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Very good write up on the Chrome ad blocker issue, and worth reading in its entirety. Based on the comments in other posts on this topic, my view is a little d

by AJ007 7y ago

Very good write up on the Chrome ad blocker issue, and worth reading in its entirety. Based on the comments in other posts on this topic, my view is a little different. I think Google is making decisions that look good in short term models but will be very damaging to them in the long term. In this case, it is simple. If Chrome does a poor job blocking ads they are going to become known as the junk browser. Recall a behavior Google added to Chrome. When you open Chrome, you are presented with what looks like a default Google.com search page. When you click the search field and start typing, instead of appear in the search bar, the search occurs in the URL navigation bar. Google could have trained their users to be certain they went to Google.com to make a search. They didn't. Today Google pays billions of dollars a year to Apple. Google still doesn't seem to have learned that lesson (see AMP and weird ideas on divorcing the URL from the site the user is on.) Not only is Google's revenue growth under threat, but their existing revenue base may very well be too. After GDPR, the EU copyright directive, and changes Apple is making to Safari who knows what 2020 revenue will look like. In my mind, this explains a lot of the sloppy decisions Google's management has been making. If there was no Firefox or Apple, then panic. For now, the panic should lay within Google.

fencepost 7y ago
Don't forget that Chrome reached its dominant market share in large part because every time you went to search for something you were presented with an ad for Chrome. Alternative search engines at this point are hard to come by, AFAIK it's basically just Google and Bing in much of the world, plus whatever has approval in China - most other search is just wrappers around those 2. In that environment it may be hard to get the "Chrome as a junk browser" idea widespread. I still deal with people daily whose goto browser is IE because it's what they've always used.
JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
This change will likely come with a push for better ads. Frequently these days you see whole articles that are actually ads. They fact they must bode this low now speaks to the difficulties they're facing in achieving revenue growth. Most web users don't use an ad blocker. Kind of hard to keep perpetual X% YOY growth when you're a Google-sized company. It is impressive for how many years they pulled it off, but those days are probably over.

by AJ007 7y ago

fencepost 7y ago

Don't forget that Chrome reached its dominant market share in large part because every time you went to search for something you were presented with an ad for Chrome. Alternative search engines at this point are hard to come by, AFAIK it's basically just Google and Bing in much of the world, plus whatever has approval in China - most other search is just wrappers around those 2. In that environment it may be hard to get the "Chrome as a junk browser" idea widespread. I still deal with people daily whose goto browser is IE because it's what they've always used.

JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago

This change will likely come with a push for better ads. Frequently these days you see whole articles that are actually ads. They fact they must bode this low now speaks to the difficulties they're facing in achieving revenue growth. Most web users don't use an ad blocker. Kind of hard to keep perpetual X% YOY growth when you're a Google-sized company. It is impressive for how many years they pulled it off, but those days are probably over.