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Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

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Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#71

Post by userbinator »

s_q_b wrote: post #24
akersten wrote: post #4

Shame that I automatically convert all ads to nonexistance. It's too little, too late for rich media/content-heavy ads. Especially in the mobile sector: * Ads are a performance burden on low-power devices * They consume extra battery; power is wasted on superfluous cruft * Bandwidth wasted; especially a concern given draconian data caps * Tracking and privacy concerns Not to mention the fact that ads are a primary at…

Like you, I don't mind ads per se. I even feel badly blocking them, knowing that I'm depriving a content creator of revenue. But the issues you point out are the very reason I can't have them in my browser. I used a computer without AdBlock the other day, and it was like stepping back into 1999 with every page saturated with the 21st century equivalent of animated GIFs and auto-play MIDIs. An alternative ad network i…

there will come a day when ads are simply too intrusive, and ad blocking will go (even more) completely mainstream.

That is, if the war on general-purpose computing doesn't eventually make it nearly impossible to perform any form of adblocking...

Currently, the most popular form of adblock is probably a browser extension. Browser vendors are seeing extensions as a possible vector for malware (which is true) and the trend seems to be for enforced signing. This gives them control over what extensions they'll accept, which also gives them the power to prevent adblocking extensions. It isn't happening now but I wouldn't be surprised if it does in the future. On the desktop there are ways around this but they are far more involved than they used to be. The situation on mobile devices is worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7237725

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9061592

Another form is a filtering proxy. Admuncher, AdSubtract, Proxomitron, Proximodo, Privoxy, etc. These were quite popular around the turn of the millenium... The downside is that setting one up to filter SSL correctly is a pain (for the ones that do support it) and now, thanks to Superfish, the general public probably has a fear of all things MITM, user-controlled or otherwise. On a mobile device it's rather difficult to install and manage one, so hosting it remotely is better, but probably most reliable way to block ads there.

A HOSTS file is another way. It works for blocking ad-CDNs quite effectively, but otherwise is very coarse-grained (easily defeated by ads hosted on same domains as non-ads.) Easy to use for desktop; will likely need to be done through DHCP/DNS server for mobile.

As much as I advocate adblocking, I only do it to the ads that are truly giving me a hard time. Tasteful static images and text-only ads don't really bother me at all. It's the annoyingly distracting animated, page-obscuring, misleading, screaming, user-tracking ones that get killed.

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#73

Post by thisjustinm »

We dove into this at work (where we make a lot of flash and HTML ads) and it took a 40k flash ad and made it into a 100k HTML add that also required the nearly 500k swiffly.js file to run.

So it's a start but it's not magic nor replacement for a competent human just yet.

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#74

Post by ssharp »

ROFISH wrote: post #54
s_q_b wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating. Inefficiency, to me, is opportunity (even if it can't always be leveraged.) A fundamentally different ad network is an idea I've been kicking around for a while. Perhaps I should get more serious. Do you know any resources, or any technical information about how people get started in this space? @ROFISH: Absolutely a hustle business, but the more experienced I get the more I think that applies to 99.99%…

The opportunity is more in the network than the tech. For something like this to work, you have to convince both site owners and advertisers to use your network. (Not that it's a bad idea, but it's like 97% hussle and 3% tech problem.)

I think the "easy" way to shove yourself into the market would be to tackle a niche, so you can specifically target both the advertisers and the publishers that have an audience that would engage with those advertisers. So if you decide to choose, say, online tackle shops on the advertiser side, you'd target fishing blogs on the publisher side. That way you're pretty focused on a niche and don't have to solve difficult ad matchup/inventory problems early on.

The bonus is that if you figure out how to make publishers and advertisers money, you're going to make a lot as well :)

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#75

Post by dredmorbius »

s_q_b wrote: post #70
dredmorbius wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've concluded that Gresham's Law is among the universals in economics. It joins a very few others, including the Law of Diminishing Returns and the Jevons Paradox.

What's the relevance of Gresham's Law here? Not criticizing, just genuinely curious.

The viscous cycle element.

Grisham's Law, generally, is a "bad foo drives out good foo", more specifically, when the costs of distinguishing good foo from bad foo are high, or when the market doesn't recognize a distinction between the two.

It was coined (so to speak) as an observation that "bad" (e.g., debased) currency drives out "good" (high-specie) currency. It shows up in Akerloff's "The Market for Lemons" and many other places. I've made something of a hobby of collecting references.

For more: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2h63fp/is_gres...

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#76

Post by cheepin »

wutbrodo wrote: post #25
Zirro wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not most of them, in my experience. Most seem to rely on the initial purchase price only, and many of those that used to have ads have switched to in-app purchases. While I could not tell you for sure why this is, several statistics indicate that iOS users have more money to spend and piracy is much less frequent. Ads also have a tendency to disrupt the "experience" of using an app which may be more discouraged on Ap…

I would've thought on HN of all places that one wouldn't have to explain how silly it is to make conclusions based on incredibly anecdotal experience (particularly when more robust statistics are a quick Google away). "According to Distimo App Analytics, the mobile apps with higher gross earnings in both the Apple iTunes App Store and Google Play Store use freemium monetization methods.In October 2014, nine of the to…

Interestingly, these freemium games rely heavily on traditional television advertising.

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#77

Post by sebastianavina »

userbinator wrote: post #63
bane wrote: post #23

Almost 1500 days ago I made this prediction https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2300123 "(I can't wait for my quad core computer to grind to a halt with dozens of unblockable canvas advertisements wallpapering every website I go to from now on...sigh, the end is near" The death of Flash doesn't necessarily mean a better world.

Indeed, converting Flash ads into HTML means they can be far more subtly integrated into the page in a way that makes them much harder to separate out and block. With Flash, there was just one thing to block and most of the ads would be gone. I have a feeling that the trend towards client-side rendering and single-page apps is partly driven by this too; when the JS for displaying ads is part of the JS for the app's c…

I browse with javascript disabled, at first I thought, most websites would be unusable, but I barely feel the difference on most sites.

Bonus: Pages load way faster.

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#78

Post by s_q_b »

dredmorbius wrote: post #75
s_q_b wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the relevance of Gresham's Law here? Not criticizing, just genuinely curious.

The viscous cycle element. Grisham's Law, generally, is a "bad foo drives out good foo", more specifically, when the costs of distinguishing good foo from bad foo are high, or when the market doesn't recognize a distinction between the two. It was coined (so to speak) as an observation that "bad" (e.g., debased) currency drives out "good" (high-specie) currency. It shows up in Akerloff's "The Market for Lemons" and m…

>...when the costs of distinguishing good foo from bad foo are high...

Ah, there's the part I was missing. I didn't think of it beyond government regulation. Interesting insight.

Re: Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5

#80

Post by dredmorbius »

s_q_b wrote: post #78
dredmorbius wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The viscous cycle element. Grisham's Law, generally, is a "bad foo drives out good foo", more specifically, when the costs of distinguishing good foo from bad foo are high, or when the market doesn't recognize a distinction between the two. It was coined (so to speak) as an observation that "bad" (e.g., debased) currency drives out "good" (high-specie) currency. It shows up in Akerloff's "The Market for Lemons" and m…

> ...when the costs of distinguishing good foo from bad foo are high... Ah, there's the part I was missing. I didn't think of it beyond government regulation. Interesting insight.

It seems to arise out of several possible factors.

In the case of money, it's the statutory definition of value. Since specie has value independent of the nominal value (though usually below nominal, hence, seigniorage), where there's a positive, valuable metals are hoarded.

In most of the other instances noted, value determination is by other means, some set by market, some by difficulty in full value assessment.

But in all cases there's an informational asymmetry, where the party who's aware of the true value of a good (or service) may choose to act in ways which maximize benefits (or minimize losses) that are both 1) not fully captured in market value and 2) aren't accessible to the counterparty.

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