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Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

plausible.io

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Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#141
post #120
post #38

Can confirm, part of the 58% who block all the ads. Using a raspberry pi as a pi-hole, works great. Getting 100% blockage [0] on this adblock test [1]. [0] https://i.imgur.com/7hdaHmh.png [1] https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html Haven't seen an ad in months. (kidding)

Same here. I don't even open the browser when my phone is not connected to my safe heaven WiFi.

Just wireguard to your “safe haven” and you can open your browser anywhere.

Or, if you’re lazy like me, just use NextDNS when you’re outside. There’s even an option to only activate NextDNS when not connected to the Wi-Fi of your choice.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#142
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I don't even open the browser when my phone is not connected to my safe heaven WiFi.

Just wireguard to your “safe haven” and you can open your browser anywhere. Or, if you’re lazy like me, just use NextDNS when you’re outside. There’s even an option to only activate NextDNS when not connected to the Wi-Fi of your choice.

To be honest. I enjoy being semi offline when not home. But yeah, would be easy to VPN home.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which excludes i.e. students (they don't have to pay) That is incorrect, they do have to pay (once per household). But if you get BAFÖG (student loan/social benefit mix that require you and your parents to be below a certain income bracket), you don’t.

I know that very well, I had to pay it because there is no BAFÖG for foreign students. Just felt it might not be an important enough detail to explain BAFÖG to the international audience.

You could have called them and they would usually give you an exception. Not sure if that situation has changed now.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By nature it won't filter out bots, however. One of my clients' website traffic is composed of over 75% bot traffic. Server-side logs are unusable for anything other than site performance.

Can I evade tracking by disgusing my traffic as bot traffic? Sounds like a startup idea.

Oh I suspect you'll have a decent amount of sites not serving you ads or analytics if you put "googlebot" or "chrome lighthouse" in your UA.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#145

It amazes me that over the last 10-20 years an astonishing amount of money and intellectual capital have been invested in adtech and crypto but nothing in micropayments. Ads are evil, but it will remain a moot point until we have working micropayments. We have (and will have) ads with all their downsides exactly because we don't have micropayments, because ads basically work as a substitute to micropayments.

> but nothing in micropayments

That's not true. Web Monetization is built on top of the Interledger and does precisely that - micropayments for web content. When i wrote about it[0] and posted on HN[1] the overwhelming response here was negative, presupposing greed and lack of privacy of everyone ( as in the website would still track and run ads to earn more money, etc.). The solutions exist, people just don't want them, even supposedly privacy-focused people.

[0] https://atodorov.me/2021/03/07/please-support-web-monetizati...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26375857

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#147
post #81

Does anyone have recommendation for static site hosting with simple server-side analytics? The only thing I can find is Netlify Analytics, but $9/mo is too much for hosting a few pages of OSS project documentations. If there's no complex interactivity achieveable only through JS, I prefer to ship sites with plain HTML/CSS, so I don't really like to use any client-side analytics. And yes – I can live without all the f…

CloudFlare Pages does this.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#149

It amazes me that over the last 10-20 years an astonishing amount of money and intellectual capital have been invested in adtech and crypto but nothing in micropayments. Ads are evil, but it will remain a moot point until we have working micropayments. We have (and will have) ads with all their downsides exactly because we don't have micropayments, because ads basically work as a substitute to micropayments.

The reality is that you can't have it all.

You live with the assumption that everyone would just accept micropayments, and that's far from the truth.

The result would be content for a small portion of those with available income, and content for those without it (with parallel markets for content distribution under paywalls - like piracy).

That's even more messed up than the current advertising model.

Don't get me wrong, some brands would love that, to pile up those with available income and serve them marketing communication through press releases, reviews and stuff like that. I can see Apple applauding this.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#150
post #98
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, pretty much every company first data person runs Cost-per-action (CPA) analysis to estimate how many sales can be attributable to ads vs. other ways of raising your brand. It’s an imperfect science (just use the word “attribution” to trigger shivers in any data person) but it’s very clear that targeted platforms offer dramatically cheaper leads for almost every product. That’s why the hostility to ads feels misp…

> it helps company to whom you want to give money to find you You mean, the companies who want me to give them money. I'm sure there are a few companies out there whose product I actually want and don't mind paying for, but their number is absolutely dwarfed by the number of companies that seek to induce FOMO/status anxiety/etc in order to get me to buy things I don't need and would not want if not for advertising.

Yup. I find it amazing the quoted myth lives on. It doesn't even make sense.

How many problems do most people have that can be solved with an existing product they are unaware of? The numbers can't be very high.

How do you explain well-known brands advertising the same product for decades on end? Surely Coke and Pepsi aren't suddenly enlightening many people to the existence of their drinks.

How about ads that get shown to the known-same individual time and time again after mere minutes? (See Hulu, at least back in the day, not sure what it's like now.)

The whole line about ads being mere consumer education is ridiculous and doesn't even stand up to a cursory thought.

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