Lousy ads are ruining the online experience

[maflynn]

From recode, a facinating article about how bad ads are.
Lousy ads are ruining the online experience
This paragraph struck me, because sites like cnet and bleacherreport.com has little videos that autoplay in the lower right hand corner. I've largely stopped going to those sites because of those services.

Even the online advertisers’ trade organization, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which has fiercely opposed ad blockers, admits change is needed. In a statement last year reported by Advertising Age, one of the group’s top officials admitted that online advertising needs to change.

"We lost track of the user experience," the statement, written by Scott Cunningham, senior VP of technology and ad operations at the IAB, said. “ ... Looking back now, our scraping of dimes may have cost us dollars in consumer loyalty.”

 

[Beachguy]

Those that have the videos you mention really tick me off. That's why I have some of the blocking I have, and will continue to find ways to stop them. I HATE autoplay video. It's like the companies that won't let you in if you have ad blockers. I don't turn mine off. I just figure your site is not worth it. Had sites not abused viewers in the first place, we wouldn't be this way.

 

[mobilehaathi]

Nice to see people are paying attention to a real problem. I thought this paragraph was quite interesting, too, highlighting the shift in dynamics which is driving the issue.

About a week after our launch, I was seated at a dinner next to a major advertising executive. He complimented me on our new site’s quality and on that of a predecessor site we had created and run, AllThingsD.com. I asked him if that meant he’d be placing ads on our fledgling site. He said yes, he’d do that for a little while. And then, after the cookies he placed on Recode helped him to track our desirable audience around the web, his agency would begin removing the ads and placing them on cheaper sites our readers also happened to visit. In other words, our quality journalism was, to him, nothing more than a lead generator for target-rich readers and would ultimately benefit sites that might care less about quality.

 

[maflynn]

That's why I have some of the blocking I have

What software do you use because so far adguard isn't doing what I want with those videos.

Nice to see people are paying attention to a real problem. I thought this paragraph was quite interesting, too, highlighting the shift in dynamics which is driving the issue.

That was surprising and it drives the point where they were scrambling for the dimes at the expense of the dollars, or to put it another way penny wise but pound foolish. Now they're in a predicament where are less willing to click or put with the commercials.

I've seen long commercials on a video (beyond 30 seconds) and I finally gave up because the video wasn't worth my putting up with sitting there seeing that add for so long

 

[mobilehaathi]

I've seen long commercials on a video (beyond 30 seconds) and I finally gave up because the video wasn't worth my putting up with sitting there seeing that add for so long

Heh, oh yeah, definitely been there done that! It's awfully obnoxious.

 

[Beachguy]

What software do you use because so far adguard isn't doing what I want with those videos.

I have an HTML5 blocker, i use a HOSTS file, ABP, and a few I am trying to catch those that still make it through. Occasionally, one makes its way through.

 

[Tech198]

From recode, a facinating article about how bad ads are.
Lousy ads are ruining the online experience
This paragraph struck me, because sites like cnet and bleacherreport.com has little videos that autoplay in the lower right hand corner. I've largely stopped going to those sites because of those services.

+1 ... That's the most annoying.. If i wanna play, I'll hit play, but everytime i go to these sites i gotta hit "Don't play" or pause.. I don't mind the ads since i use uBlock Origin and block by dynamic filtering (advanced) (firefox addon)

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dynamic-filtering:-quick-guide

I find this takes care of most of it.

 

[MacUser2525]

What are these ad things you speak of, seriously people in this day and age still allow that junk to be displayed on their computer. Well the last part was retorical as well when I go to work on peoples machines it just boggles the mind the usually at least half dozen tool bars taking up most of the browser space, ad tracker installed malware up the wazoo, viruses and other assorted foolishness. By the time I am done with the machine they will never see any of it again unless they are total moron in which case I thank them for their repeat businnes.

 

[Tech198]

Ads are displayed that's just how it is.. If no ads are displayed then that means u'r running software or extensions, which blocks it, or a companies IT corporation does on behalf of everyone in a company.

 

[MacGizmo]

I've tried running almost all the blockers out there. In the end, every one of them proved to be more trouble than they're worth for me. If I have to go through and white-list things, add specific rules for things that do get through, and have obnoxious pop-ups telling what it blocked, then it's just as bad or worse than the ads (speaking for the user experience and visual appearance of the site).

There is no solution to this problem, because people simply aren't going to pay for things that have been free forever, no matter how worth it the site is. Once you take that option off the table, we're always going to end up with sub-par solutions like the current ad-tracking, in-your-face-constantly ad model.

 

[Pakaku]

I'm still satisfied with NoScript and Firefox, even if it takes some manual setup. But most of the stuff I block ends up being stuff multiple sites use, so it's not the worst thing.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

It's a completely predictable outcome. The democratization of the media (anyone can publish) means far more "media" outlets competing for ads. As a site need only sign up and paste code into their layouts in order to participate in ad networks, even the least business savvy sites are able to play.

The pie remains more or less the same, everyone gets smaller pieces (lower rates, often driven by auction-based advertising networks). Only the most influential outlets have the leverage to influence advertiser behavior/presentation. Even those influential outlets are faced with the temptation to place additional ads (and usually succumb) - if they're pulling large numbers of eyeballs despite the ad clutter, why de-clutter?

Subscriptions are a partial answer, but "free" advertising-supported media will always be part of the competitive mix - there are practical limits to how much anyone can or will pay out of pocket - they aren't going to subscribe to every site they visit. And a substantial portion of users are going to choose "free" over paying even a penny - "How dare they charge me, information wants to be free!!!!"

The best we can hope from subscriptions is that they give the reader/viewer a voice at the table. A publisher less dependent on advertising for survival has greater leverage with advertisers - if they can afford to place fewer advertising slots on their pages, the value of the remaining slots ought to go up (but only if they sell directly to advertisers - network-driven ad rates may not budge an inch).

If subscription revenue can be part of the auction mix (subscribers bidding against advertisers for ad-free/reduced-ad environments), there's some hope for change. It might take Google to make this happen - who else has the clout to tell the advertisers, "This is just the way it's going to be."

Advertising-free media will always be a fraction of the media pie - our appetites always exceed our means, both as consumers, and as producers. If sites can deliver more/better content by accepting money from both subscribers and advertisers, compromises will be made. If popular contributors can bid-up their pay... ditto.

It occurs to me that the subscription model needs a mechanism that competes with the auction-based advertising networks - automatic distribution of subscription revenue based on the subscribers usage/behavior. One of the biggest tricks would be to establish linkage - short of totally ad-free (which seems impractical in most cases) how does the subscriber know that he/she is receiving a reduced payload of ads?