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Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

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Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#191

Post by EvanAnderson »

TheIronMark wrote: post #172
bun_at_work wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is saying they expect free content? I'd pay a monthly fee for unmolested search results. I pay for Youtube Premium. I only watch ad-free content that I pay for. I don't want the content for free - the free stuff is usually worse in quality anyway. I just want to be left alone by advertisers. I don't need what they are selling and the reduce my ability to think. The sheer amount of noise they add to the world make…

> Who is saying they expect free content? Anyone using an adblocker is expecting free content.

I would totally run an ad blocker that showed me static text or image-based ads. No JavaScript, no animations or video, and I'll happily view ads.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#192

Post by jsnell »

whoibrar wrote: post #176
Workaccount2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the case. Every time someone starts ad-blocking, someone else has to assume that ad watch for them. Of course this isn't 1:1 parity in reality, but the ultimate manifestation of ad blocking is that. Google had a good system a few years ago that I was probably the only sucker who paid them for it (and probably why they stopped it). You could pay a chosen amount monthly, and they would not show you ads…

Which year was this ? Can you share more information regarding this ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Contributor

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#193

Post by BoxOfRain »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #89
Tenoke wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, if the rest of us didn't run adblockers, they probably wouldn't need to be so aggressive with the ads for those that currently don't.

This is exactly the case. Every time someone starts ad-blocking, someone else has to assume that ad watch for them. Of course this isn't 1:1 parity in reality, but the ultimate manifestation of ad blocking is that. Google had a good system a few years ago that I was probably the only sucker who paid them for it (and probably why they stopped it). You could pay a chosen amount monthly, and they would not show you ads…

Aren't the people who use adblockers by definition those who are irritated by advertising enough that they wouldn't buy the products and services being advertised? If anything ad people should love things like uBlock Origin, it means they're not wasting their ad spend on people who aren't going to buy their products anyway.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#194

Post by SamBam »

williamdclt wrote: post #161
patrickk wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well You can't research good appliances either online, because the SERPs are stuffed with SEO-ed blogs and sometimes industry magazines, monetized with Amazon affiliates or other networks, with titles like "5 best dishwashers in 2022". Unless you know someone in the industry or offline with knowledge you don't know what to buy. This is noticeable in many…

The only solution I found to that is to bypass google completely and directly go search on Reddit, where real humans have human opinions (sometimes HN, too).

And unfortunately, you're never really sure on Reddit, either. I found I was too willing to put those, what, 5-10 voices telling me to pick a certain brand up on a high pedestal, because they seemed like real people. They didn't sound like advertisers. But, honestly, how hard is it to fake 5-10 accounts to push your product, or buy high-karma accounts?

My go-tos are sites like Wirecutter, where it seems like the hit to their reputation would be too high to be blatantly bought-out, even if they'll generally only hawk products that can be bought on Amazon or other sites that give them affiliate money. They're not always perfect, but I trust that they're trying to do what they set out to do.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#195

Post by WallyFunk »

> I would imagine margins are pretty thin these days if you run a magazine website. Advertising revenue isn’t what is used to be and the money they make for each visitor is probably the lowest it has ever been

Webmasters need to diversify their income streams. Obviously AD revenue doesn't cut it anymore. You need to implant affiliate links, do paywalls, paid subscriptions to content, and sell merch on a Shopify-powered site that is separate from the main magazine/blog. Ghacks for example sells software and services on their deals subdomain[0], but I'm not sure if it's that profitable.

[0] https://deals.ghacks.net/

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#196

Post by aniforprez »

nfriedly wrote: post #52
rabuse wrote: post #13

I have this moment when I have to use Youtube on my phone for some reason (such as a tutorial for how to fix something), and get blasted with 3 ads for a 1 minute video. I would never use it for long periods without an ad blocker.

If you're on Android, try out https://vancedapp.com/ - it's an "Advanced" YouTube player, but they removed the "Ad"s (get it?) Also, there's an option to enable SponsorBlock, which can automatically skip over ads, introductions, etc. that are part of the original video. Vanced and Firefox's addons are two of the main things keeping me off of iOS.

I'm a dumb dumb. Didn't realise that about the name. That's really neat

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#198

Post by armchairhacker »

patrickk wrote: post #126
skummetmaelk wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It corrupts and twists everything it touches into a constant hustle for eyeball-cash This cannot be overstated. Everything today is a battle for eye-balls and ad money. The corruption is insane. You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well. Instead you can buy cheap junk for less than cogs because they make money selling your data to ad companies instead of making money by making products that…

> You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well You can't research good appliances either online, because the SERPs are stuffed with SEO-ed blogs and sometimes industry magazines, monetized with Amazon affiliates or other networks, with titles like "5 best dishwashers in 2022". Unless you know someone in the industry or offline with knowledge you don't know what to buy. This is noticeable in many…

I type "reddit" after the query and Reddit usually has good recommendations.

Yes, advertisers can and do try to invade subreddits posing as "real" users to promote sham products. But I haven't seen this actually working: sometimes Redditors recommend products which are way too expensive (still good quality, but the extra price really isn't worth it), but if someone recommends a genuinely crappy product, they get downvoted and replies saying "don't buy this"

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#199

Post by sundarurfriend »

Tenoke wrote: post #131
tasha0663 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've put the cart ahead of the horse. Ad-blockers took off once they started throwing animated banners at us. Punch the monkey, win an ipod.

That's not really true. Youtube ads specifically were way way milder and rarer years ago when way less people used Adblock.

And global warming was much milder when we had more pirates in the world [1]. Correlation is not causation. In the same period, YouTube's management style and public-facing attitude have changed dramatically, Google's general attempt at being the "good guys" has pretty much vanished, and beancounting has taken over as the guiding principle in many respects. I have zero reason to believe that had Adblocking not been a thing, there would have been any significant difference in the frequency or intrusiveness of the ads YouTube shows.

[1] https://swizec.com/blog/pirates-downfall-causes-global-warmi...

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#200

Post by hiena03 »

rabuse wrote: post #13

I have this moment when I have to use Youtube on my phone for some reason (such as a tutorial for how to fix something), and get blasted with 3 ads for a 1 minute video. I would never use it for long periods without an ad blocker.

Firefox for Android supports uBlock Origin
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