The adblocking revolution is months away • Hacker News Board

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#81

Post by gwu78 » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:29 PM UTC

vilmosi wrote: post #5

The overall article is of good quality but it reeks of Apple bias I personally find distasteful. >>> User experience is what Apple puts above pretty much everything else, and they’ve decided that they don’t like it the experience available through the ad-supported web, and so they’re going to do something about it. The reason Apple does this is to push content creators away from the Web and into native apps. Apple ge…

I block "in-app" ads the same way I block "web" ads.

Most ads use the same third party DNS services which makes blocking even easier.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#82

Post by happyscrappy » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:31 PM UTC

vilmosi wrote: post #5

The overall article is of good quality but it reeks of Apple bias I personally find distasteful. >>> User experience is what Apple puts above pretty much everything else, and they’ve decided that they don’t like it the experience available through the ad-supported web, and so they’re going to do something about it. The reason Apple does this is to push content creators away from the Web and into native apps. Apple ge…

Advertisers hate iAd because it doesn't let you harvest nearly as much users data as most platforms. Advertisers can go suck a lemon as far as I am concerned. It is hard for some people to see past their own Apple hate but success speaks for itself. It doesn't hurt that the competition keeps shooting themselves in the foot.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#83

Post by hellofunk » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:32 PM UTC

tonyblundell wrote: post #53

BukhariH wrote: post #9

As expected this is going to have a negative affect on ad revenues but what people forget is that publishers won't just accept lower revenues. They're going innovate. The easiest thing to implement would be a paywall but after the paywall we are going to see a rise in microtransactions for content. That being said there are advantages to the subscription model. Maybe, publishers will stop posting click-baity headline…

The web is 20 years old. I think if this was going to happen, it would have happened by now. Outside of a few niches, people just aren't willing to pay to read websites. What I could see happening is premium content being bundled by ISPs. Pay for X package from Y ISP, get content from A, B and C websites. Kind-of like how TV channels are bundled. In all likelihood though, I think advertising will continue as is. Adve…

Before the web, it was quite standard for nearly everyone to pay for their daily newspaper. People obviously have no problem paying a little for the news. Take away quality free content, and natural human interest will lead to a successful pay model, possibly.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#84

Post by kuni-toko-tachi » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

"People are getting p*ssed off with the huge data loads pages impose without their consent"

This is an absurd statement. Users know that many sites are ad-supported. Whether they like it or not is independent of that, but consent is given by visiting them. Complaining that sites need ad revenue to support their operations is childish.

The fair solution is not ad-blocking tools, but a general browser settings that says that you do not wish to see ads at all. This information should be transmitted to the site requested so that the content provider can offer you a subscription if they provide one or to serve you a blank page that says politely to buzz off. Doing an end-run around ads is no different that sneaking into the backdoor of a venue without buying a ticket.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#85

Post by austenallred » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

dmritard96 wrote: post #60

And the Ad-network rearchetechture is probably already built. The way all of these adblockers are typically implemented is an IP/DNS Name black list where the requests to those locations are stopped short. There is a super simple solution though, those who want to leverage ads for revenue can just bundle the advertising material into the content of the page rather than including the ads via third party ajax calls. Su…

Yup. If everyone starts blocking all ads, I hope you like native ads that look and feel just like content.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#86

Post by andrepd » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:34 PM UTC

There are ad-blockers for virtually every PC browser and for Android. Why is a revolution impending because iOS 9 will have it too?

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#87

Post by wiremine » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

Some other data points to consider:

a. The AdBlock Plus team has stated, "in it's current state there are still some issues, which render Content Blocking Extensions insufficient" to use as an and blocking platform. [1]

b. Apple states that "if the rule compiler detects that a set of rules would negatively impact user experience, it refuses to load them and returns and error. [2]

So, at least in iOS 9, it doesn't seem to be a complete solution for the type of ad blockers we see on the desktop.

After reading about this, it feels like Apple isn't trying to kill the web in this version of the technology. Instead, it is warning shot across the bow, so to speak, for publishers with really crappy experiences.

[1] https://adblockplus.org/blog/content-blocking-in-safari-9-an...

[2] https://www.hackingwithswift.com/safari-content-blocking-ios... (quote is third paragraph from the bottom...)

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#88

Post by anc84 » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

forgetsusername wrote: post #45

GvS wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use adblocking on Android for years. Have you tried this? https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway

> Requires root: Yes Some of us can't be bothered.

You are missing out.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#89

Post by joeblau » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

blinkingled wrote: post #36

How long will this revolution last if content providers decide to not show content to iOS users? I mean if they exist to make money and they can't on iOS would it matter that there were hundreds of millions of them? With ad blocking it would be as if they never existed in first place. Perhaps the idea is for Apple to get the content providers to make apps so they get their cut? Perhaps it is better for the content pr…

> How long will this revolution last if content providers decide to not show content to iOS users?

It's also not just iOS. It's a feature of Safari so it would also impact desktop visits to websites as well.

Re: The adblocking revolution is months away

#90

Post by lifty » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #69

dmritard96 wrote: post #60

And the Ad-network rearchetechture is probably already built. The way all of these adblockers are typically implemented is an IP/DNS Name black list where the requests to those locations are stopped short. There is a super simple solution though, those who want to leverage ads for revenue can just bundle the advertising material into the content of the page rather than including the ads via third party ajax calls. Su…

Apparently the reason they're loaded separately in the first place is fraud detection. Bundling it into the page provides no easy way of independently verifying impressions.

Theoretically, you could shift the responsibility of displaying ads and tracking users to the publishers, with requirements to publish back to the ad networks granular information about every impression. The ad networks could then check for cheating by randomly accessing the publishing website to make sure all the requests are reported back by the publishers.