Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo

agnos.is Forums

  1. Home
  2. Technology
  3. Adblockers stop publishers serving ads to (or even seeing) 1bn web users - Press Gazette

Adblockers stop publishers serving ads to (or even seeing) 1bn web users - Press Gazette

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Technology
technology
339 Posts 199 Posters 0 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • V [email protected]

    I don't mind the old system of one or two ads on a page or a 10-second ad at the start of a YouTube video if they don't track their users. But these days it is growing out of proportions, we are almost at American television with the amount of ad breaks in a YouTube video, and it's absurd.

    A This user is from outside of this forum
    A This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote last edited by
    #123

    There are also market effects on what type of content is produced / profitable to advertise on.

    And mostly unknown psychological effects of advertising on the human mind. Maybe advertising has altered your mind so much that you "don't even mind" it any more. It is a brainwashing technique after all haha. Maybe all those youtube ads made about 5% of the people's brain soft enough to vote for MAGA. Maybe the effect of advertising is as bad as lead in gasoline.

    V 1 Reply Last reply
    2
    • 1984@lemmy.today1 [email protected]

      They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

      Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

      G This user is from outside of this forum
      G This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote last edited by
      #124

      Seeing static banner ads on 2000s websites without popups or tracking: ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

      Blocking ads on Firefox after popups and other crap started: ๐Ÿ˜€

      Browsing the internet on Android before I realised the browser supports addons: ๐Ÿคฎ

      Blocking ads and tracking on Android via uBlock origin and Privacy Badger: ๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ‘

      My feeling of guilt when scummy megacorporations miss out on ad revenue:

      M B W 3 Replies Last reply
      9
      • 1984@lemmy.today1 [email protected]

        They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

        Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

        G This user is from outside of this forum
        G This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote last edited by
        #125

        They got it the wrong way around. Visitors who use adblock are not "dark traffic", the bullshit scripts and tracking they use are dark. The adblock users are actually the only clean traffic. The adblockers aren't "brutal", the people without blockers are being brutalized.

        S 1 Reply Last reply
        40
        • paulcdb@lemmy.worldP [email protected]

          [rant]
          The Internet is not FREE. Its just free at the point of use!

          Just like ad funded websites arenโ€™t free to use, they are also just free at the point of use!

          People seem to forget where the all this โ€˜ad moneyโ€™ comes from. Itโ€™s not growing on magic money trees, itโ€™s coming from every product you buy and itโ€™ll be interesting to see how much products have gone up against the sheer amount of ads that are shovelled everywhere now.

          The reason the internet used to be great was because people shared information with no expectation of monetary gain. Just the love of what they knew and the joy of sharing information.

          So the sooner everyone realises youโ€™re all paying for the ads on every product/service to be shown already, and blocking them actually saves you money because the more ads that are shown, the more websites get paid, the more ad/tracking companies charge companies and yes, the more expensive youโ€™re product and services get!
          [/rant]

          J This user is from outside of this forum
          J This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote last edited by
          #126

          I don't mean free from operating costs. I mean free for the person using it to experience it how they choose.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • V [email protected]

            I don't mind the old system of one or two ads on a page or a 10-second ad at the start of a YouTube video if they don't track their users. But these days it is growing out of proportions, we are almost at American television with the amount of ad breaks in a YouTube video, and it's absurd.

            A This user is from outside of this forum
            A This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote last edited by
            #127

            SmartTube is so much better. Even the UI is intuitive and makes sense. You can hide shorts, actually find content you want to watch.

            V 1 Reply Last reply
            2
            • blackmist@feddit.ukB [email protected]

              Ad BwOcKeRs ArE StEaLiNg FwOm Us!!!!

              Meanwhile Google, Amazon, Facebook, and a billion AI web crawlers can hammer the fuck out of of your site and nobody cares.

              1984@lemmy.today1 This user is from outside of this forum
              1984@lemmy.today1 This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote last edited by [email protected]
              #128

              The larger problem that is not discussed so much is the amount of Ai generated garbage that is put on the web now.

              When these Ai web crawlers start to read that Ai garbage as source data, the models will start to become worse and worse, and as a result, our Ai clients will start to get worse and worse.

              I dont think there is a way for the crawlers to understand what is Ai generated fluff and crap. The reasons the Ai responses are so good now is because people actually posted these solutions on the web. What happens when Ai crap overflows the web so much that good answers are drowned out?

              Also, no ads in chat gpt yet. Thats going to change and it will become impossible to block those.

              T 1 Reply Last reply
              7
              • H [email protected]

                It's far far worse than American TV. TV commercials are a scattershot hope that you show the ad to 2 million people and 10,000 see it and buy your product.

                With Google fingerprint tracking, advertisers are selling hyper-targeted ads so a company buys only ads to show to the right 10,000 people over and over. It's a literal dream for advertisers. But it's a fucking dystopian nightmare for us.

                S This user is from outside of this forum
                S This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote last edited by
                #129

                What's become really disturbing in the past ten or so years is how they've applied ML to the targeting. Used to be it was just basic keywords and demographic stuff. Now the big platforms put your entire last decades' worth of history (often both web browsing and social media) through a bunch of filters and spot that people who are like you are more likely to buy this product or join this website.

                The reason why it's fucked up is that "people who are like you" could mean things like anorexia, or addiction problems, or the kind of relationship trouble that makes you a soft target for incel indoctrination, or a bunch of other protected vulnerabilities that would get a company sued through the floor if they actually did it up front. But because it's all just a bunch of untagged probability distributions in a black box, it's impossible to "prove" that you deliberately and knowingly targeted a gambling addict to push a high interest credit card, or a recovering alcoholic with booze, even though that's exactly what happened inside the bundle of weights.

                1 Reply Last reply
                2
                • N [email protected]

                  Advertising needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking.

                  It arbitrary pollutes any environment itโ€™s conducted in, and causes secondary harms to non-participants by incentivising insecure hoarding of private information with the intent to better target individuals.

                  E This user is from outside of this forum
                  E This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote last edited by
                  #130

                  While I definitely agree that most advertising these days is terrible, I do wonder how it should be done. How would you market a product you made? I genuinely want to know what you find acceptable.

                  Say that you invent a new type of ladder that is much more stable than normal ones, or maybe you start 3D printing a very cool figurine that you've designed. In either case, you realize you have a product that some people will probably want to buy, if only they knew about it.

                  You probably won't go to an ad network, I wouldn't. But do you make a post about it on Lemmy? That's advertising. Do you tell your friends about it? Most of them probably don't need a ladder, but maybe a couple would buy your figurine, though that is unlikely to be enough to kickstart your 3D design company.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • G [email protected]

                    Seeing static banner ads on 2000s websites without popups or tracking: ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

                    Blocking ads on Firefox after popups and other crap started: ๐Ÿ˜€

                    Browsing the internet on Android before I realised the browser supports addons: ๐Ÿคฎ

                    Blocking ads and tracking on Android via uBlock origin and Privacy Badger: ๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ‘

                    My feeling of guilt when scummy megacorporations miss out on ad revenue:

                    M This user is from outside of this forum
                    M This user is from outside of this forum
                    [email protected]
                    wrote last edited by
                    #131

                    My feeling of guilt when scummy megacorporations miss out on ad revenue:

                    ๐Ÿ˜›

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    1
                    • A [email protected]

                      There are also market effects on what type of content is produced / profitable to advertise on.

                      And mostly unknown psychological effects of advertising on the human mind. Maybe advertising has altered your mind so much that you "don't even mind" it any more. It is a brainwashing technique after all haha. Maybe all those youtube ads made about 5% of the people's brain soft enough to vote for MAGA. Maybe the effect of advertising is as bad as lead in gasoline.

                      V This user is from outside of this forum
                      V This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote last edited by
                      #132

                      There is nothing like a free lunch.

                      You either have to directly pay for something or indirectly pay for it by selling your time or data.

                      Companies need to get their name out there and in the past you did that with a banner on your building, a space in the phone book and maybe your name on the side of the vans. Now we live in the digital world and we use digital advertisement. Heck a lot of companies sponsor certain event including charity events.

                      If we would totally remove advertisement, your local mom-and-pop shops will get more traffic, but in a lot of countries they would have basically a monopoly unless another competitor exists in the same region.

                      I don't really mind watching a bit of advertisement on something like a YouTube video or a banner ad on a site. Heck, buildings or vans with logos etc are fine as well in my opinion. My issue is more with the tracking and some forced advertisement (putting your logo on my clothing, vehicle etc).

                      J A 2 Replies Last reply
                      0
                      • N [email protected]

                        Advertising needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking.

                        It arbitrary pollutes any environment itโ€™s conducted in, and causes secondary harms to non-participants by incentivising insecure hoarding of private information with the intent to better target individuals.

                        R This user is from outside of this forum
                        R This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote last edited by
                        #133

                        I'm sorry to tell you but smoking is completely socially accepted.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • 1984@lemmy.today1 [email protected]

                          They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

                          Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

                          M This user is from outside of this forum
                          M This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote last edited by [email protected]
                          #134

                          And the good old guilt tripping at the end, with the usual "quality content".

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • A [email protected]

                            SmartTube is so much better. Even the UI is intuitive and makes sense. You can hide shorts, actually find content you want to watch.

                            V This user is from outside of this forum
                            V This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote last edited by
                            #135

                            Sadly I don't believe I can use SmartTube. I was really limited in options for my TV box due to regional reasons and Googling blocking way more surrounding casting than Apple with airplay

                            A 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • 1984@lemmy.today1 [email protected]

                              They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

                              Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

                              S This user is from outside of this forum
                              S This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote last edited by
                              #136

                              We should bring back paying to read a newspaper, magazine, (pc-magazine :P)

                              Get the hell out with AI slop and constant dark marketing

                              Let the idiots live on Instagram and don't depend on their 'content'

                              1984@lemmy.today1 S 2 Replies Last reply
                              2
                              • S [email protected]

                                We should bring back paying to read a newspaper, magazine, (pc-magazine :P)

                                Get the hell out with AI slop and constant dark marketing

                                Let the idiots live on Instagram and don't depend on their 'content'

                                1984@lemmy.today1 This user is from outside of this forum
                                1984@lemmy.today1 This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote last edited by
                                #137

                                Would love to but a lot of them have shut down now since people didnt buy them.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                2
                                • V [email protected]

                                  Sadly I don't believe I can use SmartTube. I was really limited in options for my TV box due to regional reasons and Googling blocking way more surrounding casting than Apple with airplay

                                  A This user is from outside of this forum
                                  A This user is from outside of this forum
                                  [email protected]
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #138

                                  What device? FireTV/Firestick/etc all support it (surprisingly).

                                  V 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • ulrich@feddit.orgU [email protected]

                                    I actually agree with that but the only other solution is subject yourself to deeply concerning levels of surveillance, not to mention surveillance pricing.

                                    I use AdNauseum and they have a toggle for privacy-conscious ads and I leave that on. That's my best compromise.

                                    L This user is from outside of this forum
                                    L This user is from outside of this forum
                                    [email protected]
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #139

                                    All ad networks, even the less intrusive ones, can be abused to distribute malware. In this day and age not having an ad blocker is like rawdogging internet strangers.

                                    ulrich@feddit.orgU 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • G [email protected]

                                      They got it the wrong way around. Visitors who use adblock are not "dark traffic", the bullshit scripts and tracking they use are dark. The adblock users are actually the only clean traffic. The adblockers aren't "brutal", the people without blockers are being brutalized.

                                      S This user is from outside of this forum
                                      S This user is from outside of this forum
                                      [email protected]
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #140

                                      "dark" as in "not visible". Adblock users can't be tracked (or at least not as easily), hence they are not visible to the ad companies. "Dark", in this instance, is not a derogatory term.

                                      "Brutal" is, though. So I totally agree with you there. Ads are the brutal thing nowadays.

                                      B G 2 Replies Last reply
                                      12
                                      • S [email protected]

                                        We should bring back paying to read a newspaper, magazine, (pc-magazine :P)

                                        Get the hell out with AI slop and constant dark marketing

                                        Let the idiots live on Instagram and don't depend on their 'content'

                                        S This user is from outside of this forum
                                        S This user is from outside of this forum
                                        [email protected]
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #141

                                        We should bring back paying to read a newspaper, magazine, (pc-magazine :P)

                                        You are probably not wrong, and we should be paying for a lot more things, but the genie is out of the bottle for many things here and it's difficult to roll that back.

                                        For example, newspaper reading habits have changed a lot. Before the internet, you'd usually stick with one newspaper and that's it. Maybe two if you have too much money. You buy your newspaper and you read it front to back, probably even the topics you don't particularly care about.

                                        Now it's often the other way round. Most people read news from quite a few sources (or often just follow links on social media and don't really even care for the publisher), but they don't read their news from virtual cover to virtual cover. Instead, they stick to the topics they care for, or maybe even read about the same thing in multiple publications, comparing what they have to say about it.

                                        For this kind of newspaper reading, current forms of monetarisation don't really work. Most newspapers only offer subscriptions to the whole newspaper, often in the range of โ‚ฌ5-15 per month. So if I were to pay for the ~20 newspapers that I read news from at least semi-frequently, that's โ‚ฌ200-600 per month. No way I can or want to afford that.

                                        Some allow you to pay per article, but that is usually pretty expensive too (โ‚ฌ1-3 per article) and also I need to register to every single newspaper. That's not great either.

                                        What I'd really like to see would be a industry-wide subscription. For example, I pay โ‚ฌ10 per month and that allows me to read 100 articles per month across all newspapers. That would be really nice.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        3
                                        • R [email protected]

                                          I mean, basically yes? Do you think most people ever touched the addons button?

                                          vanilla_puddinfudge@infosec.pubV This user is from outside of this forum
                                          vanilla_puddinfudge@infosec.pubV This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote last edited by [email protected]
                                          #142

                                          You think most people open settings or hamburger menus? You're more optimistic than I am.

                                          These days the average caveman is used by his phone, not the other way around.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups