> I do not consider retargeting to be evil. What a coincidence that you work in the field!
why do you consider it evil? it seems like a great way to reach back out to someone who was potentially interested in your service. if all retargeting is doing is showing you ads from a website you already visited. How is that evil? Are babies dead because of it? Or perhaps do you remember that you like that website and eventually signup because you got the extra reminder... that is just called advertising and it's w…
Did they tell you they were interested? Hand you a business card? No, you're stalking them. That's why it's bad.
The GA script loads from google-analytics.com, not google.com. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
Safari already blocks most third-party cookies, yet Google Analytics works in Safari. An explanation of how GA pulls it off can be found here: http://webpolicy.org/2012/02/17/safari-trackers/
> No. In my experience it's not the ad companies that ask for them. It's usually the advertiser That is a distinction without a difference.
the difference is it's the website you're using and enjoying that is demanding this extra information. it's what they get in return for giving something to you for "free"...
You have your parties muddled up. The website you are using is not 'the advertiser', they're the publisher.
> That's what the company does that is mistaken, not the technology The technology of low level internet surveillance in order to facilitate advertising? And you wonder why people don't like it? I worked in advertising for quite a while and no longer do, I understand why you love retargeting and why you are sad to see it go. I'm sure that you were sad to see popup blocking become mainstream as well, popups and popund…
> and why you are sad to see it go. not the GP, but I highly doubt it's going to go anywhere. Mozilla's decision is just going to accelerate the arms race into more and more esoteric ways of tracking you... I'd heard about evercookie, but tcp-level analysis was news to me.
true, that type of tracking is too useful, especially now that big players are used to having it. The browser's have the advantage here in both available options and agility so accelerating the arms race is probably a good thing.
I don't really like this. I work in the advertising industry and retargeting is honestly one of the most exciting things to come out. Sure there are ways of cookieless retargeting, but it is a hassle. I mean, everyone's heard of Samy's Evercookie right? Then there are TCP stack signatures, and other companies like a few European DSPs that use cookieless tracking to track a person (IMO it's quite easy to use a GET pix…
I'm interested in the culture implications of your willingness to comment on a story like this and openly admit that you work in this area of the advertising (surveillance?) industry. Certainly, I don't think anyone would feel comfortable commenting on a story about SPAM mitigation techniques (without using a throwaway account) with text like "This sucks, I'm a spammer, and I'm really excited about it. Don't like SPA…
I used to work in an advertising start-up, and I have no qualms about it. I think it's naive to consider it "unacceptable" or "evil" ... and there are two BIG reasons I say this: (1) Google and (2) Free Content vs Pay-walls
(1) Google essentially reads your emails and any searches you do, and provides ads based upon any/all data you provide to it (including Google+, Drive, etc.) Last time I checked Google was pretty popular and this business model was pretty well accepted...
(2) With so much free-content on the web, is it that much to ask that the people producing that content have a means to make a living? The fact that we can Google virtually ANY information in the world (even on our phones for crying-out-loud) is worth the small sacrifice that we see a few ads in the process
I don't really like this. I work in the advertising industry and retargeting is honestly one of the most exciting things to come out. Sure there are ways of cookieless retargeting, but it is a hassle. I mean, everyone's heard of Samy's Evercookie right? Then there are TCP stack signatures, and other companies like a few European DSPs that use cookieless tracking to track a person (IMO it's quite easy to use a GET pix…
Personally I can't stand retargeting, if there is one turn-off I have when visiting websites it is being hounded from site to site by an ad. That signals to me to never ever buy that product. That it is 'exciting' to those in the advertising industry is a signal all by itself. Once a while ago I googled for a bit around the time I was buying a car. For weeks afterwards I got hounded by car ads for some brand. Needles…
Frankly the data shows otherwise ... from my previous work in the industry the majority of people respond well to retargeting simply because it's relevant and useful. Hell it's been working for Google for years...
My biggest annoyance with retargeting is also buying a car. I don't remember seeing any car ads leading up to my purchase, but ever since buying the car (over a year ago now) my browser is littered with Ford Focus ads. It's not going to do any good to show me ads for a Focus, i already bought one. It's just a waste of your ad buy to show me more ads. Retargeting seems to be, at this point, one of those technologies t…
For my case, I always see newrelic retarget ad. I need to check newrelic everyday for work. And after that every time I watch a youtube video it shows me a newrelic ad. I am already a Pro Annual user, I can't upgrade my plan anymore. They should not retarget current user.
My company runs some of the retargeting campaigns for New Relic. I just checked our setup and they're definitely excluding people who have converted or become customers already. New Relic works with a few providers though so it's very probably one of them is machine-gunning all visitors with ads.
Personally I can't stand retargeting, if there is one turn-off I have when visiting websites it is being hounded from site to site by an ad. That signals to me to never ever buy that product. That it is 'exciting' to those in the advertising industry is a signal all by itself. Once a while ago I googled for a bit around the time I was buying a car. For weeks afterwards I got hounded by car ads for some brand. Needles…
Frankly the data shows otherwise ... from my previous work in the industry the majority of people respond well to retargeting simply because it's relevant and useful. Hell it's been working for Google for years...
As an internet user , retargeting is honestly one of my #1 targets. I find it super-creepy that some websites show me things based on other websites I visit, and I want a way to stop it.
Why? You visit say... kogan.com.au, they know what fridges you look at. That's intent to buy. You're cookied as #12412214. In the backend, that cookie ID is labeled as FridgeLover. The next website you go to that has an ad slot, when the ad call is made, your anonymized information is submitted, and if the advertiser wins the bid, the advertiser shows you ads of fridges, because the advertiser remembers that cookie I…
You seem like that lobbyist from Thank you for smoking... Sorry it's just the feeling I got.
There is a general rule of thumb that a person has to look at/interact with/be cognitively aware of an ad at least 7 times before any action can be taken. Showing ads across sites is just one more way to do that. In fact I would rather have relevant ads show up than irrelevant ads. I will admit that many companies out there do overdo their retargeting campaign though. That's what the company does that is mistaken, no…
> That's what the company does that is mistaken, not the technology The technology of low level internet surveillance in order to facilitate advertising? And you wonder why people don't like it? I worked in advertising for quite a while and no longer do, I understand why you love retargeting and why you are sad to see it go. I'm sure that you were sad to see popup blocking become mainstream as well, popups and popund…
What are you referring to when you say 3rd party cookies are evil?