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Ads chew through half of mobile data

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Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#131

Maybe the ISP should start charging the ad network instead of the user for ad traffic. Then they can start blocking the ads of people who don't pay. The user, who pays for the service, is getting no value out of the ads and the advertiser is freeloading the ISP's technical infrastructure and userbase.

The internet as you know it is the value you get out of ads. You may hate ads, we all do, but at least recognize the hand that feeds you. The alternative is subscriptions for everything, and as far as I can tell that is far less popular than the ad model we have.

They could serve non-targeted text ads. Those are very cheap to deliver and seem to work fine.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#133
iOS Safari has a setting that can use another app to do privacy controls and you can set Firefox Focus to be that app. It’s very nice. I got tired of how slow pages were loading on my phone, and got fed up one day and turned it on.

That and ads that resize and push down the content you’re about to click on to make you misclick were the final straws.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#134

Maybe the ISP should start charging the ad network instead of the user for ad traffic. Then they can start blocking the ads of people who don't pay. The user, who pays for the service, is getting no value out of the ads and the advertiser is freeloading the ISP's technical infrastructure and userbase.

The internet as you know it is the value you get out of ads. You may hate ads, we all do, but at least recognize the hand that feeds you. The alternative is subscriptions for everything, and as far as I can tell that is far less popular than the ad model we have.

Speak for yourself. Some of us were on the internet before the ads.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#135

Maybe the ISP should start charging the ad network instead of the user for ad traffic. Then they can start blocking the ads of people who don't pay. The user, who pays for the service, is getting no value out of the ads and the advertiser is freeloading the ISP's technical infrastructure and userbase.

ISPs are likely happy about it, since it means users will have to spend more.

Ads can also be easily hosted on CDNs, so their cost for ISPs can be decreased significantly compared to other more dynamic content.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#136
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet as you know it is the value you get out of ads. You may hate ads, we all do, but at least recognize the hand that feeds you. The alternative is subscriptions for everything, and as far as I can tell that is far less popular than the ad model we have.

> The internet as you know it is the value you get out of ads. I disagree. The value I get from the Internet is almost entirely from non-ad-driven sources. The ad-driven stuff is very low value to me.

If the most of the websites you visit aren’t ad supported, then this article likely doesn’t apply to you. It does apply to most people however.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#137
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet as you know it is the value you get out of ads. You may hate ads, we all do, but at least recognize the hand that feeds you. The alternative is subscriptions for everything, and as far as I can tell that is far less popular than the ad model we have.

> The internet as you know it is the value you get out of ads. I disagree. The value I get from the Internet is almost entirely from non-ad-driven sources. The ad-driven stuff is very low value to me.

Sure, and someone else can say otherwise. Comparing anecdotes doesn't provide a global view, IMO, and can lead to incorrect conclusions.

Maybe better to look at data instead, e.g. Netflix ad-supported plans vs ad-free plans, or YouTube Premium vs YT ad-supported, etc.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#138

Maybe the ISP should start charging the ad network instead of the user for ad traffic. Then they can start blocking the ads of people who don't pay. The user, who pays for the service, is getting no value out of the ads and the advertiser is freeloading the ISP's technical infrastructure and userbase.

That sets a terrible precedent. You do not want ISPs picking and choosing what content to deliver, or forcing content providers to pay extra to deliver content to their customers.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#139

Maybe the ISP should start charging the ad network instead of the user for ad traffic. Then they can start blocking the ads of people who don't pay. The user, who pays for the service, is getting no value out of the ads and the advertiser is freeloading the ISP's technical infrastructure and userbase.

Isn’t this against net neutrality?

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#140

Surprising they don't mention what I imagine has to be the obvious culprit: video ads. It's not even about advertising for me -- static ads don't bother me that much. But whenever there's autoplaying video in the corner of a page, I hate it so much. Whether it's an ad, or a news site that inexplicably thinks I want to multitask and watch their news channel at the same time I read their article. It's genuinely hard to…

Firefox has an option to turn autoplay (sound and video) off for those ads that get past ublock origin.
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