Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#231

Post by rukuu001 » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:36 AM UTC

Analemma_ wrote: post #168

ageitgey wrote: post #82

Most users hate these pop-ups and cheer this move from Google. But let me add a little context to why these ads are so prevalent and why some companies view this move as Google abusing their power. If you visit to any "guide" website like TripAdviser, Yelp, etc, these days on a mobile browser, you'll notice that the sites often barely let you do anything without downloading the native app. They all but refuse to let…

Here's the thing: I don't care. I don't care if Google's algorithm makes life difficult for SEOs. I don't care if it prioritizes Google's own properties unfairly. I don't care if it hurts somebody's conversion rate. All I care about is the quality of my browsing experience, which takes a nosedive every time one of these fullscreen mobile ads shows up. As long as Google's algorithm ranks results roughly in the order o…

> Here's the thing: I don't care.

You will care when nobody's in the business of providing hotel/restaurant/etc reviews...except Google.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#232

Post by Theodores » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:38 AM UTC

aninhumer wrote: post #153

jrockway wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is usually considered a big mistake in retail. Is it? Grocery stores keep essentials far away from each other so you have to walk past stuff you don't want in order to get to what you want. Imagine a store where they had milk at the checkout counter! That's the retail equivalent of amazon.com ;)

I don't think that's really comparable. No one's going to arrive at a store and decide not to buy the milk that they came for because the walk to the back of the store is too much hassle. More comparable would be like someone standing in front of the checkout and insisting you take a survey before you can pay. In that scenario I can very much imagine someone getting pissed off and leaving.

In the UK there has been a move away from giant supermarkets over the last few years. The consumer electronics and other non-food items that pad out the giant supermarket and make it hard to get to the milk, people buy that stuff online now so it is not possible to 'pile high' in the big box supermarkets.

With this move has been a growth in convenience stores that are operated/franchised by the big supermarket brands. People go to these places for their milk. (And do a big online shop for the bulk of their groceries).

So people are just deciding not to go to the big box stores in the first place.

Anecdote, but this happened to me. Where I was living the largest 'Tesco Extra' imaginable opened up literally across the road. This was AMAZING. Well, not really, within a week we were back to the convenience store buying everything there, it really was too much hassle going to the giant Tesco. Didn't need the kilometre walk past the TV's, clothing and other stuff that was placed between the store entrance and the milk. The 24/7 novelty wore off too, didn't actually need to go shopping for that pint of milk at 2 a.m.

Another part of the problem was that the customer service in the local store was more friendly. They didn't have people to greet you or people giving you free samples or any coupons at the checkout or any loyalty cards. Just polite 'how's your day?' chat with the small team of staff - all known by name - sufficed.

With the big supermarket I don't think there was this inate customer service aspect, 'customer service' was contrived marketing, nobody cared about you. And so it is online. People that do marketing online care more about their Google analytics and loading up websites with spam-scripts than they do about 'reality'. They may have one result per quarter from that pop up, that extra sale is good, a result, success even. Not on their dashboard is how many people didn't buy because of the stupid 'enter email address now:' popup they had on there. Marketing people are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, far too often they lack the skills of empathy and cannot see things from the customer's perspective. Hence they have to use things like statistics in an attempt to make up for their lack of intuition and appreciation of customer service.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#233

Post by chinhodado » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:40 AM UTC

username223 wrote: post #164

chinhodado wrote: post #95

For me, the most annoying thing while browsing on mobile is the vibration ads/fake alarms. It's horrible. I haven't even seen a single good use of this vibration API, as it is only ever used for things like "Your phone haz virus click here now". Why isn't there an option to disable it in Chrome is beyond me.

Why does this API even exist? I thought the "Security and privacy considerations" section [1] was a good example of how hostile the Modern Web has become, but anyone who thought that allowing web pages to vibrate your phone was a good idea was either malicious or oblivious. [1] https://w3c.github.io/vibration/

To be fair there have been a drive of exposing web API for everything on the local machine, including USB, Bluetooth, etc. However, just like with location, camera, microphone, etc. access to vibration should be granted by the user, not automatically granted like right now.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#234

Post by spc476 » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:42 AM UTC

sparky_z wrote: post #148

Animats wrote: post #47

What's really stupid are sites from which you can buy things, but then pop up an ad for something else. Fandango, which sells movie tickets, does this. As you're trying to get to the "buy ticket" page, they shove movie trailers for other movies in your face. I mentioned a site earlier today which sold plumbing supplies.[1] They pop up a "gimme your email" box which 1) cannot be dismissed , and 2) isn't even theirs, i…

You're assuming they make money on ticket sales. Maybe all that money goes to the theater? If so, the ads are completely rational.

Movie theaters make no money on tickets---it's concessions where the money is. That's why it's $10 for a small bag of popcorn and a drink (which costs the theater pennies on the dollars).

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#235

Post by robzyb » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:45 AM UTC

tjalfi wrote: post #229

Animats wrote: post #47

What's really stupid are sites from which you can buy things, but then pop up an ad for something else. Fandango, which sells movie tickets, does this. As you're trying to get to the "buy ticket" page, they shove movie trailers for other movies in your face. I mentioned a site earlier today which sold plumbing supplies.[1] They pop up a "gimme your email" box which 1) cannot be dismissed , and 2) isn't even theirs, i…

I respond to undismissable email popups by entering abuse@theirdomain.com as an email address. I'm sure their network operations team doesn't want to miss out on the incredible rewards.

I would love a Chrome extension that does this.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#236

Post by bluetwo » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:57 AM UTC

So... all mobile sites?

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#237

Post by Shog9 » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 4:57 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #215

bduerst wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this more of a sign that restaurant/hotel businesses are becoming more SEO savvy, and that aggregators are becoming outdated? Remember, the aggregators originally dethroned the travel agencies as the 'experts' in connecting people with what they want. Google search is in the business of providing information, meaning if they have the info available they'll provide an aggregated list of restaurants to someone wh…

I doubt it. Google has a long and storied history (since Dejanews) of fucking up user generated content on google properties. If you're looking for restaurants and hotels, TripAdvisor and Yelp are exponentially better than anything Google is going to give you.

That's the kicker though: how bad is "good enough"? If I ask Google for a donut shop and can pick the one that has devil's food chocolate donuts, who cares if Yelp would've given me better reviews; the basic information is there in front of me, and I don't have to install an app or deal with popups.

I stopped using Yelp the minute they made their mobile site unusable in a pinch while pulled over on the side of the road. It doesn't matter how good the content is if I don't have the time to jump through their hoops.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#238

Post by RestlessMind » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 5:33 AM UTC

edblarney wrote: post #223

Analemma_ wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the thing: I don't care. I don't care if Google's algorithm makes life difficult for SEOs. I don't care if it prioritizes Google's own properties unfairly. I don't care if it hurts somebody's conversion rate. All I care about is the quality of my browsing experience, which takes a nosedive every time one of these fullscreen mobile ads shows up. As long as Google's algorithm ranks results roughly in the order o…

" I don't care if it hurts somebody's conversion rate. All I care about is the quality of my browsing experience" In the short run, it won't matter, but in the long run, it may likely affect your browsing experience on the whole. Google doesn't do anything well but search. So you are trading a slightly better search experience - which may cost you the death of several brands that provide much more than search outcome…

> Google doesn't do anything well but search.

I beg to differ. Google also provides great products for - Maps, Email, Browser, Mobile OS, Video, Photo management. If you think neither of those are great and you can think of a better alternative, you have a lot of market share to capture.

Having said that, I concur with the rest of your sentiment and would like to see services like TripAdvisor, Kayak etc flourish.

Disclaimer: hold a lot of GOOG

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#239

Post by xapata » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 5:34 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #210

lozaning wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Milk is kept at the back of the store because that's the easiest please to put it from a logistics stand point. The truck the milk comes in pulls up to the back of the store and can immediately unload it into the giant refrigerated rooms at the back of the store. The fact that it helps "build the basket" by being at the back is a happy coincidence for the store.

The cold chain thing is plausible, but I doubt it. Supermarkets have varying strategies for stuff, including cold items. The supermarkets around me put ice cream in either a center aisle or the second to last aisle, in the front of the store. The "smarter" store from a data standpoint has pint ice cream in an end cap next to the florist to nab women. Milk is always back corner. If they can figure out how to maintain…

> pint ice cream in an end cap next to the florist to nab women

My wife never buys me flowers :-(

But I am a sucker for a pint of ice cream :-)

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#240

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 5:52 AM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #232

aninhumer wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's really comparable. No one's going to arrive at a store and decide not to buy the milk that they came for because the walk to the back of the store is too much hassle. More comparable would be like someone standing in front of the checkout and insisting you take a survey before you can pay. In that scenario I can very much imagine someone getting pissed off and leaving.

In the UK there has been a move away from giant supermarkets over the last few years. The consumer electronics and other non-food items that pad out the giant supermarket and make it hard to get to the milk, people buy that stuff online now so it is not possible to 'pile high' in the big box supermarkets. With this move has been a growth in convenience stores that are operated/franchised by the big supermarket brands…

I've always taken for granted that I'm only ever about a 15-30 minute drive from a Walmart Supercenter (which has a grocery store in it) that's open 24 hours a day.