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VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

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Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#271

Post by delibes »

cantlin wrote: post #184

At the Guardian we needed our own video player, because we couldn't rely on a third party platform not to take down something that we published. Editorial independence was important. We implemented our player on top of video.js, and most of the developers who were there at the time still have nightmares about it. We finally got the thing working, looking good, embeddable, reasonably cross-browser. We shipped it. A fe…

Funnily enough, MailOnline had the same problem and also implemented VPAID for VideoJS

https://github.com/MailOnline/videojs-vast-vpaid

I really hoped that the Guardian and others were going to create their own safer (no pron/malware) and faster (less RTB) network and cut out much of the cruft when I read about Pangaea last year. Looks like it's more about sharing data though :(

http://pangaeaalliance.com/

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#272

Post by spiderfarmer »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #261
nailer wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you seem to specialise in this, FYI: > Mixed Content: The page at ' https://haloads.com/' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure stylesheet ' http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:400,300,700,900' . This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS. https://haloads.com/assets/img/favicon.png Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 ()

For Google Fonts, it's best practice to leave out the protocol and link to '//fonts.googleapis.com/...'. It's unhelpful that their link generator still suggests ' http://fonts...' .

Or just download them and serve them from your own domain. If you enable HTTP/2 there is little to no advantage of using a third party for hosting fonts.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#273

Post by curried_haskell »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #133

What I would like in a new kind of Ad network: - all ads are responsive HTML5 ads - all resources are loaded over HTTPS - ads are based on your content, not on a profile of the user - ads can be requested server side by sending the URL where the ad will be displayed through an API. The response contains the ad code, as well as the expiration date - if you want, you can even download a package with all resources so ad…

> ads can be requested server side by sending the URL where the ad will be displayed through an API

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS is my condition for viewing ads. Request and render the ads server-side, and I'll happily view them.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#274

Post by Tyr42 »

mercer wrote: post #263
volatilitish wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problems there, is Google has locked this down. Chrome and Firefox warn users if they visit "deceptive websites", and disallow it. It's touted as part of their "safe browsing feature". What it means in practice though, is that if you use another ad network, and that ad network has an advert that Google dislike, they will block your website on Chrome,Firefox and Safari also uses it now I believe. They won't…

> What it means in practice though, is that if you use another ad network, and that ad network has an advert that Google dislike, they will block your website on Chrome,Firefox and Safari also uses it now I believe. They won't just block the advert, they will block your whole website. Getting unblocked takes ages, and is a complete pain, because google will not tell you which advert it objects to. Does this actually…

It's usually a legitimately harmful ad. Malware, adware or other bad stuff. But these slip through quality control of ad networks, even when they don't want them.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#275

Post by Kalium »

mercer wrote: post #263
volatilitish wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problems there, is Google has locked this down. Chrome and Firefox warn users if they visit "deceptive websites", and disallow it. It's touted as part of their "safe browsing feature". What it means in practice though, is that if you use another ad network, and that ad network has an advert that Google dislike, they will block your website on Chrome,Firefox and Safari also uses it now I believe. They won't…

> What it means in practice though, is that if you use another ad network, and that ad network has an advert that Google dislike, they will block your website on Chrome,Firefox and Safari also uses it now I believe. They won't just block the advert, they will block your whole website. Getting unblocked takes ages, and is a complete pain, because google will not tell you which advert it objects to. Does this actually…

"Dislike" often means "contains malware" or similar. Few ad networks are both sizable and very aggressive about policing.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#276

Post by JoshTriplett »

mpclark wrote: post #67
dhimes wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We now only host ads we have sold direct. Thank you. I turned off ad blocker for your site (one is still networked to the bad guys, though...)

Thanks :) We're still talking internally about what we're going to do with the social stuff -- we're leaning towards kicking it out -- as well as the user insight we're granting to Google in return for using its (excellent) DFP to serve our own ads. Is that what you mean, or have we missed something?

> We're still talking internally about what we're going to do with the social stuff -- we're leaning towards kicking it out

You don't have to get rid of social buttons; for some sites, they produce significant results. Just turn them into links and locally hosted static logos rather than scripts.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#277

Post by BooneJS »

Some people, like my elderly father, live in an area where it's dial-up or Verizon LTE MiFi with severe data caps (~14 GB for $100 per month). He's an old-school newspaper & magazine reader, so advertisements don't offend him. He actually looks at them from time to time as he reads ESPN and on-line newspapers.

However, page loads that approach 100 MB are leaving him with less money in his pocket to purchase the products and services being advertised. Something needs to give.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#278

Post by MarkyC4 »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #261
nailer wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you seem to specialise in this, FYI: > Mixed Content: The page at ' https://haloads.com/' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure stylesheet ' http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:400,300,700,900' . This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS. https://haloads.com/assets/img/favicon.png Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 ()

For Google Fonts, it's best practice to leave out the protocol and link to '//fonts.googleapis.com/...'. It's unhelpful that their link generator still suggests ' http://fonts...' .

nowadays I just use 'https://...' instead of '//...' because

* security * I will immediately know if a server doesn't support https, because the image won't load

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#279

Post by peeky »

cantlin wrote: post #184

At the Guardian we needed our own video player, because we couldn't rely on a third party platform not to take down something that we published. Editorial independence was important. We implemented our player on top of video.js, and most of the developers who were there at the time still have nightmares about it. We finally got the thing working, looking good, embeddable, reasonably cross-browser. We shipped it. A fe…

I've actually emailed the Guardian before to say I would gladly pay at least whatever they earn from my ad impressions to have an ad-free site. They just pointed me to the mobile apps where this is already an option.

I wish more sites offered an alternative to the dilemma of UX-breaking ads vs ad blocker guilt.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#280

Post by manigandham »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #133

What I would like in a new kind of Ad network: - all ads are responsive HTML5 ads - all resources are loaded over HTTPS - ads are based on your content, not on a profile of the user - ads can be requested server side by sending the URL where the ad will be displayed through an API. The response contains the ad code, as well as the expiration date - if you want, you can even download a package with all resources so ad…

We already built this - https://instinctive.io

It's the fastest ad network around. Simple, fast, static, all user-initiated, and we only focus on content (articles, videos, etc that you read on the same site you're already on). We also don't work with any 3rd parties so there's no security or malware risk. Happy to share any technical details.

There are good ad networks out there but in this strange industry, it's all about politics and connections, not tech or UX (which is why we're in this mess in the first place). This is the biggest battle we're fighting with everyone from advertisers and agencies to publishers.

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