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Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

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Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#121

Post by matheusmoreira »

SignalsFromBob wrote: post #109

I feel that we've done ourselves a disservice by referring to them as ad blockers rather than content blockers or, better yet, virus blockers. With malicious ads being the primary vector for compromising a person's computer, calling these tools virus blockers would not only be more accurate, but it would make it harder for sites to counter their use from a public relations point of view. Could you imagine visiting a…

Ads in general should be considered malware. They have adware and spyware components and both types of software used to be detected and removed by anti-malware software. Apparently a few lines in the terms of service nobody reads is all it takes to legitimize this abusive software. Because users have "agreed" to be subjected to malware, their use of content blockers somehow becomes immoral.

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#122

Post by matheusmoreira »

ukoki wrote: post #39
mrspeaker wrote: post #4

Great article! It's funny to finally see ad blockers go "mainstream". My dystopian-future fear is that that Web Assembly will be the end of ad blocking (and the end of a web of connected web sites). Big sites will eventually convert to essentially "a web browser inside a web browser" so they have total control over the content and how it's displayed. Then ad blocking (and other customization) will be limited to "the…

> Big sites will eventually convert to essentially "a web browser inside a web browser" so they have total control over the content and how it's displayed. This has already happened: Just look at how many websites pester you to download their mobile app or even block content unless you access from the app. From a user functionality perspective the vast majority of apps do nothing a browser can't do. But the killer fe…

> Just look at how many websites pester you to download their mobile app or even block content unless you access from the app.

Users should respond by creating an open source replacement for the official app. Surely there's a way to fool the server into thinking it's talking to the official app.

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#123

Post by SirLotsaLocks »

jakub_g wrote: post #110

I feel like the article is missing an important milestone about release of Brave browser for Android circa 2017/2018 (it's only briefly mentioned at the end). It changed the landscape on Android in my opinion: it was the first browser that was as good as Chrome (fast, same look & feel -- being a fork of Chromium -- plus regularly updated and having strong, credible technical team behind it) but also having ad blockin…

Samsungs browser also has adblock

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#125

Post by Agenttin »

throwaway55554 wrote: post #46

Websites started off with a glass storefront and an open door. You kinda had to poke your head in the door to look around to see if you wanted to go in. Then the glass storefront had some sales prices shown. Then slowly you could no longer even see the glass storefront for all the ads. Then the spinning sign men showed up to annoy. Now, there's a bouncer with a clipboard blocking you from getting in. It's mostly just…

This is a really good metaphor.

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#126

Post by SQueeeeeL »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #122
ukoki wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Big sites will eventually convert to essentially "a web browser inside a web browser" so they have total control over the content and how it's displayed. This has already happened: Just look at how many websites pester you to download their mobile app or even block content unless you access from the app. From a user functionality perspective the vast majority of apps do nothing a browser can't do. But the killer fe…

> Just look at how many websites pester you to download their mobile app or even block content unless you access from the app. Users should respond by creating an open source replacement for the official app. Surely there's a way to fool the server into thinking it's talking to the official app.

Crypto is too good, unless you have a jail broken phone

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#127

Post by nitwit005 »

postalrat wrote: post #101
jaywalk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's actually a great way to make Google penalize your site. It's explicitly against their Webmaster Guidelines: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66355

Tell that to linkedin, pinterest, and dozens of news sites.

Google does document a way to mark paywalled content and have it indexed without it being considered cloaking: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/paywall...

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#128

Post by hyperbovine »

e2le wrote: post #78
ayushgp wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit forces you to download the app now. You can scroll like 2-4 pages worth of content and then it'll pop up asking you to open in app. On every page you navigate to from within the website you'll first get a pop up asking to choose between browser and reddit app.

I'm using old.reddit.com and wasn't aware they started doing this. Reddit is turning into a dumpster fire, it's bad enough I have to use the old UI so that it doesn't burn a hole in the cpu.

> I'm using old.reddit.com

Heyo that's awesome! I feel ten years younger.

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#129

Post by phkahler »

mrspeaker wrote: post #4

Great article! It's funny to finally see ad blockers go "mainstream". My dystopian-future fear is that that Web Assembly will be the end of ad blocking (and the end of a web of connected web sites). Big sites will eventually convert to essentially "a web browser inside a web browser" so they have total control over the content and how it's displayed. Then ad blocking (and other customization) will be limited to "the…

>> My dystopian-future fear is that that Web Assembly will be the end of ad blocking

The answer to that is to disable Web Assembly, much like a lot of people disable JS. The whole idea of running other peoples code on your machine is the problem, and it baffles me that browser companies are still trying to enable more and more of this. I don't want your code running on my computer.

Re: Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson

#130

Post by tyfon »

tayo42 wrote: post #116
mrlala wrote: post #111

Who is honestly clicking on all these ads that makes advertising worthwhile? I am honestly baffled sometimes how this all works... In my 30+ years of internet usage in one form or another I have rarely, rarely, rarely ever clicked on a freakin ad. Yes, I've generally had them blocked for the most part. But when they aren't blocked, I see what the content is and why would I even want to click on one! Color me confused…

Part of me thinks theres an internet ad bubble. I think its really hard to know how much value an ad provides, so it gets handwaved as being critical to success and worth tons of money. A lot of big internet companies rely on ads or provide services to companies that provide ads or make it easier to use ads.

I work in the financial industry and even if the CAC is really high (100s of dollars) it still pales in comparison to the income we get on average from the new customers.

I don't work in marketing but even if I personally hate ads, they unfortunately work really well especially in combination with facebook/googles profile on everyone and the fact that they seem to learn who clicks a certain ad after a few days and only display it to that group.

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