4 ms·

Because it's not just about showing an ad to the user, it's about knowing which user to show that ad. The ad networks track you across the web, and in the proce

by guntars 10y ago

Because it's not just about showing an ad to the user, it's about knowing which user to show that ad. The ad networks track you across the web, and in the process learn a great deal about your demographics and interests. This alows businesses to target you specifically. Spiegel can only track you across their own site which might not tell them much about you, making the ad space less valuable.

koolba 10y ago
> Because it's not just about showing an ad to the user, it's about knowing which user to show that ad. The ad networks track you across the web, and in the process learn a great deal about your demographics and interests. This alows businesses to target you specifically. Sure if you're not clearing your cookies, obfuscating your User-Agent, and rotating your IP address regularly. All that aside, the real baseline of comparison isn't a targeted ad, it's no ad at all. It doesn't matter how great third party ad networks are at tracking users, if their third partyness is what makes them so easy to block then they're going to go the way of the dodo. > Spiegel can only track you across their own site which might not tell them much about you, making the ad space less valuable. I wonder if that even matters. They already know what article I'm reading and possibly what other articles I've read (again assuming logged in / tracking cookies / etc). Should be more than enough. I really think a steady income stream of un-blockable but not quite as effective ads will win out over blockable but hyper targeted ones.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > I wonder if that even matters. They already know what article I'm reading and possibly what other articles I've read (again assuming logged in / tracking cookies / etc). Should be more than enough. I agree. I mean, I would react much better to ads relevant to what I'm actually reading just now than to random crap based on stuff pulled out of some tracking database.
irq-1 10y ago
You're right that it doesn't work for the advertisers. It also isn't a technical solution: ad-blockers don't just use domain names; they also block based on tags, ids and css classes, etc..
- intrasight 10y ago
  I'm sure the advertisers would rather have ads than not, so I'd argue just the opposite - this will work for advertisers. And you can't block arbitrary <p> and <img> tags, so I don't understand your second assertion.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Ad blocking in general is an AI-complete problem, but there are still lots of low-hanging fruits left to be picked - like blocking tags based on class names ("ad", "sponsor.*"), on content (basically spam filtering), etc., all backed by crowdsourced list of per-domain entries.
    - majewsky 10y ago
      > blocking tags based on class names I would be surprised if uBO didn't do that. (Can't check right now because I use uMatrix; I care more about the tracking part than about the ad part.)
    - intrasight 10y ago
      By "arbitrary" I really mean "tags without classes". A plain <p> or <img> tag. But what I left unsaid is that I don't really mind such ads - they are like ads in a magazine. I use UBlock Origin to disable tracking not to disable ads.
criddell 10y ago
> This alows businesses to target you specifically. You know, I keep hearing this as justification for tracking. It's been going on for about 20 years now and I still see terrible ads. I don't think the ads I see online are any better targeted than ones I see in People magazine at my doctor's office.

by guntars 10y ago

koolba 10y ago

> Because it's not just about showing an ad to the user, it's about knowing which user to show that ad. The ad networks track you across the web, and in the process learn a great deal about your demographics and interests. This alows businesses to target you specifically. Sure if you're not clearing your cookies, obfuscating your User-Agent, and rotating your IP address regularly. All that aside, the real baseline of comparison isn't a targeted ad, it's no ad at all. It doesn't matter how great third party ad networks are at tracking users, if their third partyness is what makes them so easy to block then they're going to go the way of the dodo. > Spiegel can only track you across their own site which might not tell them much about you, making the ad space less valuable. I wonder if that even matters. They already know what article I'm reading and possibly what other articles I've read (again assuming logged in / tracking cookies / etc). Should be more than enough. I really think a steady income stream of un-blockable but not quite as effective ads will win out over blockable but hyper targeted ones.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
> I wonder if that even matters. They already know what article I'm reading and possibly what other articles I've read (again assuming logged in / tracking cookies / etc). Should be more than enough. I agree. I mean, I would react much better to ads relevant to what I'm actually reading just now than to random crap based on stuff pulled out of some tracking database.

irq-1 10y ago

You're right that it doesn't work for the advertisers. It also isn't a technical solution: ad-blockers don't just use domain names; they also block based on tags, ids and css classes, etc..

intrasight 10y ago
I'm sure the advertisers would rather have ads than not, so I'd argue just the opposite - this will work for advertisers. And you can't block arbitrary <p> and <img> tags, so I don't understand your second assertion.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Ad blocking in general is an AI-complete problem, but there are still lots of low-hanging fruits left to be picked - like blocking tags based on class names ("ad", "sponsor.*"), on content (basically spam filtering), etc., all backed by crowdsourced list of per-domain entries.
  - majewsky 10y ago
    > blocking tags based on class names I would be surprised if uBO didn't do that. (Can't check right now because I use uMatrix; I care more about the tracking part than about the ad part.)
  - intrasight 10y ago
    By "arbitrary" I really mean "tags without classes". A plain <p> or <img> tag. But what I left unsaid is that I don't really mind such ads - they are like ads in a magazine. I use UBlock Origin to disable tracking not to disable ads.

criddell 10y ago

> This alows businesses to target you specifically. You know, I keep hearing this as justification for tracking. It's been going on for about 20 years now and I still see terrible ads. I don't think the ads I see online are any better targeted than ones I see in People magazine at my doctor's office.