You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
mastodon.technology
You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
1–10 of 318 posts
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#2If they can trigger a "video fired" message in the analytics, that's one more "Person viewed our video" they can show to a potential advertiser. That's all it's about, not the end user's experience.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#3Are there people out there that actually engage with the auto-playing videos, or the “articles you should also read” callouts forced between every other paragraph? There must be right?
I know no-one likes them, but there must be some increase in engagement somewhere that causes the marketing folks to keep pushing these things.
Personally I find it makes the articles very hard to read without reader mode. Sites owned by G/O Media (The Onion, Kotaku) are particularly egregious. On mobile you can typically only get about 20-30 words of the article on screen at any one time (that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one).
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#4If they can trigger a "video fired" message in the analytics, that's one more "Person viewed our video" they can show to a potential advertiser. That's all it's about, not the end user's experience.
+1 - duh. This is like asking people if they find the experience of stopping at a toll booth to be a pleasant part of the driving experience
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#5Most of my browsing is done on my TV via my Mac Mini connected to it.
The resolution is jack up to the lowest so I can easily see from the couch.
This is a fringe case as most people arent enjoying the Internet on their TV via a web browser and wireless mouse. Nevertheless those nuisance videos are the worst in my view on the TV ... take up the screen and there's no X button. Always just have to hit the back button quickly and not bother reading the site.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#6I'm surprised there isn't an extension for some kind of white-list only video stream content.
I too find these sites despicable. But usually, by the time the video play you've already been fighting some popup about joining, dismissed a browser native window saying this site is asking to send you notifications in the future, and GRDP @#$%^$%^& "we care about your privacy so here is a booklet about our privacy policy, in your face" with select all-of-which cookies you'd like to not, maybe (one time) receive in a game of dark patterns.
I have an outline.com bookmarklet at that point, which I click as fast as possible to get out of this mess!
javascript:window.location='https://outline.com/'%20+%20window.locationRe: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#7Not exactly the same thing but related: shout out to the excellent Vinegar extension for iOS Safari, which disables the abhorrent YouTube “play video on initial touch” behaviour that triggers play on every goddamn embedded YT video as you are simply trying to scroll down a page to read an article. Absolute lifesaver. Metaphorically speaking.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#8If they can trigger a "video fired" message in the analytics, that's one more "Person viewed our video" they can show to a potential advertiser. That's all it's about, not the end user's experience.
Often, they can also show the much more important "well-paid video ad played" event. Video ads pay much better than other ads, and I believe that those videos are often ad-ridden - we just don't notice because your ad blocker takes care of that. (I know I've seen it a couple of times, but I don't know how frequent it is because I rarely make the mistake of visiting a news site on a browser without an ad blocker.)
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#9Have you ever driven across a bridge, or along a highway and run over one of those "hit counter" cables that the Department of Transportation lays out to know how many people are driving on that bridge, or that highway?
Now imagine that the cable can reach up into your car at the exact moment that you cross over it and pull down your person and your entire life's history.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#10Are there people out there that actually engage with the auto-playing videos, or the “articles you should also read” callouts forced between every other paragraph? There must be right? I know no-one likes them, but there must be some increase in engagement somewhere that causes the marketing folks to keep pushing these things. Personally I find it makes the articles very hard to read without reader mode. Sites owned…
When it comes to chumboxes aka "articles you should also read" I could definitely see old people less experienced with the internet's scumminess falling for them at least the first few times.