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Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

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Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#681

Post by CRConrad »

denton-scratch wrote: post #665
Closi wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree on a personal level, although at a societal level I believe regulation is required. As per the parent comment to my original one, I just fundamentally do not believe that most advertising contributes anything positive to society and mostly generates negative externalities.

The argument for advertising is that it's so difficult for a new entrant to a market to challenge an entrenched incumbent, unless they can advertise. I honestly don't know if that argument holds water.

Intuitively, I'd say it doesn't hold water: Entrenched incumbents would generally tend to have more money than new competitors, so the incumbent can afford more advertising to drown out that of the challenger.

The only net gain I can see is for the advertising industry, which extracts money from both challenger and incumbent.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#682

Post by _archon_ »

drdeadringer wrote: post #632
bredren wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a CTO with plenty of wealth and space that sits at a kitchen table with a laptop instead of setting up a home work station. I know information workers who have workplaces that would gladly pay for nicer monitors or keyboards but don’t bother to even request them. I know a couple with a brand new house that has a miserably squeaky front door that could be silenced a half dozen ways in under a minute. People of…

One contracting job I had, on my first day one of my tasks was to do some grunt work right in front of the bathrooms. The men's door was squeaky as all hell. "Oh don't worry, it's always done that." I lasted as long as I could but I finally walked over to the shop crew and asked if I could borrow some WD-40. "I'll bring it back in 10 minutes." 10 minutes later it's all "Thanks guys!", "No problem", and "Wow you reall…

As an aside, next time, see if there's a silicone lubricant or other lube spray available. WD is good for what it was designed to do, and is barely acceptable as a lubricant. Better than nothing though!

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#683

Post by nitrogen »

eru wrote: post #659
nitrogen wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without US public broadcasting, I and countless others would have grown up on GI Joe instead of Mr. Rogers. Further, I generally strongly oppose charity as a component of future plans (leaving aside whether charity is good or necessary in the present). We should never be building society such that it depends on the funding whims of rich philanthropists. Sure, there should be some kind of analysis of benefits, but som…

And I am suggesting we should do careful cost benefit analysis, instead of just assuming that our favourite pet causes will surely come out ahead.

On top of cost-benefit analysis, you will have to explain to everyone whose life trajectory was meaningfully improved by a resource what alternative path you are providing so that future people can also find their way to a better life.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#684

Post by Uhhrrr »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #15

There is a German movie about the system that is used to gather TV ratings. It's a special box that some users get which reports what they are watching. Small sample size goes into a big statistic (not sure how accurate the portrayal of the system in the movie is). These boxes are given to the people who pay the German public TV fee, which excludes i.e. students (they don't have to pay) and some other groups. This gr…

This is funny to me, because there's an American movie where Danny DeVito manipulates TV ratings to get his own (worse) shows on the air: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087979/

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#685

Post by tastyfreeze »

eru wrote: post #653
tastyfreeze wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was first living on my own barely making rent, PBS documentaries were the most interesting thing on broadcast TV. Infinitely more entertaining than drivel like the Bachelor. Other than available time and offered free content I doubt preference of documentaries is different among income classes.

Social class is correlated with income, but it's not the same. Similarly, entertainment preferences are correlated with social class (and with income), but again, they are not perfect predictors of each other. So a few anecdata wouldn't undermine anything here. Though in fact, your example actually strengthens the argument I am making: you are the kind of person that prefers watching documentaries over other drivel,…

Wow, that is some overt classism right there. The world is a much better place is you just see people as people. Everybody is trying to achieve the same thing regardless of their "class". Security and safety for self and loved ones by whatever means are available to them with their skills and knowledge.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#686

Post by rchaud »

sidibe wrote: post #333
jeroenhd wrote: post #140

I expected these numbers to be higher. However, an even more interesting metric is the 88% block in Firefox. Firefox may not have a great market share, but based on these numbers it's market share may very well be eight times higher than your analytics report. This can change the argument of "it's only 3% of our users so we don't need to test on FF" to "it's a quarter of our user base, we should at least test it", de…

The reason Firefox is higher is probably because it's the easiest one to block ads on mobile. Most people I know who use Firefox on mobile do so specifically to have ublock origin. I personally use chrome on desktop but Firefox on mobile.

Firefox is likely higher because FF users are more likely to have Ublock or some other content blocker installed. I'd also guess FF users are older, on average. Some will remember a time when FF was the clear choice over IE6. I used Chrome exclusively for a long time, then went back to FF once Chrome started to automatically log me into Chrome with my Google account.

There's a whole generation of users who first experienced the web via mobile browsers that don't block anything. When they become old enough to start using laptops and desktops, I imagine that it won't occur to them that an analytics-free and ad-free world is possible.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#687

Post by tsavo »

Blog post for a competing platform criticizing the effectiveness of the market leader in the space.

It's a widely known trend that more tech-savvy consumer audiences tend to employ more tracking countermeasures.

The sales message in the post claims GA is cookie-based, which isn't entirely true. Cookies are one complementary component of tracking within the Google stack, but not the only one. Depending on your account type, GA deployment, and reporting method, you can achieve reporting results that are not solely cookie-based.

The over-simplification is for sales purposes.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#688

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

ryankrage77 wrote: post #673
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices. > Nope, it is really easy: is just an extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94- ... The key word here is mobile devices. AFAIK, ad blocking in Chrome on my phone is difficult. But with Firefox, I can easily install uBlock Origin. I use a PiHole on…

Wireguard may use less power, I've not noticed any loss of battery life when using it across multiple devices.

I'm trying the option to pause the VPN while the screen is off again. I had done it before, but found that it frequently didn't reconnect to the VPN when I powered back on.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#689

Post by FalconSensei »

skinkestek wrote: post #584
FalconSensei wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it wouldn't be about the ads, but the visit tracking. Like, block GA from seeing your visits on trash sites, but allow when it's a high quality post/content/source, so we skew the numbers for high quality content

That's actually very interesting. Is there any extension that blocks analytics selectively?

AFAIK, no. You would need to manually add exceptions by domain

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#690

Post by hansthehorse »

CRConrad wrote: post #680
muffinman26 wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US there's actually an FCC requirement that television channels air news. From https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting : "virtually every station has an obligation to provide news, public affairs, and other programming that specifically treats the important issues facing its community." The details are specific to the license, but almost every station is required to air at least an hour of news…

> In the US there's actually an FCC requirement that television channels air news. Except, I thought, if they're explicitly registered as entertainment channels? (Like... Fox "News".)

The regulation is concerning over the air broadcasters. Cable stations like Fox don't fall under the regulation as they don't use public airways.
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