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Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

plausible.io

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Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#611

Post by graftak »

thurn wrote: post #459
happybuy wrote: post #27

As a developer of an ad blocker[1] our stats would seem to back up what Plausible has found: - Despite having equivalent desktop (macOS) and mobile (iOS) apps, most of our users (> 75%) use the app primarily on desktop - Most users say the key reason for use is for privacy protection; even with Safari providing some inbuilt privacy tracking protection - Our app is focused on providing a simple 'set and forget' ad blo…

Are there any ad blockers for iOS that can block ads in google search results? Or is that kind of thing essentially impossible?

I use 1Blocker which blocks those (checked just now), I don’t see why other apps could not do the same.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#612

Post by jancsika »

eru wrote: post #438
jancsika wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our average viewer is 65 years old and watches TV while doing the dishes, we must not show things that cannot be understood by them So like, sticking only to the first and second derivative in soap opera plots about retired civil engineers? No late-period Beethoven sonatas as background music? That must be difficult for you as a German. Meanwhile, here in America we're perhaps a few years away from something like t…

Are you joking, or do you have perhaps too high an opinion of German TV?

On the one hand: yes, I am.

On the other-- we have a network that bills itself as educational and spends over a month marketing a full week of programming dedicated to propagandizing its audience to be maximally afraid of sharks.

It broadcast a wildly popular movie where a tornado full of sharks attacks a city.

German TV could be an order of magnitude worse than my parody and it still wouldn't even register on the American scale of stupidity.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#613

Post by wodenokoto »

marvion wrote: post #586
wodenokoto wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it the Simpsons or Seinfeld where in one episode one of the characters gets a Nielsen box that is used for measuring tv viewership and they can’t leave the house for fear of shows being canceled if they’re not home to watch it.

And ALF in 1987 S02E05

I want to believe that you just remembered that, like if the top of your head.

The idea that some die hard Alf fan just made they way past my post on hacker news really puts a smile on my face.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#614

Post by tempestn »

nine_k wrote: post #566
joeframbach wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"it's only 3% of our users so we don't need to test on FF" to "it's a quarter of our user base, we should at least test it" To nitpick. Starting with 3/100 FF, times 8 unaccounted for, you get 24/121, 20%.

Why 121? I suppose visitors are counted by more reliable web server logs.

If you're counting 3% Firefox usage in your analytics, that's 3 users in every 100 using FF, and 97 using other browsers. If we assume actual FF usage is 8x what's being reported, you actually have 24 FF users and 97 other users, for a total of 121.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#615

Post by tempestn »

dannyw wrote: post #357
bluGill wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your objective is to maximize ad revenue, the most obvious approach would now be to ignore Firefox completely and focus on non-FF browsers. No, your best approach is to test firefox carefully to ensure it is broken. That way you encourage people to use something more friendly to you. I hope I didn't give anyone ideas.

Dont give Google Maps and YouTube ideas. Wait...

Also Google Meet. I've noticed my webcam always comes through crystal clear in Meet on Chrome, but is reliably blurry in Firefox.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#616

Post by ponytech »

timdaub wrote: post #380
jobigoud wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They meant that "Plausible Analytics" are blocked a whole lot too.

exactly (can't edit original post anymore, sorry)

You were answering the first question not the second, totally make sense now.

Sorry for my misunderstanding.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#617

Post by tempestn »

jccalhoun wrote: post #299

I am amazed at how non-techy people use the internet. I teach college and I will sometimes have students go to some web site. I am amazed at how few use adblocking and just accept all the ads and popups and overlays and crap. Even more than that, I will see them using something like google docs and google will put an overlay for some new feature and they don't click the X to close it. They just type away with that ov…

We had to make an adjustment on our site to account for that second one. I had just assumed if you have some kind of notice that can be closed, people would close it after they'd had a chance to digest the info (or decided they didn't care, or whatever). But no, turns out the vast majority never close anything unless it's physically preventing them from using the site. (Of course the vast majority also never bother to read anything that doesn't prevent what they're trying to do either, but we already knew that.)

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#618

Post by ponytech »

marvinblum wrote: post #381
ponytech wrote: post #22

This article clearly suggests that you should use their own solution, Plausible Analytics. They are also JavaScript based, so how long before ad-blockers start blocking them too? Isn't it time to come back to server side analytics?

That's the main reason we promote the backend integration for Pirsch [0] so much. In the long run, JS will probably not be sufficient, depending on your target audience. [0] https://pirsch.io/

Thanks for mentioning Pirsch, their backend integration sounds like a modern solution.

Tools like AWStats or Webalizer are really outdated nowadays.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#619

Post by jandrese »

ryandrake wrote: post #484
bluGill wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is always the problem with data: it is reactive. Sure the average watcher is 65, and wants easy to understand stuff: that is what the data shows (I'll assume for discussion that is what the data shows, but I have no insight into if it is true or not). What the data doesn't show is if content would draw in day 25 year olds, they need several years of trying those other shows to see if it makes a difference - a ve…

Reminds me of a thread a while ago pointing out that a single show dominates the MTV programming lineup almost every day [1]. It's as if there is some algorithm running without human intervention that feeds on itself by reacting only to current viewing habits: foreach (show s in lineup) if (s.viewers > THRESHOLD) lineup.replace_with_more (s) Obviously resulting in this weird local maxima where no other shows get broa…

I don't have MTV so I had to look up what "Ridiculousness" is. Apparently they play Youtube/Tiktok/etc... clips? Sounds like it must be incredibly cheap to produce. This is what it looks like when you let a race to the bottom continue on indefinitely.

And the cable industry can't understand why people keep cutting the cord. Can you imagine shelling out $120/month to have some producers pick out Youtube clips for you?

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#620

Post by jandrese »

tehjoker wrote: post #411
sempron64 wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Predicting exactly this was the premise of the famous Netflix Prize, one of the first open machine learning challenges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

I remember my professor talking about the ensemble approach the competitors were taking in a data mining class I took. I was saddened when Netflix ended up not using it because it was too slow and expensive or something.

It didn't promote Netflix content above third party content. Not enough control for the algorithm is unacceptable for the marketing guys.
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