Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

581–590 of 632 posts

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#581

Post by herbst »

air7 wrote: post #366

I dislike being tracked as much as the next guy, but I often wonder what "our" ideal end-game goal is? By "our" I mean the typical HN crowd that understands both the technological and the economical implications of this. If we want top-grade products to remain available without a direct monetary transaction (i.e "free"), it seems we must give something that the product providers can turn into monetary value indirectl…

I stopped using classic ads for monetarization years ago. Coming from someone who lived of AdSense for a while.

What I do is Building relevant ads to my content when I find fitting affiliate programs. As they are just text (or image) with an link they ain't blocked and respect my users privacy.

I would argue that are the only actually targeted ads. And lucky content creators won't be blocked either (usually)

Other projects I just go for a paid or free/paid model.

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#582

Post by rswail »

Auracle wrote: post #345
villasv wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I prefer ads that are relevant for me over random ads I froze up the first time someone said this to me. Of course I prefer random ads, cause this way they're less likely to push the right buttons on my vulnerable monkey-ass brain. Do people think tailored ads are good for them instead of consumerism triggers? Messed up worldview.

I’m a photographer, and I right now I’m targeting local teenagers and their moms for high school senior portrait sessions. I would think they’d rather see that, be reminded it’s time to get them done, and possibly learn about a better photographer than seeing an ad for an ice cream maker or what have you.

You'd be better off doing very local advertising in your area and school districts. Bus stops/billboards/etc all "target" your audience. Contact parent orgs etc, give discounts to word-of-mouth referrals.

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#583

Post by als0 »

rascul wrote: post #513
als0 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a Google search I made in the last hour, the top 6 search results were all text ads.

I wasn't sure, I haven't used Google search (directly) for years now. I guess I could have checked. I didn't realize that until I saw your comment.

Actually your sibling's comment made me realise that you were talking about the old style of ads in web pages.

Within the Google search itself, I was surprised by the number of ads that are disguised as search results. It's grown significantly. Now I have to scroll to get real results...

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#584

Post by CaptainZapp »

ElFitz wrote: post #468
leokennis wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: blocking ads guilt free: Not that long ago someone posted this beautiful Banksy quote about it on HN: > “People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They ar…

> But don’t pretend that by offering your site for free and me using it for free somehow requires me to see shitty ads. If you want my money, ask for it. If your content is worth it I’ll pay for it. One of my personal favorites: movie theatres. You pay, a handsome amount of money, to see a movie, once, and if you happen to have the weird idea of not be just late enough to the movie, you get the wonderful, once in a l…

DVDs (remember those?) bugged me much more. Movie ads at least might be funny.

But buying a DVD to then be pestered with unskipable dire warnings for life and limb if I dare to pirate this DVD was really a bit rich.

Hello! I actually paid for this product. I'm really in the wrong target group for this shit. And moreover:

I think I'll pirate the next movie so that I'm not forced to endure such gunk.

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#585

Post by BoxOfRain »

ElFitz wrote: post #543
notriddle wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trailers are the kind of ad targeting that I don’t object to. Advertising movies to me right before I see a movie is: * Relevant. You know I’m interested in movies, since I’m at one, so you don’t have to spy on me to do it. Some theaters might be spying on me, I dunno, but they don’t have to in principle . * Not directly interfering with my original purpose. The movie hasn’t started yet. The only thing you might be s…

> If the theater starts advertising scams, they have a brick-and-mortar address, they’re in the same legal jurisdiction as the visitors, and everyone sees the same ads That’s something else that drives me crazy with both YouTube & Twitter. The number of scams that run in their ads. Some falsely referring to some local celebrity only to sell some dodgy pseudo-financial product. Others selling medical products that wou…

I keep seeing adverts for what's basically a bedsheet with £5 worth of copper wire in it sold at a ridiculous price as an "earthing mat". Not only is this shamelessly a scam, it also plugs into the mains so if they wire it badly (which as a shameless scam seems pretty likely) that's 240 V directly into your sleeping body. I've reported it as a scam so many times but nothing gets done.

If that bullshit worked you could just throw yourself in the sea for free rather than paying some pillock on Facebook. No better connection to earth than that!

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#586

Post by kwanbix »

Smoosh wrote: post #499
kwanbix wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I see it, tracking is there to make sure you get relevant adds. I remember the internet in the HoTMaiL era, all of the adds where mainly about casinos, porn and such, and very rarely interested to me. I personally think that if tracking is done with good intentions, it shouldn't be an issue. At least from my point of view. I rather see totally relevant ads than have again "casino/poker/porn" ads.

I suspect that in the early days of internet advertising casino/poker/porn was much more common because they were the ones willing to take a risk on advertising in the new media. Over time other more mainstream industries joined in. I don't agree about the good intentions. The tracking is a means to an end. People are tracked to measure engagement and to target ads, both of which have the purpose of increasing the va…

Of course is about money. The world is based on money. Advertising has existed for years, but it is only now being able to target with more precision. I know this might be an unpopular opinion here in HN, but I really don't see the problem with target advertising.

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#587

Post by tonyedgecombe »

chillacy wrote: post #424
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words you want to manipulate them into buying something they wouldn’t have if they hadn’t seen your ad. That doesn’t sound like a good thing for the person on the other side of the transaction.

A common view is that both sides in an economic transaction gain some sort of benefit. Nonetheless sentiments like "all labor is exploitation" are fairly common, so I can see why that view exists, given the power disparity.

I believe your first point and disbelieve the second.

That doesn't get away from the basic fact that all advertising is an attempt at manipulation. The advertiser is trying to encourage a transaction when there wouldn't otherwise have been one. It would be pointless if this wasn't the case.

If you don't want to be manipulated at all (my preference) then it's better not to see targeted adverts.

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#588

Post by ElFitz »

OliverGilan wrote: post #535
ElFitz wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But don’t pretend that by offering your site for free and me using it for free somehow requires me to see shitty ads. If you want my money, ask for it. If your content is worth it I’ll pay for it. One of my personal favorites: movie theatres. You pay, a handsome amount of money, to see a movie, once, and if you happen to have the weird idea of not be just late enough to the movie, you get the wonderful, once in a l…

Are you upset about movie trailers? I'll be honest I haven't been to the theatres in quite a while so I don't know if they actually show ads now but back when I was younger all "ads" before a move were just trailers for upcoming films which I loved because it let me stay current with what was coming out in the future. I don't mind that at all considering I'm not spending a lot of time at home Googling upcoming movies

There still are trailers which, even though they still are unasked for advertising, don’t annoy me much (except for the occasional pseudo-horror gruesome jump-scare movie trailer now and then. Seriously, being at a showing of a movie for people over 13 doesn’t mean we want to deal with that).

But there’s also, before those, ~20 minutes of "regular" ads. Ads for M&Ms. Ads for cars. Ads for some pseudo-luxury perfumes. Ads, ads, ads… even ads for the company that places the ads in movie theatres!

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#589

Post by ElFitz »

FalconSensei wrote: post #544
ElFitz wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But don’t pretend that by offering your site for free and me using it for free somehow requires me to see shitty ads. If you want my money, ask for it. If your content is worth it I’ll pay for it. One of my personal favorites: movie theatres. You pay, a handsome amount of money, to see a movie, once, and if you happen to have the weird idea of not be just late enough to the movie, you get the wonderful, once in a l…

When I lived Brazil, they used to do like 1 ad (plus trailers), so it was pretty quick, and because everywhere (where I lived) had numbered seats, you could just be 5 min 'late'. Now when I moved to Canada: no numbered seats, and 20 (yeah, TWENTY) minutes of ads + trailers. WTF is wrong with you people? I just don't go anymore

Absolutely! It’s the same in France.

Either you get a random seat, perhaps apart from your party, perhaps miss a bit of the movie (although unlikely), and get not to watch ads.

Or you arrive on time, perhaps slightly early, get to pick where you sit, together, and get a shit ton of ads shoved down your eyes and ears for nearly half an tour, in full IMAX & DolbyVision 20.8.

Edit: Oh, and you don’t know at what time the movie actually ends, because they tell you when the ads start, and how long the movie lasts. But you have to factor in the very important ad time.

Re: Facebook users said no to tracking, and now advertisers are panicking

#590

Post by jokethrowaway »

leokennis wrote: post #387
afavour wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s undeniable, though, that such a limitation would shut off access for people who can’t afford it. You see it today with newspaper paywalls and the like. I suspect the vast majority of us in HN would have no problem paying for most of these services but I’m not sure how I feel about us making those choices on behalf of those that can’t.

How about a model like Wikipedia? It’s free. If you find it useful and can afford it please donate. If not it’s still free. Seems to work out excellent for them.

Wikipedia relies on a lot of free labor.

This can work for something like an encyclopedia or for moderating an online community.

It's not a silver bullet.

Post reply on HN