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Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

research.mozilla.org

81–90 of 156 posts

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#81

Mozilla should work on a micro-payment system that is inbuilt into the browser. Ultimately that is the only solution to a web that values user privacy and prevents the psychological toll of ads. 1. Obviously, the micro-payment system should not be selling my usage data to anyone. Perhaps some cryptographic techniques can be used to increase trust in the service. 2. The price for each page should be low - a cent or le…

That will never work because companies will always try to double dip.

See cable tv

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#82
> We find that installing ad blocking extensions substantially increases both active time spent in the browser and the number of pages viewed. This empirical evidence supports the position of ad blocking supporters and refutes the claim that ad blocking will diminish user engagement with the Web.

This gives me echos of "thrift paradox" - kind of behavior which is great for you as long as most of the other folks behave otherwise. If a majority of users continue viewing ads and thus provide monetary returns for content creators, then the minority users of ad blockers get a better experience and hence they are more engaged with the web.

On the other hand, if everyone starts using ad blockers, then how are content creators going to survive? Probably, a bunch of copycats and click-baiters deserve to perish. But this can also have unintended consequences of niche blogs vanishing and/or paywalls going up and/or survival of only those with some benefactor (Washington Post) or cross-subsidizing business empire (Murdoch). Do we want that kind of future?

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#84

Companies like WP, NYT, and Ars should conduct similar analyses focused on their own sites to see if reducing the number of ads (or their size in pixels or bytes) results in more engagement, and ultimately a larger number of ad views.

There is absolutely no doubt that all those sites, and many others, are continuously running such experiments. There are also new financing methods, paywall implementations, prices, cooperations, etc. being tested all the time, with some successes and many failures. While people here and in general often seem to consider publishers to be rather stupid, I think there's enough evidence at this point to conclude that it…

> There is absolutely no doubt that all those sites, and many others, are continuously running such experiments.

They are running randomized experiments, but they are not necessarily running the right experiments. If the bottom line is revenue, then attrition may not be directly measured; if they are testing on per page-view or per session instead of bucketing users permanently, then they can miss effects too; and if they are testing by bucketing users simultaneously, they can miss non-additive site-wide effects. If you look at my comment, I link two publicly-documented randomized experiments, and both set up/analyze their tests in an unusual way.

After I published my results, I heard about some parallel results, but not that many. I heard whispers that Google might (or might not) have internally run equivalent tests; I heard from Chris Stucchio that an unspecified company he worked for had run an A/B test with similar results; I heard from a mobile developer that they had run a similar experiment but found no effect of ads; Pandora subsequently published their A/B test; and Mozilla has published this. I also read through most of the 'advertising avoidance' literature in academia going back 30 years, and found nothing relevant. And that's it.

So, if everyone is always continuously running obviously relevant experiments... where are they?

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#85

Mozilla should work on a micro-payment system that is inbuilt into the browser. Ultimately that is the only solution to a web that values user privacy and prevents the psychological toll of ads. 1. Obviously, the micro-payment system should not be selling my usage data to anyone. Perhaps some cryptographic techniques can be used to increase trust in the service. 2. The price for each page should be low - a cent or le…

Are you intentionally unaware that they have been doing this ( C.f. webpayments API)? Or is this work going to be a complete surprise to you? I know https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Features/Web_Payments only mentions 2017 but this stuff has been in play since 2015.

Web Payments doesn't address micropayments or actual payment authorization. It's just a standard way to collect and submit data.

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#86
post #52
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This comes up regularly. All the enthusiasm for micropayments comes from people who want to collect micropayments. Not from the users who would pay them. All the enthusiasm for ads only comes from the people who want to show/sell them. Not from the users who would be subjected to viewing them. I think it's still a worthwhile discussion. Presumably the micropayments have fewer (or at least different) unintended cons…

>All the enthusiasm for ads only comes from the people who want to show/sell them. Not from the users who would be subjected to viewing them. Yes, it does seem that way because nobody actually says, "Please please give ads because I love them!" Instead, the correct way to frame what users really want is to separate "stated preferences" from revealed preferences .[1] The stated preference, of course, is for users to c…

These things are very much aggregates and averages.

A significant number of people do subscribe to spotify, and some is buy the ad-free kindles.

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#87

> We find that installing ad blocking extensions substantially increases both active time spent in the browser and the number of pages viewed. This empirical evidence supports the position of ad blocking supporters and refutes the claim that ad blocking will diminish user engagement with the Web. This gives me echos of "thrift paradox" - kind of behavior which is great for you as long as most of the other folks behav…

Small independent creators cannot rely on ads for income already and fund some other way. And so almost all of the websites, except for some thousands of top ones. But those can probably find a way to survive another way.

Blocking ads may not actually affect anyone beyond online advertising corporations.

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#89

I don't see anyone here pointing out an alternative explanation: It could be simply that more active users are more likely to install ad blockers.

They seem to cover that:

> We then compare test group Web usage after installing the ad blocker to control group usage over a comparable period, controlling for baseline usage levels.

Emphasis mine.

Re: Firefox: The Effect of Ad Blocking on User Engagement with the Web [pdf]

#90

I don't see anyone here pointing out an alternative explanation: It could be simply that more active users are more likely to install ad blockers.

They seem to cover that: > We then compare test group Web usage after installing the ad blocker to control group usage over a comparable period, controlling for baseline usage levels. Emphasis mine.

Interesting, thanks.
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