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How we fought bad ads in 2015

googleblog.blogspot.com

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Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#31

Post by alextgordon »

billmalarky wrote: post #19
Sir_Substance wrote: post #12

>When ads are good, they connect you to products or services you’re interested in and make it easier to get stuff you want. Dear marketing departments, I do not want relevant ads. I don't like unknown third parties influencing my decisions. If I must see ads, I'd rather see ads for tampons and sports cars and business real estate, because I'm not going to buy those things, so you're not manipulating me. Please stop p…

You think all ads are irrelevant to you? Do you not use goods and services to raise your quality of life? Don't tell me "I just google for something if I want to consume it," because truly innovative products and services are outside the realm of general imagination, that's what makes them innovative. And all the great products and services you learned about from word of mouth? Guess how your friends heard about them…

The traditional way to buy a consumer good is in a store, then you can see the alternatives and pick the best one...

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#32

Post by elorant »

Since I've installed uBlock Origin browsing the web is much more pleasing. I used to use AdBlock Plus but it ate a lot of RAM. Occasionally I might also turn JS off, although that sounds like an overkill and some sites don't work at all. I don't mind ads in general but profiling really gets under my skin. You search one thing on Google and then you're barraged by relevant ads all over the web. Thanks but no thanks. I liked the old days when ads were relevant to the content of the site I was visiting.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#33

Post by eric_the_read »

starshadowx2 wrote: post #8
microtonal wrote: post #3

When ads are good, they connect you to products or services you’re interested in and make it easier to get stuff you want. They don't make anything easier. If I want something, I will get it, otherwise it's just annoying. It's great that they are working to make ads safer (which is obviously in their interest as well), but they have already lost me (and I guess many others). Even AdSense ads are obnoxious these days…

>If I want something, I will get it And what are all the ways you can discover things you want? I'd say the top two for most people are word-of-mouth and advertising.

I search for reviews from people I trust, compare the results, and decide on an option. I can't think of the last time I discovered anything I wanted from advertising with the possible exception of movie trailers.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#35

Post by wmeredith »

sp332 wrote: post #25
Someone1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to be seeing no ads at all. Do you happen to have adblock installed? I can reproduce 100% of the time: http://i.imgur.com/9KJ4LSm.png

Do you have malware injecting malicious ads?

If he does, we have the same malware. I am running Chrome 47 with Adblock on Mac OSX and I can reproduce 100% of the time. I can even reproduce it in an incognito window.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#36

Post by munificent »

billmalarky wrote: post #19
Sir_Substance wrote: post #12

>When ads are good, they connect you to products or services you’re interested in and make it easier to get stuff you want. Dear marketing departments, I do not want relevant ads. I don't like unknown third parties influencing my decisions. If I must see ads, I'd rather see ads for tampons and sports cars and business real estate, because I'm not going to buy those things, so you're not manipulating me. Please stop p…

You think all ads are irrelevant to you? Do you not use goods and services to raise your quality of life? Don't tell me "I just google for something if I want to consume it," because truly innovative products and services are outside the realm of general imagination, that's what makes them innovative. And all the great products and services you learned about from word of mouth? Guess how your friends heard about them…

I like "relevant" ads because they're almost always for something I just bought. "Oh, you got a new lens for your camera? How about buying the exact same lens again, from Amazon!"

This is great because it makes sure most of the ads I see are not offensive and will have no effect on my life.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#37

Post by wmeredith »

dfabulich wrote: post #30
xpda wrote: post #6

"In 2015, we stepped up our efforts to fight phishing sites, blocking nearly 7,000 sites as a result." One of the 7000 "phishing sites" they blocked was a page on my personal site ( http://xpda.com/f18ebay/ ) that has been there more than 10 years and has nothing to do with phishing. It's not an important or high-traffic page, but it was irritating nonetheless to be falsely accused by Google and, as a result, a sever…

What is it? Is it supposed to be a parody? It honestly looks like the site is trying to impersonate a (silly) eBay listing.

Yeah, it may be a joke, but it's obviously intended to deceive, which is what they're after. Why would this need to be in their index?

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#38

Post by Someone1234 »

sp332 wrote: post #25
Someone1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to be seeing no ads at all. Do you happen to have adblock installed? I can reproduce 100% of the time: http://i.imgur.com/9KJ4LSm.png

Do you have malware injecting malicious ads?

No.

I receive identical ads on my Android smartphone connected to a completely different network (4G T-Mobile).

So then I RDC-ed into an Azure instance (2012 R2) I have running in the "West US" zone, identical results.

So if I have a malware infection then it has also infected my phone and a virtual machine running half way across the country. Three networks, three operating systems, same results.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#39

Post by wmeredith »

starshadowx2 wrote: post #8
microtonal wrote: post #3

When ads are good, they connect you to products or services you’re interested in and make it easier to get stuff you want. They don't make anything easier. If I want something, I will get it, otherwise it's just annoying. It's great that they are working to make ads safer (which is obviously in their interest as well), but they have already lost me (and I guess many others). Even AdSense ads are obnoxious these days…

>If I want something, I will get it And what are all the ways you can discover things you want? I'd say the top two for most people are word-of-mouth and advertising.

It's a hilarious concept that people would be interesting in discovering something they want. Need? Sure. Want? No way.

The very root of suffering is desire. -Buddha (paraphrased)

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