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Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#61

Post by malchow »

I do not think that ad blockers can win this cat and mouse game. Ads don't annoy a large-enough percentage of humans. And the ad industry is the lifeblood of several other business communities, each of which is many times the size of the ad blocking industry.

I had lunch with one well respected publishing CEO last week, who told me that his single largest advertiser was Smuckers. The peanut butter maker. Smuckers is a real business, supporting real people, making real stuff. They know their business better than anyone else. And every day of every month of every quarter, they seem to decide that they need advertising.

Once you start thinking about it that way, you start to understand why advertising is one of the oldest industries in the world.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#62

Post by laurent123456 »

corford wrote: post #35
SEJeff wrote: post #5

Good luck. I suspect in no time uBlock Origin will have found a way to remove the ad elements from the DOM, even if they are served directly with the html of facebook and not a 3rd party domain.

It's going to be hard for facebook because they're such a big target. I think where ad-blockers will start to have problems is with the millions of lesser known sites. Once these publishers swap over to proxying ad-content through their own domains and using a handful of simple evasion tactics (random file name for the self hosted JS file that pulls in the ad, site specific pseudo-random DOM element names for the ad…

Proxying ads would be a big security risk though since it means they would run within the same sandbox as the rest of the page, which might be why it hasn't often been done yet.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#63

Post by ultramancool »

lopatin wrote: post #45
deanCommie wrote: post #7

They are welcome to try. And I am welcome to try harder to block them. As long as they don't try to force some sort of legislation on how people can use their internet connection, and their internet browser to fetch and display content, there's no problem. The real problem is Facebook is already full of advertising disguised as content. From sponsored posts to content from things you "like". So I'm kind of surprised…

Serious question: Why do you block FB ads? I wouldn't say that FB ads are any more disguised as content as, say, newspaper ads. And follow up: If FB decided to shut down some features to ad-blocking users, do you think that would be unfair?

> If FB decided to shut down some features to ad-blocking users, do you think that would be unfair?

I think "they're welcome to try" is exactly the right response here. Nothing is "fair" or "unfair", at least not in a way that advertisers or ad blockers care about.

No matter what they do it's entirely possible to trick their scripts into believing I'm displaying ads, because they run not on facebook's servers but on my computer. Where I get the control.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#64

Post by ben174 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #27
ben174 wrote: post #11

If Facebook wants a truly global network, then they best not alienate or piss off those that are technically inclined. If they take control away from their power users, they'll lose them.

I don't think that the "technically inclined" are FB's power users, nor are they their most wanted target demographic.

It depends on your definition of "power users", I suppose.

But they certainly don't want to shrink their network. The moment I meet a fellow like-minded geek and "add me on Facebook" isn't the default way to stay in touch, they're in trouble.

And I'm already at the point where I have to ask if they're on Facebook first, since many tech people have already jumped ship due to privacy concerns.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#65

Post by pseudointellect »

Leynos wrote: post #30
SEJeff wrote: post #5

Good luck. I suspect in no time uBlock Origin will have found a way to remove the ad elements from the DOM, even if they are served directly with the html of facebook and not a 3rd party domain.

uBlock can already do this (I use it for hiding the Twitter "while you were away" nonsense), although I suspect that the next step is Facebook scrambling DOM classes and ids with no discernable pattern.

"while you were away" nonsense? A feature that shows you popular tweets from only people you follow. How is that nonsense?

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#66

Post by tomjen3 »

Facebook is the only site I turned of my adblock for: They know everything about me, so surely they could come up with some really useful ads for products that I really want to buy?

Nope. I keep it of only because the ads always give me a chockle: trying to sell me "magic" amulets (I noted that I am an atheist), getting me to get the exact the degree from the exact university I went to (and, which I proudly listed on facebook) and getting gas from a company 150+ miles from my home.

Ads online are a joke, doubly so on Facebook.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#67

Post by pbhjpbhj »

DanTheManPR wrote: post #37
jerf wrote: post #33

Why not just allow users to pay to not see ads? It's a crazy idea, but it just might work. Hulu's getting a lot more from me per month for their ad-free tier than they could ever dream of getting from me for ads with my watching habits, probably at least an order of magnitude more.

A big issue with paid subscriptions is that it dilutes the strength of the ad network, since you're specifically excluding desirable target customers.

I'd imagine you - by which I mean morally void publishing execs - take money for reduced ads and then charge a premium for reaching the people who are paying to remove ads.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#69

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

lopatin wrote: post #45
deanCommie wrote: post #7

They are welcome to try. And I am welcome to try harder to block them. As long as they don't try to force some sort of legislation on how people can use their internet connection, and their internet browser to fetch and display content, there's no problem. The real problem is Facebook is already full of advertising disguised as content. From sponsored posts to content from things you "like". So I'm kind of surprised…

Serious question: Why do you block FB ads? I wouldn't say that FB ads are any more disguised as content as, say, newspaper ads. And follow up: If FB decided to shut down some features to ad-blocking users, do you think that would be unfair?

In my case, I use social media to keep up with people I know, not to look at advertisements. Ads make me not want to be there (and I hardly ever am).

For the follow up, I assume I agree with the parent post by reiterating that what Facebook does on its own site is its own business, but if the company lobbied for legislation that required people to look at ads online, then that would be a problem.

Besides, if Facebook made the experience so detestable that people were willing to leave for another social network, then Google and every other college freshman would leap at the opportunity to be the next big thing.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#70

Post by GCA10 »

potatolicious wrote: post #14

Honestly, I don't really mind so long as the ads are being served by FB and not third-party networks, and their performance isn't abysmal. The major reason I block ads in the first place is for usability reasons - ad networks are slow as all hell especially on mobile. They also make certain pages completely unusable either through ad overlays, interstitials, or just constantly causing layouts to change as you're tryi…

Agreed. One of the entertaining quirks of Facebook ads is seeing which of my "friends" are being invoked as supporters of this particular advertiser. There's a small tribe of people that cast ironic "Like" votes every now and then -- fashionistas who like WalMart ... that sort of thing.

I'm easily amused. Those nutty Likes tend to amuse me.

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