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I hate ads as much as the next guy. This cat-and-mouse game has been going on for as long as I can remember. But I have to wonder why the ad networks don't req

I hate ads as much as the next guy. This cat-and-mouse game has been going on for as long as I can remember. But I have to wonder why the ad networks don't require content creators to place some "ad libraries" into the web servers or CMS systems directly, so that the ads are served exactly the same way as the content (same domain, same pages, etc). That's my nightmare scenario. I figured it would have happened everywhere by now. I see it in a few places but it seems pretty rare. Is it the heterogeneous server-side environments that are slowing down this approach? If it ever takes off, what is the mouse to do?

woolvalley 8y ago
ML that inspects content for ad-like behavior. Inspecting content of files or code and see if they match known adware, like an antivirus.
pdimitar 8y ago
Wondered that many times myself. I see several reasons: (1) Their current tech still works on most users so it's not economically justified to invest several times more just to catch a few extra percent of the users (the tech-savvy) in their net. (2) They are not technically savvy enough to figure it out (thank Cthulhu if that's true!). (3) They do not want to pay for the extra bandwidth costs and to upgrade their servers. And they will have to do both because looking at any ad inspection article reveals that the ad/tracking bandwidth can be easily anywhere from 3x to 20x the bandwidth needed to serve the content itself. Furthermore, the ad/tracking tech uses elaborate scripting techniques to avoid part of the automated defenses of browsers or network devices. Running those scripts 24/7 increases your electricity bill significantly. Overall I believe it's a case of "we could probably do better but we get a hell of a deal for the minimal investment we made". Which is really good for us the techies -- because they leave us alone -- but seriously sucks for everybody else.

woolvalley 8y ago

ML that inspects content for ad-like behavior. Inspecting content of files or code and see if they match known adware, like an antivirus.

pdimitar 8y ago

Wondered that many times myself. I see several reasons: (1) Their current tech still works on most users so it's not economically justified to invest several times more just to catch a few extra percent of the users (the tech-savvy) in their net. (2) They are not technically savvy enough to figure it out (thank Cthulhu if that's true!). (3) They do not want to pay for the extra bandwidth costs and to upgrade their servers. And they will have to do both because looking at any ad inspection article reveals that the ad/tracking bandwidth can be easily anywhere from 3x to 20x the bandwidth needed to serve the content itself. Furthermore, the ad/tracking tech uses elaborate scripting techniques to avoid part of the automated defenses of browsers or network devices. Running those scripts 24/7 increases your electricity bill significantly. Overall I believe it's a case of "we could probably do better but we get a hell of a deal for the minimal investment we made". Which is really good for us the techies -- because they leave us alone -- but seriously sucks for everybody else.