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Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

blogs.law.harvard.edu

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Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#51

Post by icebraining »

Animats wrote: post #37

The Mozilla Foundation has come out against ad blocking: "Content blocking software should focus on addressing potential user needs (such as on performance, security, and privacy) instead of blocking specific types of content (such as advertising)."[1] This is sad. Their slogan used to be "Work for mankind, not for the man". But the Mozilla Foundation is ad-funded. They currently have a deal with Yahoo to make Yahoo…

Well, as someone who doesn't earn money from ads, I'm on their side.

I agree with the arguments against ads, but I also remember what it was like to not have a CC or money to spend, and ads work as a redistribution mechanism; until someone can make a good argument why the poor won't be left out of the brave new world of paid-for content, I still won't use an ad-blocker.

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#52

Post by njitram »

From a business model perspective, the reader is not the 'customer', but the advertisers. The content is just the bait to get traffic, and then a publisher has to monetize the traffic, most of the time by using ads to divert some of the traffic to an advertiser. So a publisher has to walk a very fine line between not anoying the reader too much but at the same time still have value for the advertiser. No wonder that some publishers go (way) too far and only focus on advertisers and almost forget the reader.

Doesn't help that the ads are most of the time outside the control of the publisher, but are controlled by big advertising networks of course.

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#53

Post by krapp »

teddyh wrote: post #29
cbhl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would also lose Google, GMail, and YouTube.

You say it like it’s a bad thing.

Youtube alone hosts a vast amount of content - everything from archival footage to MIT lectures to people's cat videos, and all of it more or less free. Just because you personally dislike Google doesn't mean the world is better off without the services it provides.

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#54

Post by dogma1138 »

elorant wrote: post #46
dogma1138 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most tech-savvy users aren't the problem, ad-blockers aren't popular because some people don't want to be tracked, they are popular because most people don't like being annoyed and spammed with obnoxiously loud advertisements.

I beg to differ. Ad blocking has been around for almost a decade, AdBlock Plus was first published in 2006. But if you take a look at historical usage [1] of ad blocking technologies you’ll see that it started spiking after 2012, right when profiling was widely adopted by the digital advertising marked due to the usage of programmatic advertising. Also it’s tech related sites that are taking the biggest toll [2] (alt…

Exactly with almost no impact, only in the past 1-2 years did it became a major issue as more and more people were installing them and now with Apple and the likes actively promoting them it became a common knowledge.

As for the European part, as a European I would not agree to that statement at all most people here do not show any more insight into technical privacy than who I know in the US.

VPN is also quite common here in Europe and not for any privacy concern but because regional blocking of content is a plague here. And it's not only to access US content Europe is a nightmare when it comes to distribution rights for IP since even tho we have a unified market every country still has it's own distributors.

So if a Belgian user wants to access French content they more often than not have to use a VPN to get a French IP because otherwise no streaming for them, same goes for an Austrian or a Swiss user who wants to consume German content. And that's before going into the insanity of regional content for the likes of Netflix.

You also forget that Europe has adopted Chrome much faster than in the US because from 2010 to 2014 they had to have the browser choice menu for all versions of windows which were shipped in the EU upon installation (You can also see a short spike in IE users once that directive expired in dec 2014, presumably just to get Chrome/FF again ;)) which meant that they had the ability to install free adblockers (adblock for IE costs money, and is a shite reverse proxy).

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#55

Post by __david__ »

krapp wrote: post #22
arbitrage wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not our problem. It's the reporter's. We are not responsible for helping businesses prop up their failing revenue streams.

Arguably, you are somewhat responsible if the revenue stream is failing because you want to consume content without caring whether anyone gets compensated for it.

That's approaching from the wrong angle. I am not responsible for publishers adopting a distribution format that allows me to render their content without ads (HTML). If they can't survive in an environment where people can freely (ethically, morally, and legally) block ads [1] then that really is their problem and not mine. The web has changed the face of publishing, but the world has no obligation to keep someones revenue stream going.

[1] It really shouldn't be called "blocking" ads. It's really just choosing not to render them. When I control the rendering device (my browser), I can make it do whatever I want. Good luck showing me your video ad when I'm browsing with "links".

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#56

Post by Puts »

I think we are missing one key thing in this debate. Ads and ad-blocking is just a symptom of the fact that you cannot make money in this industry.

The only ones making money on IT are companies who's main thing is not technology, but who can utilize technology to make there business more efficient. A good example is logistic companies who have a business that's been around for ever, but smart algorithms allows them to cut costs and work more effectively. But the money it selves comes from shipping things.

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#57

Post by teddyh »

krapp wrote: post #22
arbitrage wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not our problem. It's the reporter's. We are not responsible for helping businesses prop up their failing revenue streams.

Arguably, you are somewhat responsible if the revenue stream is failing because you want to consume content without caring whether anyone gets compensated for it.

If your business model is publishing content on the Internet for free, it is not the responsibility of the readers to consume the content in a specific way to get you paid, or to come up with a way for you to get paid. You chose to publish on the Internet, without paywall. If you don’t like it, go back to not publishing.

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#58

Post by rimantas »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #25
Kenji wrote: post #7

I'll be honest, I hate all ads, regardless of how good they are. I think it's creepy and fills my mind with things I do not want it to be filled with. For me, the entire debate is silly because it's my screen -> my decision what appears. I think it barely matters how good the ads are. I've only seen one single website that did ads right (they were perfectly embedded into a mosaic pattern of site functionality, things…

>For me, the entire debate is silly because it's my screen -> my decision what appears What a silly statement. Does the same logic also apply to your TV and radio? You are visiting a site that gives you content for free in return for viewing their ads. If you don't like that contract then don't visit the site and limit your browsing to sites that adhere to your personal contract.

Does tracking and maldvertising apply to TV and radio too?

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#59

Post by __david__ »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #25
Kenji wrote: post #7

I'll be honest, I hate all ads, regardless of how good they are. I think it's creepy and fills my mind with things I do not want it to be filled with. For me, the entire debate is silly because it's my screen -> my decision what appears. I think it barely matters how good the ads are. I've only seen one single website that did ads right (they were perfectly embedded into a mosaic pattern of site functionality, things…

>For me, the entire debate is silly because it's my screen -> my decision what appears What a silly statement. Does the same logic also apply to your TV and radio? You are visiting a site that gives you content for free in return for viewing their ads. If you don't like that contract then don't visit the site and limit your browsing to sites that adhere to your personal contract.

> You are visiting a site that gives you content for free in return for viewing their ads.

No. They are giving me back some form of data than I can render however I see fit. If I want to render their HTML but skip the rendering of the ads, that's my business and not theirs.

Re: Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

#60

Post by rimantas »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #28

Ads will never go away and these ad blockers will soon become worthless if the advertising companies ever think they're a threat. There are so many easy ways to defeat ad blocking. This is why I despise Apple for trying to publicize web ad blocking while letting their ads be displayed in their little gated community. Apple is essentially ruining it for the people that do use ad blockers because we're going to reach a…

Ok, so when ad blocking was not possible on iOS it was bad, because walled garden, etc. Now, when iOS users finally have a choice it's bad again. Wonderfull logic. And nope, advertizers will not beat ad blocking.
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