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Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

imlefthanded.com

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

#201

Post by jmoreno94 »

nsgi wrote: post #92
reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel zero guilt about ad blocking. There was some period of discussion on the subject back in like 2003 but the ad companies went to war against human civilization and there's been no going back. It corrupts and twists everything it touches into a constant hustle for eyeball-cash and an entire generation has now reached adulthood knowing nothing but that hustle touching every bit of media they ever interact with. W…

I wonder if part of the problem is that the people who develop websites and put the ads on (developers) are largely also the people who use ad blockers so they don't realise how bad the experience is for regular users

Even if they did you think the average person is going to put their neck on the line over ads?

How many UX designers just give into client demands, how many devs work extra hours to make up for bad management practices? How many managers are under pressure over sales created deadlines? How many sales people are under pressure over the company's target numbers?

There will always be a few people who are willing to put their neck on the line but it'll require a culture shift before any momentum builds up and most feel comfortable protesting these practices at their workplace.

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

#202

Post by rnd0 »

criddell wrote: post #12
vbezhenar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using my own simplistic adblock at home (mostly because youtube ads driving me nuts) and I don't use any adblock at work (mostly because I'm too lazy to configure it). I'm not a fan of using browser extensions, especially those which require full access to every webpage, that's too much of attack surface in my opinion and ads are not that bad on websites I visit.

The ads themselves are an attack vector.

They have been for jeez, I think almost 20 years now? That's what pushed me solidly into the adblock (and then ublock) camp; the fact that the advertising industry has never been willing or able to police itself against bad actors and malware.

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

#203

Post by qzx_pierri »

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).

Consumer Reports does a great job at giving honest reviews. They go through multiple steps to ensure manufacturers don't know they're purchasing their products as well (to avoid getting beefed up 'review units').

And no, their service is not supported by ads - You have to pay for a subscription. Consumer Reports needs to be mentioned more IMO. Because even on reddit, there are companies that offer advanced stealth-like astroturfing campaigns for products/services.

The counterargument is that Consumer Reports could be intruded by corporate shills, but their reputation is solid and they've been around for a long time.

Link: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

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

#204

Post by arcastroe »

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.

This looks neat. But how do I know this won't isnt malware itself (or will become malware in the future)

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

#205

Post by babypuncher »

colordrops wrote: post #106
bambax wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny part is I remember a time when even on HN the majority defended ads for a myriad of reasons, and one of those reasons was that people actually liked ads and wanted them. This line of reasoning has completely disappeared from the mainstream. I think that's a problem for the ad companies. They have not yet lost the war, but it seems they have lost the argument.

I remember this. "People want personalized information on products they are interested in. How else would they find out about them?" As if people would be at a loss buying a car or breakfast cereal or a pair of shoes without ads.

It makes sense in isolated situations, like Netflix recommending content based on previous content you liked on their platform. I think it becomes creepy once that data leaves the domain where I originally generated it.

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

#206

Post by Nowado »

armchairhacker wrote: post #198
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…

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 down…

I do this too, but that behaviour has zero way of noticing false negatives.

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

#207

Post by DavideNL »

cercatrova wrote: post #186

I have a list of adblockers I use, hope it helps other people here: Desktop: - Pi-Hole (network wide adblocking) - AdGuard (device wide adblocking) Web browsers: - uBlock Origin - uMatrix (not developed anymore but still works, can also use NoScript) - SponsorBlock (blocks in-video sponsor segments, intros, outros, filler tangents, etc in YouTube) Mobile: - Firefox for Android / Kiwi Browser (both have web extension…

There's also an iOS app for SponsorBlock now (safari extension.)

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

#209

Post by wldcordeiro »

the_snooze wrote: post #146
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…

I feel like "scale" on the Internet has gone completely off the rails and has become just worthless "noise." Sure, anyone can post and sell whatever they want, but you lose all notions of reputation and trust. It all becomes a shouting match among those who can ad-spam and SEO their way to the top. Those shitty fly-by-night randomly-named Chinese brands on Amazon come to mind.

See also Youtube/Spotify/etc view/listen/impression farms. It really does make it so much noise, you can pretty much guarantee any large scale account is using these too and bot followers because it's an arms race for attention.
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