm looking for anyway. Close tab. I can't believe those forums don't just migrate to Discourse.

You're saying the underlying platform somehow has some bearing on the quality of the users and the content? Don't get me wrong, I agree phpBB is outdated but well-established, long-running forums are a goldmine of information.

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

#276
Hm, I've rarely seen such pushes for app installs. I've mostly seen banner-like ads. However, I hope they will also start penalising websites that use overlays for mailing list submissions and account creation - before even giving you chance to read the article you came in for.

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

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a phpBB forum, meaning I won't find what I'm looking for anyway. I'll have to disagree on this point. There are a lot of phpBB forums out there, and their quality and content varies widely as the Internet itself. Many of them, esp. some of the long-established ones, are invaluable sources for all sorts of arcana. Wikipedia doesn't even begin to touch the kinds of obscure practical knowledge embedded in the "dark we…

+1 on the discourse: Is anyone using it, like at all, except discourse? I have been waiting since it came for it to become a place for everything that Stack Overflow bans (non trivial questions that need discussion, "how can this be done in an elegant way" etc). And: Can someone please please create a new stackoverflow that rewards solving problems instead of going full Daesh in destroying old artifacts, enforcing du…

> Is anyone using it, like at all, except discourse?

Ubuntu: http://discourse.ubuntu.com/ Rust (I think): https://users.rust-lang.org/

It's pretty big in the Ember community for obvious reasons.

Outside of nerd-land, however, it doesn't appear to have taken off particularly.

I lost too much of my adolescence to PHPBB and the like to truly hate it.

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

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This applies directly to Google. Remember them pushing Chrome on you? having ads directly on Google.com? To this day forcing you to use Chrome for Hangouts? And so on? Do you seriously think Chrome would have caught on if it weren’t for this push of advertisements? This is direct abuse of near-monopoly in one market (search engines) to gain unfair advantage in another market (browsers).

Chrome didn't catch on at first - they had to advertise the shit out of it on TV because nobody knew what a browser was. Seriously, look up "Dear Sophie" to see how many awards it won. Google doesn't do TV, so that's not a monopoly.

Their TV ads were mostly ignored, but most people ended up accidentally clicking one of the Chrome ads, and then actually tried it out. There were days where every single YouTube preroll ad was for Chrome, every side ad was for chrome, every ad in the bottom of the video was for Chrome, every single ad served by AdWords was for Chrome, on Google.com were ads for Chrome in the top right with an animated arrow, there were ads for Chrome below and above the search box, etc.

It was horrible, and I really believe this was unfair competition. Especially as people using AdSense complained that they got paid next to nothing or nothing for people viewing and clicking Chrome ads.

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