Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

No More Deceptive Download Buttons

googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 263 posts

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#51

Post by Profan »

userbinator wrote: post #42

As I write this, the ranking of the comments here is... strange. Those who see this as being yet another way of Google using their power to manipulate what people see on the Internet are being heavily downvoted, while those agreeing with the practice are not? That doesn't feel like HN to me. I'm in the former group. This mollycoddling is just going to lead to more users who can't decide for themselves whether somethi…

You can't seriously be saying that people potentially running into malware because they couldn't figure out with download button was the real one is reasonable?

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#52

Post by fixermark »

sergiotapia wrote: post #46
oliv__ wrote: post #25

I know these fake ads all suck and everyone hates them but somehow getting rid of them feels like cutting off a little piece of what makes the web the web. I kinda like this darker, more free-for-all, wild wild west side of the Internet.

Me too man, I remember the internet back then where everything was unique and not a cookie-cutter bootstrap boilterplate. Want a nostalgia trip? Download Opera (one of the early versions) - it'll pluck at your heart strings and make you yearn for times when you had more personal responsibility and Google wasn't there to infect everything with it's nanny browser. Hell, even Firefox the last bastion of Freedom on the w…

Mostly because there's more benefit to be gained in making the web usable by non-experts than in preserving the current status quo.

There's a reason the Wild West didn't stay wild.

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#53

Post by onion2k »

whyleyc wrote: post #9

This is a joke right ? We run Adsense display ads on our site and have to spend significant time every day reviewing and blocking new ads which try to use these deceptive practices. Since Google clearly has the tech to detect this they should be implementing it at source on the advertisers (malvertisers). Instead they are pushing this down to the publishers and hitting them with penalties. It's a clever ploy in some…

Firstly, this will work on ad networks other than Google, so it''s more broad reaching than anything they could do just within AdSense. This is good.

Secondly, and arguably more importantly, the way to stop these adverts is for them to cost the advertiser (in either money or time) without giving them the reward of revenue. If the ads stop working then people won't have a reason to make them. By stopping the ads in AdSense rogue advertisers would just change to a different ad network. The problem wouldn't stop.

This is a good move by Google.

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#54

Post by tobltobs »

idiot900 wrote: post #44
whyleyc wrote: post #9

This is a joke right ? We run Adsense display ads on our site and have to spend significant time every day reviewing and blocking new ads which try to use these deceptive practices. Since Google clearly has the tech to detect this they should be implementing it at source on the advertisers (malvertisers). Instead they are pushing this down to the publishers and hitting them with penalties. It's a clever ploy in some…

Google doesn't control all advertisers. Presumably this applies to sites with non-Google ads too. Also, if these ads are rejected immediately (or nearly so) by Google, it will provide that much more feedback that malicious advertisers can use to "improve" their ads that much more quickly.

Those download buttons look always the same. Oh wait, they changed their color. After years of blue buttons they are now green. So Goolge can detect your face in a crowd on a photo, but can not detect a download button on small ad?

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#55

Post by tobltobs »

Zarel wrote: post #7
lexicality wrote: post #2

Perhaps now that Google has taken steps to block websites that display these ads, Google should take steps to stop accepting these ads onto their network in the first place. Most of the time when I see those DOWNLOAD/PLAY buttons, they're hosted on doubleclick.

I remember a few years ago AdSense was showing a lot of fake Download buttons (and users would complain about it). I haven't seen them recently, though, so I hope that means they've fixed that problem.

They are still there. Now in green instead of blue.

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#58

Post by Piskvorrr »

userbinator wrote: post #42

As I write this, the ranking of the comments here is... strange. Those who see this as being yet another way of Google using their power to manipulate what people see on the Internet are being heavily downvoted, while those agreeing with the practice are not? That doesn't feel like HN to me. I'm in the former group. This mollycoddling is just going to lead to more users who can't decide for themselves whether somethi…

As an experienced user, when I'm looking for some semi-obscure Windows program, I still do have problems distinguishing legit download links from this. Perhaps I'm too used to the radical method "just select what you want from the repository, and it will be installed automagically;" in other words, one of the issues here is nonexistent install management in Windows (party like it's 1998!), forcing users to run this gauntlet (MSI? Puh-leeze).

Re: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

#59

Post by Piskvorrr »

tdkl wrote: post #23

I hope they'll include a "Stop the nanny" flag in chrome://flags as well. I mean you can't even change the new tab page to a custom .html, without Chrome nagging you at every launch if the settings are correct. If you make a manifest.json and load as an unpacked extension, it will moan about that. FFS, I know what you're trying to do with Joe/Jane Noob, but at least give me something to skip that if I know what I'm d…

At least theoretically, it should be possible to build Chromium with such customizations; you'll lose the benefits of the Google walled garden, but you'll gain a bit of user freedom as well (probably won't be point-and-click, alas).
Post reply on HN