News Adblock Plus launches its own advertising platform

I hate Ovaltine, but I got the joke too.

 

I use uBlock Origin but, frankly, I only use it to block outbrain and taboola adverts, which, as far as I'm concerned, are the worst of the worst of web-advertising.

I'd just like to thank Bit-tech for not showing these click-bait-stories-disguised-as-advertising. For that, and for not allowing other intrusive advertising, Bit-tech goes on my allow list

 

I think that there is enough people who hate ads all together that the ad vs blocker arms race will continue.

Personally, I'd quit visiting a site before I would put up with unblockable ads.

 

They only deploy their replacement adverts on sites that sign up and select the adverts, i.e. the site owners have three/four (depending on size) 'states':
- Users with no adblocker see adverts from their usual CDN (i.e. shitty adverts, possible drive-by malware, minimal to no choice on what adverts are displayed), and are paid by that ad distributor
- - If you're a massive site you can sell ad-space directly to individual firms and have slightly more choice of advert, and get paid by the firm directly
- Users with Adblock Plus with 'acceptable ads' turned on see minimally-shitty adverts selected by the site owner, and are paid by Adblock Plus acting as an advert distributor
- Users with Adblock Plus with acceptable ads turned off, or another adblocker see no ads

i.e. Site get paid regardless of who is distributing the ads, as long as adverts are shown. This is not like the DPI ad-swapping ISPs have engaged in in the past.

That last point is an important one: Adblock Plus users are a single user-exposed checkbox away from removing these Adblock-plus-distributed adverts, the same as they always have been with the 'acceptable ads' policy.

 

Well, in my opinion, you've missed nothing.

 

Ovaltine or Horlicks?

 

Ovaltine and all varieties of Horlicks give me the dry boak.

 

Greetings!

On-topic:

 

Ads can be displayed and get around all the ad blockers easily enough if the content is pulled in server side and the ad container uses a pseudo random id. Content providers that put ads within their streams will never sell the product of that ad to me.

My main issue with Ads is that they are either distracting or completely irrelevant. Then there is their placement, oversized banners at the top or even worse in the middle of the content I am interested in. Even placing it in the sidebar proves intrusive as it can get in the way of navigation to other articles.

If I visit a website regularly, like this here Bit Tech and come to trust in the content they provide (as in not a scam, malicious, etc) and find their reviews, articles of value and come to respect and trust their opinion even if I don't always agree with it.

If after all that they should happen recommend a product or service that is of interest to me, then I will look in to it and much more likely to be inclined to purchase something. If that trust is betrayed by a flood of new spam emails or that a site was influenced to put up a good endorsement even for something that doesn't live up to it then all that trust and respect goes right along with it.

 

The problem with pulling ads in server side is that you can easily spoof the numbers. Going through an independent ad network keeps things more honest.

 

I guess you could end up with a two tier system where all sites that are too big and accountable to spoof numbers have unblockable ads while smaller ones don't. That is already happening to an extent already.

I still think at some point though ad networks will wise up and develop technology that easily allows all ads to be machine indistinguishable from content. I'm not sure where adblocking would go from there.