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Taboola and Outbrain are merging to create a clickbait giant
- masonic 7y ago("Taboola and Outbrain, the two biggest chumbox providers, are merging to create a clickbait giant.")
- Nextgrid 7y agoWhy is this cancer allowed to exist and not blocked by every antimalware/safe browsing lists? They fit most definitions of malware, it's annoying, designed to trick/mislead you, can lead you to other malware, and spies on you (so it's spyware as well).
- bllguo 7y agowho says they're not blocked? ublock origin certainly blocks it for me?
- Nextgrid 7y agoI mean by mainstream antimalware including the built-in safe browsing lists that most browsers use. The world would be so much better & safer for non-technical users if operating systems blocked such trash out of the box, as most non-tech people don't even know ad/cancer blockers exist.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago1Blocker also blocks it for me on iOS and macOS.
- pjc50 7y agoEven when I don't have adblock running, those two I block at the hosts file or DNS layer. Some of their clickbait photos are offensive or disturbing (although of course not quite enough to get them banned)
- k1m 7y agoBecause some, like, Adblock Plus and I assume all the other ad blockers who take part in the ridiculous "Acceptable Ads" programme, receive money from Taboola to allow those ads to show. Here's an entry where Taboola was added: https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25991 https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25991
- chii 7y agoThe day adblock plus coined the concept of acceptable ads was the day they were compromised by the alure of payment. The last bastion left is ublock origin. Please, more people need to move to it (and while at it, consider moving to firefox as well).
- ryall 7y agoWhat’s wrong with pi-hole?
- bertil 7y agoNot the OC, but I use uBlock, not pi-hole simply because: - hardware, and I’m lazy (admittedly, that doesn’t really qualify as a good reason); - I browse on mobile, at work, from cafés, etc. I like the idea of having a device that handles my connection everywhere and my mobile and laptop are always “on wifi” with that device. I’d love to have a centralised solution to use the dodgy wifi connection at airports, for instance.
- vector_spaces 7y agoYou can set up pi-hole + a VPN on a cloud provider to solve the mobile problem. I did that, and it's great, but I do recognize that it has greater time demands (setting up the server, hardening it, setting up the CA, generating keys, ongoing maintenance, etc) and expense. Here's a dated but reasonable overview of the process from Digital Ocean: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-block-advertisements-at-the-dns-level-using-pi-hole-and-openvpn-on-ubuntu-16-04 https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-bloc...
- Simon_says 7y agoI just checked and both domains are already on my DNS blocklists, and I'm just using the default blocklists from DNSCrypt. I look forward to blocking them and their combined entity. [Deity]bless the people who maintain those lists.
- matheusmoreira 7y agouBlock Origin blocks them. I only see them when I'm using Chrome on mobile.
- chii 7y agofirefox mobile works OK, and can install ublock origin.
- matheusmoreira 7y agoIndeed. That is the number one reason why I use it!
- ChrisSD 7y agoAs clickbaity as the ads are, the actual technology used to show them is much better than most ad networks. Last I looked into outbrain, the ads were simply a picture and some text. These linked to the advertised site. All images and scripts were hosted by outbrain themselves so there was no third party scripts running or other dubious content that could be inserted. So in terms of security, outbrains ads were doing a lot better than, say, Google's ad network. Of course what is being advertised is more dubious but that's always been an issue with clicking random ads.
- Kiro 7y agoYeah, the clickbait itself is enough to criticize without adding unnecessary exaggeration. Now we just look stupid by attributing things that simply are not true. It happens way too often here. People are in pitchfork mode and upvote the most slandering comment, even if it's false.
- Bartweiss 7y agoI definitely understand why "acceptable ads" offends so many people. Between approving clickbait and their steep 30% cut for "large" Acceptable Ads members, it's clearly not simply for the benefit of users. And the rules on "unobtrusive" static images simply don't seem to be honored. But I have to admit that the ABP model is at least a massive improvement over nothing. It "just works" better than more vigorous tools, and it pretty reliably keeps out malware - especially the stuff that can affect you without being clicked. I don't like Outbrain's clickbait ads, but they're at least part of the debate around "is it fair to use sites while knowingly avoiding their monetization?" As far as I'm concerned, that entire debate is a nonstarter if it implies loading whatever wretched JS happens to be served by a page. ABP is sufficient to let us talk about honesty and distraction, which apply to TV or print ads also. Otherwise, I think the conversation begins and ends with security and privacy.
- dreen 7y agoHad a dubious pleasure to implement both on a website of a major publisher. Eventually both got removed due to low business value. They didn't actually drive any traffic.
- noneeeed 7y agoI've often wondered about this. Many of the places I see them, they seem so very out of place in the context of the main content of the page. I would love to know what the percentage of clickthroughs actually is, and how valuable they really are.
- greggman2 7y agoI run into them on slashdot where they don't seem to fit
- ilamont 7y agoIndeed, they are a huge turnoff to audiences. But the people responsible for ad operations at publishers will often insist on placing such widgets on every remaining patch of white space, saying that failing to do so is "leaving money on the table."
- mikestew 7y agoThey didn't actually drive any traffic. I've often wondered about that. Because when I see Taboola/Outbrain at the bottom of the page, I think to myself, "whoops, took the wrong exit and now I'm in the low-rent district."
- Angostura 7y ago> Adam Singolda, who runs Taboola and will take charge of the combined company, characterized the deal in a statement as a way to “create a more robust competitor to Facebook and Google” while “strengthening journalism.” Do potential investors/employees actually believe this kind of drivel or is it a sort of expected formalistic dance?
- chii 7y agoDrivel. Investors care about business model, and potential profitability. And annoyingly, these click baits do work to drive traffic, and drive advertising.
- microcolonel 7y agoFor what it's worth, I have worked with two genuine journalistic enterprises who relied on Taboola revenue, and were deeply involved with them. I noticed when I ran my mouth about Taboola and they told me a Taboola employee was sitting right there. :- )
- KoftaBob 7y agoThat drivel is for the public, the investors only care about the money they're making.
- mikestew 7y agoPerhaps you do not like their content, and I'm totally with you there, but I don't know that I'd classify this as "drivel". Sure, it's all about money in the end, but they're not wrong. FB/Google competitor? Check. Doesn't mean you have to like them. Strengthening journalism? You mean like, paying them money so they can keep the lights on? Check. Again, you don't have to like it (buy a subscription already). Weasel words all around, but I can't point to where they're specifically lying.
- mianos 7y agoMight this help by reducing the size of the pi-hole black list?
- MarkMc 7y agoI'm very surprised that I see Outbrain ads when I visit cnn.com. Google have a decade of of my email history, my search queries, my Android location, my YouTube history, etc, etc. Yet apparently Outbrain's advertising is so effective that they can offer more money to CNN to place ads. What is going on?
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y agoBecause clickbait 1) looks like normal content, so the brain doesn't filter it out, 2) is more likely to provoke clicks than actual ads.
- earthboundkid 7y agoOutbrain doesn't offer more money as much as steady money. When I talked to an advertising person about it, she told me we had a guarantee from them for a certain amount. That makes budgeting much simpler. You don't have to worry about if you make your traffic numbers or not.
- supertiger 7y agoWith that logic, google (and a handful of other giants like FB and Amazon) should be the ONLY companies in the digital advertising space. There're probably other factors in play here.
- kardos 7y agoIt sounds like there are cracks in the idea that Google's info harvesting apparatus gives them the ultimate edge in advertising
- reilly3000 7y agoIts mostly around the CPC business model for advertisers, and the performance-optimized block of ads for publishers. Pubs get steady payouts with a single block of code, and advertisers only have to pay for clicks, which are generally pretty cheap. AdSense has a similar CPC model, but leaves it to the publisher to place individual ads, and suffers from bifurcated demand- much of the Google ad money flows to their CPM / Impression based Ad Exchange banner ads. Direct response advertisers do very well with content-rec style ads. I would never think its okay to run them as a publisher, but thousands of big sites can't say no.
- donohoe 7y agoAs much as I dislike seeing them on publisher websites this is just going to be further bad news for publishers in finding revenue outside of ads and subscriptions. We're just going to see crappier content at a larger scale that earns them less money due to significantly reduced competition.
- KoftaBob 7y agoWhen the founders look back at their life and see "litter the internet with garbage" as their biggest accomplishment, I wonder if the money will be worth it.
- crispyambulance 7y agoYou're assuming that those people will actually "look back at their life". Many don't, never will, and are incapable of understanding what the problem even is.
- KoftaBob 7y agoUnfortunately you're probably right.
- patd 7y agoThey probably don't care or see it as a way to keep newspapers in business. I'm running an adtech platform for newspapers (I do price comparison and I believe that I add value to the product review articles) and newspapers need to generate revenue. They usually have loads of staff from decades ago when people were still buying paper journals and magazines.
- KoftaBob 7y agoI'm not against the idea of ads, at their best they actually serve as a form of product discovery for viewers. What I am against is deceptive and low quality clickbait.
- thowawyve 7y agoTaboola and Outbrain are like the Mossad in your livingroom. They spy on your browsing habits for who knows what reasons
- joshdance 7y agoThis seems like a very bad thing.
- justforyou 7y agoNevermind adblockers, these outlets deserve to be blocked at the hosts file level.
- Scottn1 7y agoThese two cancerous clickbait entities were basically 95% of the sole reason I started using adblockers to begin with many years ago. I can't stand seeing their crap on any webpage I visit. It is filth that ruins the Internet for majority of people who don't have a mental filter to not click on this stuff. The other 5% reason is malicious ads/tracking. I'd actually be open to not running adblockers anymore if these two reasons were eliminated from the web. I'd be fine with small non tracking ads from non cringe worthy gigantic ad networks that invade basically every webpage I visit nowadays. PS - Ublock Origin actually doesn't block these two networks (Taboola/Outbrain) by default - you have to enable Fanboys Annoyance list to do so.