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Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

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Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#121

Post by stillpointlab »

phyzome wrote: post #103
stillpointlab wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much I love a good old "Why don't you just ..." response that terrifically misses the point - in this particular case I was watching YouTube through their Apple TV app. Now, there may be another "why don't you just ..." or "well, actually ..." response you have queued up, maybe some ramblings about a pi hole, or some anti-Apple hate, or some other solutioneering. Go ahead, tell me. But it is the structure of incen…

Sounds like you've made a choice to watch ads. Which is fine, but then maybe don't complain about it.

That is wrong on both accounts. I have little choice other than to watch ads since the structure of incentive that creates a marketplace like YouTube forces it on me.

I think about libraries and how the world would be if instead of a free public resource, you had to watch ads before you were allowed to take out a book.

It is just the case that in this modern social media world, if you want your ideas to spread you have to put them onto social media. And if I want access to those ideas I have to consume them through social media. There is nothing about that environment that is my choice, it is the environment that I find myself in.

And I have few choices to get around it. I can twist up into a pretzel trying to block the onslaught with more "why don't you just..." advice. Or I could pay to make it go away. Or I could just go off-grid and forego access.

And when you look close at the options, it becomes clear that sovereignty of my own mind has a price. Freedom of mind is not free in this modern world, if it ever really was.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#122

Post by Jskewel »

Adsense has been a nightmare for us.

They have been putting thousands of scam adverts on our website for some time. Think "you have been looking at xxx and must pay a $100 fine" type popup nonsense. Hosted on the following websites:

azurestaticapps.net

azurewebsites.net

herokuapp.com

ondigitalocean.app

digitaloceanspaces.com

netlify.app

Google doesn't allow you to block these domains, because they consider them "TLDs" (the scammers use a new subdomain every day eg abcdefg.herokuapp.com). The scammers get banned and return the next day with a new account and subdomain (repeat every day). Therefore we cannot stop them. It's bizarre and baffling. But Google Adsense had to go.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#123

Post by icoder »

HomeDeLaPot wrote: post #107

Every YouTube ad I see now is an AI-generated scam ad hawking everything from free electricity to anti-aging products to birdhouses hand-carved by an AI-generated senior citizen. I've seen some multiple times, days or weeks apart. Their advertising standards are a complete joke.

I've flagged an AI-generated add once that promoted a small device that could cool a hot room (many degrees celcius lower, very quickly, for very little energy and very little money and without external components), defying the laws of thermodynamics.

They said they investigated it and concluded it did not break any rules and no actions where taken.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#125

Post by unethical_ban »

HomeDeLaPot wrote: post #107

Every YouTube ad I see now is an AI-generated scam ad hawking everything from free electricity to anti-aging products to birdhouses hand-carved by an AI-generated senior citizen. I've seen some multiple times, days or weeks apart. Their advertising standards are a complete joke.

I use adblock and on my TV, Youtube Premium.

I loaded a stock web browser on VPN and checked Youtube looking for ads. Holy shit, it's all scams. Sample size of three, but not a single ad was a known company or a decent product.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#126

Post by nvme0n1p1 »

worik wrote: post #104
snailmailman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Google broke the original uBlock origin and made people switch to uBlock Lite, I found out about the change because my grandmother called me in a panic. She saw an ad like the one in this article on her Facebook page and clicked it, then it was telling her to call Microsoft support because her computer was infected. Like, Google removing Adblock directly caused that . Facebook allowing the ad caused that . The a…

> When Google broke the original uBlock origin and made people switch to uBlock Lite Not me. Is that because I stuck with Firefox?

[dead]

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#127

Post by jjallen »

jjallen wrote: post #110
conception wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the 3.8 Flash release shows they are doing just fine at AI. Unlike OpenAI and Anthropomorphic, Google doesn’t have to release new models to capture VC sentiment every three months. They have the hardware, data and money. And when they release a model it’s very good. Now their product strategy however…

They can be doing fine at AI models but not so well with AI revenue. Although I am curious if they are not worried and playing the long game confident that their distribution will eventually help them catch up (and worst case they own some of Anthropic). But obviously Anthropic and OpenAI have their own distribution now too.

I do wonder if the more they goose their ad business the faster it eventually falls. I know I am more and more reluctant to view many normal Web page ads at all and usually immediately click away the second a site gets annoying

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#128

Post by fho »

mikestew wrote: post #105
Telaneo wrote: post #95

We need strict liability on this front. Google is complicit. No newspaper or equivalent publication in the days before web ads would allow ads that are down at the level of scam that seemingly make up the modus operandi of Google today (and even the ads back then that did bend the truth a bit, overpromised, or showed products that didn't actually have any legitimate use, shouldn't really have been legal back then eit…

The water-injection system for your carburetor that the oil companies don't want you to know about! -- paraphrase of an actual Popular Mechanics ad circa 1978

Joke's (partly) on you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_injection_(engine)

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#129

Post by stephen_cagle »

beloch wrote: post #36

This is one major reason why blocking ads is now a safety issue. If you have a family member who, for whatever reason, might be fooled by this sort of ad, install an effective adblocker on all their browsers and uninstall/disable browsers that don't support an effective adblocker. If you are reliant on ad revenue, you should be expressing your displeasure to google right now.

My mother has:

* Got me a "BearSkin" jacket from youtube's incessant advertisement.

* Signed up for a $250 subscription to "The Daily Beast" when she was watching youtube tv right before bed and probably subscribed when she meant to just view.

* Signed up for Norton Antivirus when she got a gif that looks like a popup that tells you have a virus and it opens to a Subscription Plan on her phone.

None of these things were things she particularly wanted, some she didn't even consent to, but a combination of paid promotion / advertisement / confusion about the UI is basically doing things against her will.

I literally got her Youtube Premium just so she stops seeing all the ads that are feeding on her. It is a problem.

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