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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

#461

Post by sxv »

raz32dust wrote: post #352

Curious - why does Youtube not figure out how to outsmart ad blockers? Is it technically not possible to embed ads into the video such that the ad blocker cannot detect it?

Good question. It is a cat and mouse game but certainly possible for YouTube to (at least) only release part Y of the video after a certain amount of time has elapsed since part X was released. And if YouTube really wanted to seamlessly glue the ads and video together, I think it would be insurmountable from an adblocker's perspective.

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

#462

Post by BrendanEich »

pl0x wrote: post #367
endominus wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Website owners no longer have a choice. Brave is incentivized to add ads to otherwise ad-free websites, and apparently does so as Matthew Butterick complains about; https://practicaltypography.com/the-cowardice-of-brave.html

Brave is the wolves in sheeps clothing. I won't be surprised in the future if we learn Brave was using their browser and our data for shady things.

Why don't you go prove it by checking our code and runtime network behavior? We pay bug bounties through hackerone.com/brave.

Talk is cheap, especially stories that don't pass any kind of smell test: we would not take our life into our hands by collecting any user data, when it's easy to discover that for real hackers.

https://brave.com/data covers our data policies for baseline and optional stuff.

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

#463

Post by blindmute »

TheIronMark wrote: post #51
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…

Quoted post unavailable.

If they don't want me to have it for free, they should charge for it. And if no one would pay for it, it's not valuable content. Their poor business model isn't my problem.

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

#464

Post by lapetitejort »

teddyh wrote: post #296
hateful wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran ad blocking on Youtube for years, and I've been a Premium member since it came out (as Red back then). I can't stand ads and avoid them like the plague. Some ads still sneak into my world though. My current peeve is when going to a restaurant and they have "the game" on full blast. I'm perfectly fine with people watching/listening to the game - and half the time the restaurant is considered a "sports bar", so I…

> My current peeve is when going to a restaurant and they have "the game" on full blast. Get a TV-B-Gone.

I've bought the standalone keychain and the DIY TV-B-Gone. They're great but clunky. I bought a USB C IR blaster keychain hoping there'd be a TV-B-Gone app that could utilize it. No such luck.

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

#465

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

BuckRogers wrote: post #423
SamBam wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm a Consumer Reports + self-investigation guy (using all sources). I do use Wirecutter but I put low weight on their ultimate recommendations. I use them to find what else is out there. The main issue with most review sites is that they're kids. Companies like NYT/Wirecutter don't want to pay old men that are experts in manufacturing. They hire kids with little life experience to review something like a washing mac…

To be fair(er) to WC, most of their review introductions typically mention interaction with people with longer histories in whatever the relevant business is, so it's clear that they recognize their outsider status. How much interaction they really have with these niche experts and what impact it has on their reviews, I don't know.

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

#466

Post by BrendanEich »

ar_lan wrote: post #369
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 feel zero guilt about ad blocking. I don't know why anybody would feel any guilt. When cable was the only thing available, I would switch to my Gameboy when ads would come on and mute the TV, effectively blocking the ads. I'm always curious if people who shame others about ad-blocking similarly think that action was immoral and I should instead be forced to keep my eyes open with superglue when the ads came on. >…

Thanks for your kind words.

Quick note on router level approach: without MitM and full JS/HTML/CSS runtime, can't block tracking and ads effectively.

PiHole etc. are good but not sufficient to stop the latest, and with Google pushing for more AMP borg-ification of sites' content, getting into the 1st party content that unfolds only at TLS termination and JS execution is essential to blocking threats.

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

#467

Post by ineedasername »

For a while I didn't bother with an adblocker. After countless data breaches and tracking that can still be done even with an adblocker, so I was mostly apathetic about the privacy factors. That was 3-4 years ago.

But I had a fast computer, lots of ram etc., yet still I noticed that websites were getting progressively slower and slower. And, as mentioned in the article, auto-playing video ads proliferated and became massively annoying. So I took the time to setup uBlock Origin, and gradually zapped elements on sites when they still made it through.

The difference was huge. Yes, the annoying auto-play ads (mostly) went away, but even more was the overall browsing speed was a huge improved. It was almost like the very early 00's when I went from dial-up to broadband.

It was only at this point that I realized just how much ads massively bogged down the internet.

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

#468

Post by ratww »

gzer0 wrote: post #250
armchairhacker wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 used to type “reddit” after my searches to look for genuine and real reviews, but even that is now being gamed. Advertisers and shady affiliate marketing schemes have caught on and nearly every search result I try is now filled with junk, upvote farmed nonsense with fake accounts using similar naming schemes.

For me the problem with Reddit is not even the astroturfing. It's that, similarly to SEO and Google, people have figured out the kind of posts and replies that get upvotes. So, on niche subreddits, you get a lot of folklore and second-hand advice repeated by people addicted to internet points, or, like other poster put it better below, "well meaning beginners offering advice outside of their skill level". The Geil-Mann Amnesia Effect is strong in that site.

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

#469

Post by jmrm »

fartcannon wrote: post #415
rchaud wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that there is a generational gap between Youtube users that correlates with whether they will pay for premium or not. People in their late 20s and 30s who remember Youtube as a catch-all location for lo-fi homemmade videos with few ads may not feel that YT premium is worth it, particularly if they already use adblockers, and don't use it much on mobile (where adblocking isn't possible without modded APKs). Thi…

Huh? Firefox on mobile supports ublock origin. Or do you mean the app? Don't use the app.

There is also the possibility of using YouTube Vanced and other similar apps (in Android at least) to do the same trick in a more comfortable way.

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

#470

Post by fraktl »

sergiotapia wrote: post #430
marcodiego wrote: post #278

I wanted to show a video on YouTube to a friend. He passed me his cellphone. I searched and found the video and then something very strange happened: a completely unrelated something started playing. I said "Sorry I don't know what is this. This has nothing to do with what I wanted to show you." He then explained me that was just an advertisement and the video would play soon. People are used to abuse. My internet is…

I switched from iphone to android just because I could install youtube vanced (and really any apk I want). I'm done with walled gardens.

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