Advertising Execs Diss Ad Blockers

[Red Squirrel]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/09/22/forbes-website-served-malware/

Just trust them. If it happens again they will shut it down eventually.


http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/08/you-say-advertising-i-say-block-that-malware/

Yep heard of that, pretty hilarious, actually.

I don't even bother with that site anymore. I'm not going to go out of my way to disable security stuff just to read an article. That's the kicker too... a freaking article. There should not be so much javascript bullshit on a site that is suppose to be mostly text but yet news sites are some of the worse for that stuff.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Now if only there's a Chrome extension to autoblock known dumbshit clickbait sources like Outbrain and Taboola. My IQ drops a point everytime I glance at them.

Most of the anti-adblock whiners don't have produce good original content anyway so they can die for all I care. There's already enough garbage on the web as it is.

Custom filter in ABP

||taboolasyndication.com^$third-party

Most of that crap is gone.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Yep heard of that, pretty hilarious, actually.

I don't even bother with that site anymore. I'm not going to go out of my way to disable security stuff just to read an article. That's the kicker too... a freaking article. There should not be so much javascript bullshit on a site that is suppose to be mostly text but yet news sites are some of the worse for that stuff.

Not related to ads, but here is a great article about ever-bloating size of webpages even for those that are supposedly content light, which is increasingly becoming a major PITA for those on capacity-limited Internet connections. One of the examples: 18 bloody MB for only a single page?

http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

Custom filter in ABP

||taboolasyndication.com^$third-party

Most of that crap is gone.

Woo, thanks!

 

[bononos]

Android is still a headache for blocking ads. Only FF supports plugins. Chrome-android (and all other browsers based on Chromium) doesn't.

Apple made it possible to install ad blocking plugins last year on IOS9 I think.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Not related to ads, but here is a great article about ever-bloating size of webpages even for those that are supposedly content light, which is increasingly becoming a major PITA for those on capacity-limited Internet connections. One of the examples: 18 bloody MB for only a single page?

http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

Wow that article is dead on and is pretty much my feeling on the subject. Also quite humorous remarks.

Interesting info too such as how complex the whole ad networks have become and how there are so many of them. Had no idea it was THAT bad. These are all companies that are also collecting tons of info on us, just by loading web sites without an ad blocker.

And I totally agree with going back to dumb ads. In fact it's something I've thought about when I redesign my website one of these days. I'm just going to run my own internal ad network. No more adsense.... considering I block that stuff I feel kinda hypocrite for even having it on my site.

Interestingly I decided to check how big my site was, just the first page.

http://www.iceteks.com - 784KB with ads not blocked (compared to the multiples of MB in some "newer" sites)
With ads blocked: 142KB.
Load another page: 26KB (without clearing cache - most of the file size of the first load was layout graphics)

Not to blow my own whistle or whatever the saying is, but my site which that I have not updated in almost a decade is better than most of today's sites of similar content style (mostly text).

 

[Eug]

Apple made it possible to install ad blocking plugins last year on IOS9 I think.

They did. And then one of the developers of the two most popular ad blockers pulled his ad blocker because he felt guilty he was cheating his fellow developers out of ad revenue.

Also the ad blockers actually slowed down my iPad, and of course, certain pages wouldn't work with them. It was a pain having to whitelist, and the rendering slowdowns sealed the deal. I stopped using them.

They're probably better now, but I haven't checked.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Mobile is getting bad for ads too. I just noticed recently that I started getting FULL SCREEN ads on Android. When I close the app, or hit back, boom, full screen ad. I don't know if it's some kind of spyware I picked up, or if it's really what things are coming to, but I'll have to figure out something to do about it. Probably going to look into blocking that stuff at the router level. Heck, may even be able to run without adblock software on all browsers/systems if I come up with a good source of bad ad servers, and have the DNS auto update from that list.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Android is still a headache for blocking ads. Only FF supports plugins. Chrome-android (and all other browsers based on Chromium) doesn't.

Apple made it possible to install ad blocking plugins last year on IOS9 I think.

Yeah, last night i installed it for firefox on my android tablet.
It works great and you can disable it easily when really needed.
I have not tested how configurable it is.
https://adblockplus.org/


Fun thing is that there is now an adblock plus browser for android as well.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.adblockplus.browser&hl=en

 

[lxskllr]

Not related to ads, but here is a great article about ever-bloating size of webpages even for those that are supposedly content light, which is increasingly becoming a major PITA for those on capacity-limited Internet connections. One of the examples: 18 bloody MB for only a single page?

http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

Excellent article :^)

 

[1sikbITCH]

I'm sure all you guys would have no problem paying subscription fees to your favorite websites....

That is between you and your website provider. This ad man's opinion is of no consequence.

 

[1sikbITCH]

which ESSENTIAL websites are doing these unsavory things? it's like saying, I don't like the potholes on this street, so I'm not gonna pay this toll. when there are a million different roads, the reasonable and fair decision is to say "I'll take a different street"

If you live somewhere with lots of potholes you buy a vehicle that can handle it and get you where you need to go.
When I go to a website loaded with potholes my browser gets me through whatever traps the ad companies have laid out.
Same as when you run into Sandpaper Sally you still hit that shit you just make sure you brought a couple extra rubbers and some disinfectant.

 

[lxskllr]

Sandpaper Sally

:^D

 

[IBMJunkman]

Now that iOS allows blocking software I use the AdBlocker add-in.

I use Ghostery with all 3 browsers on my PC. On the PC I also use the HOSTS from http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

I love seeing white squares on many sites that have text saying it could reach the server. It is a small pain because the ads at the top of a Google search page are also blocked but most times a similar link is below that is not from an ad server.

 

[destrekor]

They got greedy and let ad networks devolve into spyware infested, music blaring, plugin consuming garbage. I have no sympathy.

This, definitely this.

I don't always block ads, not on sides that are reasonable and careful about what ad networks they utilize. But many have a lot of crap.

Plus, a lot of free services online aren't only directly profiting from simple ad revenue, but from data mining. Both the sites and the ad networks data mine for more scoop on the users. I actively participate in some of that, because it can be down right useful, but I also call the shots and disengage when I feel what I view need not contribute to my profile. Serving up ads is one thing, and I understand why services do it, but when they also actively participate in the ad-analytic network services, that's not always kosher.

And more than anything else, it's the junk ads that are so common out there. All these auto-play videos and interactive ads need to die - they waste bandwidth, platform resources, and just ruin the site experience.

 

[MtnMan]

I have run Adblock plus for a long time. When I find myself on a computer without any adblocker, I ask myself, "how the hell do people put up with all this crap"

 

[Linux23]

Truthfully im just going to update my host file on my Android phone so that when I'm out of my Wi-Fi range I can browse ad free as well

 

[destrekor]

Custom filter in ABP

||taboolasyndication.com^$third-party

Most of that crap is gone.

Now to figure out how to make that work in Adguard Adblocker. I've grown to like it so much more than ABP.

 

[SunnyD]

which ESSENTIAL websites are doing these unsavory things? it's like saying, I don't like the potholes on this street, so I'm not gonna pay this toll. when there are a million different roads, the reasonable and fair decision is to say "I'll take a different street"

There's no such thing as an "essential" website. Only the websites that a given individual goes to on a regular basis.

Your analogy is a bit off anyway. It's more akin to you driving down the street and getting stopped every 10 feet by a random person flagging you down, opening your door and getting in demanding you take him for a ride while he paws through your glovebox and wallet as they sit on the phone describing every last detail about you to some entity. Oh, and they just so happen to be wearing a T-Shirt advertising local singles hookups or a web hosting service.

Using an ad blocker is simply ensure that the doors on my car are locked and that I'm paying attention to the road.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

They got greedy and let ad networks devolve into spyware infested, music blaring, plugin consuming garbage. I have no sympathy.

Honestly, had they not allowed the advertising get to the animated, music filled bullshit that it did, I wouldnt have cared as much about finding a way to block their ads, they made their bed so let them lie in it.

Same with TV, it wasnt enough to have 18 minutes of a show and 12 minutes of ads, but then they started having shit pop up during the show and sped up credits and then finally sped up and shrank the credits box just so they could have more ads. This alone is a large portion why i dont give a shit about TV or advertisers.

 

[LPCTech]

I cant imagine the balls of these people.

We are mad at the adblock company for letting you block our ads.

Lol F. U.

and then the ads that try to go around it. DO the IDIOT ad makers not realize that if you try to circumvent my adblocker im not going to reward you by clicking on the ad or going to the site or buying anything. Im going to MAKE SURE i NEVER buy that product.

I wont use the web without ABP installed, If a site, like forbes..wont let me go onto it with the adblock enabled. I wont go to it.

Its hilarious. You go to the forbes website. It wont let you enter unless you let them show ads. But since I wont be entering anysite that I would have to disable my adblocker for, I will never see their ads anyway. And less people will go to their site.

any site that wont allow my adblocker is blacklisted. Never to be gone to again.

 

[Jeff7]

Honestly, had they not allowed the advertising get to the animated, music filled bullshit that it did, I wouldnt have cared as much about finding a way to block their ads, they made their bed so let them lie in it.

Same with TV, it wasnt enough to have 18 minutes of a show and 12 minutes of ads, but then they started having shit pop up during the show and sped up credits and then finally sped up and shrank the credits box just so they could have more ads. This alone is a large portion why i dont give a shit about TV or advertisers.

Or the animated countdown clocks for some show that they think we really care about. Or the things that pop up during the show with sound.
I read somewhere that Star Trek: TOS is something that gets heavy editing now to work in enough commercials. It was something like 53 minutes of show back when it originally aired, but now there's only about 45 minutes available.
MST3K: 2hr timeslot, but only 1.5hrs of show. 25% advertising.

Or the introduction of DVDs: "Neat, now we can have Prohibited User Operations, and try to force people to watch advertising on the thing that they have already purchased." And then some of the movies have so much product placement in them that they'd still come out ahead if the discs and movie tickets were free.

 

[BoberFett]

Major websites serving up malware.

Get bent internet advertisers.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/03/16/malvertising-campaign/

 

[Ns1]

any site that wont allow my adblocker is blacklisted. Never to be gone to again.

given that they weren't making a penny off you anyway, I'm not sure why they should care.

 

[destrekor]

Major websites serving up malware.

Get bent internet advertisers.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/03/16/malvertising-campaign/

Now, do these examples rely on user interaction, or can they do their work merely by viewing the ad?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Now, do these examples rely on user interaction, or can they do their work merely by viewing the ad?

In most all cases all it takes is going to the site and letting the ad load. In many cases simply blocking the ad is not enough. Script blockers are needed as well.

Any site that demands I unblock ads, simply will not get my visit. Someone made a comment about why would they care? They will.