Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by scarejunba » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 4:33 AM UTC

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…

Lots of people. I'm responsible for a few hundred dollars of consumption from my Instagram ads for festival gear.

We send each other concert ads over Insta far too often for it not to be effective.

Either way, though, neither of our experiences tell the whole story. The truth is in the metrics and I used to be in the ad tech industry. The metrics are solid. Especially on the guys who own the platform: Google w/ search and Facebook which just attracts users like nothing else on its properties.

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

#212

Post by Causality1 » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 5:30 AM UTC

I personally think we're nearing the end of a golden age where sites can support themselves through advertisements that 90 percent of users see while we, the nerds, are able to easily block almost all the ads. The more widespread blockers become, the more incentive there is to create unblockable ads, e.g., YouTube inserting a video ad directly into the video stream so that even if you had some kind of content-aware AI blocker running you still wouldn't be able to continue your video until the ad is over and the unedited stream resumes.

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

#213

Post by bananamerica » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 5:49 AM UTC

bambax wrote: post #51

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…

Many websites indeed pester us to download their mobile app but I have yet to find one that forces me to? Do they actually exist?

Quora

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

#214

Post by notriddle » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:01 AM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #77

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…

Android + Magisk + AdAway

Or use Firefox Preview and uBlock Origin.

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

#215

Post by notriddle » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:02 AM UTC

kevingadd wrote: post #201

thekyle wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like if you replace WebAssembly with JavaScript in this comment it makes just as much sense. What is different about WebAssembly?

WebAssembly adds new functionality to the browser runtime environment that isn't available to regular JavaScript. It was originally 1:1 with asm.js/JS but that stopped being true relatively quick.

It's faster. That's literally it. There aren't any new I/O facilities.

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

#216

Post by lottin » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:41 AM UTC

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…

I think it's better to just be open about it. I don't like ads so I block them with an ad-blocker. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't have a moral obligation to waste my time watching things that don't interest me or being manipulated in a way that is detrimental to my psychological and material well-being.

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

#217

Post by asdff » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:44 AM UTC

wespiser_2018 wrote: post #135

There is a great paper on the arms race between Ads and Ad Blockers out of a group in Princeton. They propose a perceptual ad-blocking scheme where ads are always rendered in a DOM, but elements only displayed to the if they are not "ad like". This is makes it much easier to evade ad-block detectors, since your browser appears as if it does not have an ad-blocker! https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~arvindn/publications/ad…

The alternative to the arms race is to stop having browser extensions. In a browser like chrome made by an advertising company with 80% of the browser market last I checked, the results could be devastating for the vast majority of internet users. We nerds will always be fine.

Mobile will of course fare far worse unless you root your device, for ios and android. Can't wait for the inevitable day where the unskippable 10 min youtube ad pauses if I look away from the screen...

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

#218

Post by asdff » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:46 AM UTC

kemotep wrote: post #24

jsjddbbwj wrote: post #2

I miss the days when barely anybody blocked ads. Those of us who did didn't have to worry with defeating anti ad block systems.

Before I used an ad blocker I encountered a lot of malvertisting[0]. Now that I use an ad blocker and set it them up for friends and family random virus attacks, bluescreens, and other types of issues are a thing of the past. I understand not all advertising agencies are responsible for this behavior but when these types of attacks can occur on mainstream websites such as Forbes[1], I frankly cannot trust any ad netw…

I'd take the little minigame ads that gave you a virus over the blatant propaganda that appears today, to be honest.

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

#219

Post by asdff » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:47 AM UTC

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #3

jsjddbbwj wrote: post #2

I miss the days when barely anybody blocked ads. Those of us who did didn't have to worry with defeating anti ad block systems.

uBlock Origin is shockingly competent at defeating those "please turn off your adblocker" warnings.

Sometimes it breaks a site and needs fine tuning of the settings, but its easy enough, and I've never found an ad or paywall or cookie popup or anything that I couldn't zap away.

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

#220

Post by asdff » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 6:52 AM UTC

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 think there is just a sub population where ads are truly effective. Look at all the blatant misinformation that gets shared around sites like facebook.

Even before social media and the intrusion of internet use in our lives, people were buying enough crap off of QVC to keep that show on the air (and still are).