The Ad Blocking Controversy, Explained

Megalith

Megalith

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While Apple didn’t invent ad blocking, it almost seems that way based on all of the thought pieces that have sprung up in the wake of iOS 9 and its support for content blockers. Here’s an article that provides a little insight into how ad blocking has affected media industries and their circumvention with things like native ads.

It's a discussion that's been running for a long time, but has kicked into overdrive because of Apple's release of a new operating system for iPhones and the launch of new services like Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. And it's something you'll be hearing more and more about if you read things online, because it touches on something very near and dear to every online writer's heart — whether we can make money publishing on the internet, and the sneaking suspicion that the reasonably journalist-friendly economic climate of the past two or three years may be a mirage.
 
The problem right now is that we still use the internet for "too much."

When we get ads delivered to us on almost any site, how does that process work? We get redirected to another site that sends the ad into the page we are viewing.

There is no way this kind of thing will ever be secure or have adequate accountability.

I think the entire ad landscape would be healthier if sites had to in some form host their own ads. They will be more likely to check the content of those ads. They will be VERY shy about allowing any flash, java or other animated coded content without really trusting the provider... leading to less malware and adware. Why? Because you can point back to the site you got it from and ask, "Why did YOU host that garbage?"

That would make the ads less frequent, more relevant, less malwaare loaded and more likely to catch the attention of the audience it is targeted at.

The long term "google ads" pennies per click model won't live forever. We all already know it's a joke. Let's put it to rest and bring back having to go to specific sites if you want to advertise there.
 
From reading between the lines. Is apple wants to push native ads. By blocking the current ads it'll force more to go native which can't be blocked at all.

But even native ads I'll skip. If I start reading something that feels like an ad i'll just skip past it.
 
That's actually an interesting article. However, it ignores some basic points:

1. The internet is slow. Ads make it slower. Many people are still on POTS.

2. The internet is expensive. Many people are limited in both data and bandwidth.

3. Thanks to point 2, the consumer is paying to receive the ads.

4. Ads are a significant malware vector.

Point 3 is particularly important: unlike all other media the consumer is directly paying to see the advertisement.
 
I think he is fundamentally mistaken when he says that people block adverts because they can. People block adverts because it makes their browsing experience significantly better. We don't mind a few strategically placed adverts. We do mind having to download megabytes of images to read a few pages of text. We do mind having to watch a 30-second video advertisement before we see a 15-second video clip.
 
The problem with any advertising medium is abuse. Take TV, they started running more and more ads over the years - now the consumer has found mediums/alternatives to avoid that. The web is no different, we had popups galore at one point (an abusive tactic) and that was responded to with pop-up blockers. So the advertisers decided to get even more abusive with their ads, and now people are just blocking them altogether.

If more sites did ads like HardOCP, it wouldn't be a problem.
 
When I had unlimited internet, ads were an annoyance. I tolerated them on certain sites, but have always loathed them, especially because of malware. However the past few months I've had to live on my cell internet and the associated cap. Now I actively hate sites that use heavy ads because I'm forced to pay for them in data. It's especially problematic because I keep my browser set to load desktop site because most admins can't design a mobile site that isn't pure shit.
 
Advil said it best, ads always come from 3rd parties, which while easier for the websites to put them in and also doesn't add to their bandwidth costs, it allows the potential for exploit especially if they include some sort of java script or flash in doing so.

However it is the nature of the beast that is the internet now, even negelecting ads whenever you go to a website you can look in the bottom to see which sites are being accessed, probably at least 10 sites other than the one you're trying to look at. It's even worse when they're loaded first in which case if they don't load you get screwed.
 
Its how Ads content are delivered, if it was WAY more standardized there would be very little reason for ad-blockers.
 
Today, ad blocking for me is little to do with 'ad annoyances' as it has in the past and more to do with security. With things getting hacked left and right. Databases being dumped. Personal information being stolen. Browsing habits being tracked. I am going to do everything I can to prevent this. It is a known fact that these banner servers get hacked to deliver nasty packages of software to thousands of sites and in turn to millions of users.

A number of years ago a ton of accounts were hacked in the MMO FFXIV. A game I played. I dodged a bullet at the time because I Was using a ad blocker. Because not long after that was how people ended up with key loggers. A hijacked banner server delivering ad's to rather trusted fan sites. This sealed thoughts on adblockers. One of the first 5 things I install on my computers after a reload.

Sorry for the money loss from ad's. But security and privacy take priority.
 
Win10 is not bad, as good or slightly better than Win8.1. Edge SUX for a browser, can't stand all the ads. So I found with Win10 it is very easy to use IE11 as your default browser. With IE11 you can also use all the ad blockers you want and don't have to put up with the Edge Crapola. Now I like Win10.
 
necrosis said:
Today, ad blocking for me is little to do with 'ad annoyances' as it has in the past and more to do with security. With things getting hacked left and right. Databases being dumped. Personal information being stolen. Browsing habits being tracked. I am going to do everything I can to prevent this. It is a known fact that these banner servers get hacked to deliver nasty packages of software to thousands of sites and in turn to millions of users.

A number of years ago a ton of accounts were hacked in the MMO FFXIV. A game I played. I dodged a bullet at the time because I Was using a ad blocker. Because not long after that was how people ended up with key loggers. A hijacked banner server delivering ad's to rather trusted fan sites. This sealed thoughts on adblockers. One of the first 5 things I install on my computers after a reload.

Sorry for the money loss from ad's. But security and privacy take priority.
Click to expand...

I take it one step farther, I use no script. Don't need to block ads from loading if you strip out all the scripts from the get go. If your site uses JavaScript menus, fuck you, I don't want your content. If it breaks your site, fuck you, you have shitty coders. I'm not interested in your worthless halfassed product.
 
whiz187 said:
Win10 is not bad, as good or slightly better than Win8.1. Edge SUX for a browser, can't stand all the ads. So I found with Win10 it is very easy to use IE11 as your default browser. With IE11 you can also use all the ad blockers you want and don't have to put up with the Edge Crapola. Now I like Win10.
Click to expand...

What adblocker you use in IE11? Only one I found for IE11 was adblock and it doesn't strip ads from youtube. I use Firefox with uBlock, Privacy Bader, noscript, Avast plugin, and HTTPS everywhere. Nothing gets through my browser unless I want it to.
 
Adwords is what made me decide enough was enough, now I always use a adblocker.
 
rezerekted said:
What adblocker you use in IE11? Only one I found for IE11 was adblock and it doesn't strip ads from youtube. I use Firefox with uBlock, Privacy Bader, noscript, Avast plugin, and HTTPS everywhere. Nothing gets through my browser unless I want it to.
Click to expand...
Do you know if Ghostery works with Internet Explorer 11? Have you heard of it? I heard of it recently.
 
ccman said:
Do you know if Ghostery works with Internet Explorer 11? Have you heard of it? I heard of it recently.
Click to expand...

Ghostery is owned by an advertising company, though. I thought you should know that.

Just use noscript and you won't need an ad blocker in most cases. Request policy also helps.
 
dgz said:
Ghostery is owned by an advertising company, though. I thought you should know that.

Just use noscript and you won't need an ad blocker in most cases. Request policy also helps.
Click to expand...

I did not know that. Thanks.... just removed it.
 
We can only hope it works on Angry Birds 2. I swear it was paid for by Zuckerberg.

Most utterly useless game I've ever seen in my life.
 
Common advertising platforms also log and sell data about you -- any of it that can be collected.

As you surf the net, this connectedness of advertisements and advertising organizations result in breach of your own privacy and anonymity, although some of us already know that privacy has long gone extinct and that this is barely even touching the surface.
 
I know several sites I frequent do a annual "No Ads" fund raiser. I'm more than happy to pay them $20 a year to keep their sites ad free.
 
I would also say I have never ever ever clicked on a Web ad.

Why would I?
 
"It also doesn't exist at all on Apple's iPhones and other iOS devices, because you can't use browser extensions on Apple's mobile Safari."

Holy crap, that was the news to me in that article.
Is this the same in Android?
I use my wife nexus 6 a lot, but don't really go into any deep customization, I like it as is, plus its my wife's.. don't want to lose a finger.
 
Lol.
Who ever said we the end users have to prop your failed business strategy that's based on ads?
No one wants them.
 
Nobody seems to actually care about the real people that are getting taken for a ride in this whole thing...
The companies forking out money for their these crazy "ads" that these ad agencies / slingers claim will be so great.

I can't count how many times some hugely annoying ad has tried to cover up my web page and made me screaming mad at the company who's product it was hawking, usually leading me to make sure NOT to buy it... so the company wound up paying money to make sure I didn't buy their product.

Add to that the whole promise of "tracking what users are doing" so right after I buy said shoes I need, for the next week companies are paying extra money for "targeted" ads to sell me exactly what I'm NOT going to be buying since I just bought it!

Then if you want to plaster the same add 10 times in a row for page or each video clip I watch well, I'm pretty sure that 10 ads are going to make me less likely to buy than 1 ad is.

What influences me to by stuff?... Reviews that are fair and balanced and show all the pros and cons to a product on sites that are dedicated to said type of product, so when I go there, I am interested in those product categories already.

What would help seal the deal? Discount coupons advertised on the site or on the review in simple non-obtrusive manners that could be used on my favorite shopping sites to get said products.

While it may seem a bit odd, I think Hulu actually has an interesting thing going with their 3 tiers:
Free... but you pay for it with ads
Cheap.. but you get some ads with some things
No ads (just about)... but you pay a bit more
Then with the ads, they are at least a bit more intelligent than others. I especially like their idea of giving you a choice of what ad to watch, being able to rate the ad, and also being able to say I hate this ad, stuff it in the trash & show me something different (mid ad).

Perhaps it's time for the companies doing the advertising to embrace ad blocking / script blocking software and start embracing more intelligent ways of marketing things by supporting sites & content people want to see & then offering specials.
 
I dont mind ads placed strategically on a website (ie how hardocp does it and a few others) on a dedicated box. I don't like popups or anything I have to click through to get to the content, this is what I will adblock. Also there have been in the past many ad agencies that have distributed malicious links either unintentionally or intentionally, adblock software is a thin but yet another layer of protection for the end user.

Mobile site browsing is terrible, trying to tap on the little tiny ass (X) that they put so you accidentally click the link and it opens another browser window. My system ram is not for your usage as you please :p
 
I have no sympathy for anyone who uses audio or video ads on their webpages. I adblock those sites into the sun. If more of my bandwidth is being used by the ad than the content you have a big problem and they're distracting as hell. "Interstitial" ads are also really annoying and I generally just leave sites that use them.

I'm not even convinced that online ads actually make be buy anything. Most of the time the "targetted" ads are for something I would never buy or I buy every time I go shopping anyway. Like say Tide, I'm not buying any other brand of detergent any time soon. I'm not even buying any other kind of Tide than the liquid stuff either. The funniest ones are the ones for Mazda, because I visit Mazda-related sites because I already own a Mazda. I'm not interested in buying another any time soon and the actual car is a much better advertisement than their advertising.
 
Quartz-1 said:
That's actually an interesting article. However, it ignores some basic points:

1. The internet is slow. Ads make it slower. Many people are still on POTS.

2. The internet is expensive. Many people are limited in both data and bandwidth.

3. Thanks to point 2, the consumer is paying to receive the ads.

4. Ads are a significant malware vector.

Point 3 is particularly important: unlike all other media the consumer is directly paying to see the advertisement.
Click to expand...

Point 4 is the main reason I'm having a hard time being sympathetic. I don't have a problem with banner ads that I can view and click if I'm interested. I have a problem with pop up ads that are going to inject spyware into people's machines. Bonus points if they attempt to masquerade as some kind of critical update.
 
Darunion said:
I dont mind ads placed strategically on a website (ie how hardocp does it and a few others) on a dedicated box. I don't like popups or anything I have to click through to get to the content, this is what I will adblock. Also there have been in the past many ad agencies that have distributed malicious links either unintentionally or intentionally, adblock software is a thin but yet another layer of protection for the end user.

Mobile site browsing is terrible, trying to tap on the little tiny ass (X) that they put so you accidentally click the link and it opens another browser window. My system ram is not for your usage as you please :p
Click to expand...

This 100%. Having an adblock for certain sites is as essential as an anti-virus. I don't adblock sites like [H] that have a reasonable and fair advertising model. I will adblock sites that have pop-ups and other BS that can expose me to risk of malware.
 
Ad based revenue is dying (sorry [H] I use adblocker) and everyone hates it, the internet needs to find another way to generate revenue.
 
virtualheretic said:
Ad based revenue is dying (sorry [H] I use adblocker) and everyone hates it, the internet needs to find another way to generate revenue.
Click to expand...

Native advertising IS filling that void, and it is destroying what little is left of journalism. Even the big media companies are moving to "sponsored" news articles.

“We’ve noted for quite some time that great stories can come from anywhere, and certainly from brands,” said Michael Zimbalist, SVP of advertising products and research & development at The New York Times. “This is part of the proof point that audiences will engage with great content regardless of its provenance, provided they have a sense of where it’s coming from.”
Click to expand...

"engage" is being used as a substitute for the word "believe" here. And that's all they care about.
 
I don't mind ads. I'll click the link if I'm in the market and want to support the site. If a site is covered in ads or intrusive or anything, I'll manually go to the vendor rather than clicking the ad. If there is an autoplay video, I click out of the site without reading the content.

I don't mind some ads. When it looks like this then I'm concerned:

idiocracy-tv-620x347.jpeg
 
ccman said:
Do you know if Ghostery works with Internet Explorer 11? Have you heard of it? I heard of it recently.
Click to expand...

Used to use Ghostery in FF but have never seen it for IE. Privacy Badger is better than Ghostery and is what I use in FF now.
 
I now use the AdBlock browser as standard on my phone. I don't browse very often on my phone as its a crappy experience no matter what phone you use IMO but I don't need distraction when I do.

I also use this Hosts file on my PCs -

http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/
 
One thing I have noticed since I've been running that Hosts file is there is a lot less web junk to clean up after a months or two of use.
 
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