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Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

wsj.com

101–110 of 462 posts

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#103
post #6

FB can't win this cat and mouse game. If the ads are to be distinguishable then there will be inherent properties that will lead to them getting blocked.

I think you're making some assumptions here. The logical end-game is that FB writes their own rendering engine in javascript and targets a single canvas element, handling all the interaction events themselves. In fact, I think it can go significantly further than that. Ad blockers will need to get much fancier to deal with that kind of weaponized ad delivery.

Ah, yes, the 'ol abandon all forms of screen readers and accessibility in order to serve ads gambit.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#104
post #58

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…

This is the biggest point for me. I don't block ads because I hate being advertised at. I block ads because I hate it when a tab starts playing sound without being asked. I hate getting malware from ads. I hate having pages take 30 seconds to a minute to load because of ads. Or when the page loads fine, but then a minute later the article I'm reading jumps because an ad loaded. Or changed. Or popped up on a timer. I…

Google does ads right. They are subtle and don't get in the way of using it.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#105
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Facebook already owns my personal data and any content that I publish. Why should I also have to look at ads?

What's the value of your personal data and content if they can't use it to target ads to you?

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#106
post #66

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…

There's a tension, Facebook also want to increase the number of impressions so small-scale advertisers will pay more.

Those ads though are probably just badly chosen campaigns by the people paying for the placements. FB are probably not inclined to stop advertisers wasting money.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#107
post #61

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…

Ad blockers are de facto anti-virus software now, if you're not running one, you're leaving yourself open to some of the biggest attack vectors.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#109
post #61

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…

So you have spam filter disabled and read all those great ads in your inbox?

If you took a look at the inbox of an ordinary consumer, you'd see lots of desired ads – in my case, a weekly email from a high end audio shop I like.

You may assiduously unsubscribe from all unsolicited email, but most do not. For most people, what is in Gmail's spam folder is genuine junk – emails from Nigerian princes, emails in cyrillic, etc.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#110
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Facebook already owns my personal data and any content that I publish. Why should I also have to look at ads?

Because it pays their bills and salaries?

The only real reason need your personal data is so they can show you Ads with presumably more effective targeting so they can get a greater share of advertising revenue.

It pays to remember that most forms of media - TV, Net, Print etc. are basically funded by money from advertisers.

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