4 ms·

I wasn't aware putting trackers on subdomains was a working adblocker workaround. Now that I know it, I'm surprised it hasn't been a massive problem since much

I wasn't aware putting trackers on subdomains was a working adblocker workaround. Now that I know it, I'm surprised it hasn't been a massive problem since much earlier.

Normal_gaussian 7y ago
Essentially most sites are not "owned" by a single technical authority in the business - this is the main reason such a simple workaround goes unused. The key parts there are: - single - technical - authority Watching businesses attempt an integration of a line code anywhere to download the third party tool is painfully hilarious. Getting them to set up a DNS record to point to you is often so far off the table its playing in the forest with the faeries. Having them pull your code and serve it statically alongside their site... I couldn't imagine
- cyborgx7 7y ago
  I believe you, but this still seems strange to me with the overdesigned behemoths, on the verge of toppling over at any moment, most big corporate sites appear to be nowadays.
  - mobjack 7y ago
    Websites get bloated because the companies aren't aware of all the tracking going on in the first place. What usually happens is that the marketing team signs a contract then developers copy and paste a JavaScript snippet to embed on the website and move on. The work arounds require much more intention and the solutions can be hacky like modifying urls in a minified JS file. If that tracking is blocked, it is invisible to the company especially if only the third party who has access to the data.
- paol 7y ago
  I agree, but given enough incentive these barriers can be overcome. I thing these are signs that ad-blocking is becoming sufficiently painful to provide that incentive.
beagle3 7y ago
It is not, on its own, a workaround. Cookies are still separate, and any foolproof online correlation call must go through the browser and can be blocked. Not going through the browser is possible but requires trust between organizations; publishers have an incentive to inflate numbers, and trust has so far been lacking (and rightly so). That may change.
celim307 7y ago
i actually had this conversation with a friend last night, and we figured the effort put in to serve ads to an audience so vehemently blocking them probably costs way more than the potential revenue, considering if a user is blocking ads they are probably hostile to any messaging anyways. But that's before getting into the rabbit hole of saturation strategy and any press is good press type of theories
- Spare_account 7y ago
  This was probably correct until a couple of years ago. Ad-blocking has now become much more commonplace, hence the advertisers innovating so hard to get around it. 'normal' people are starting to run ad-blockers now, not just tech-savvy users. https://www.emarketer.com/content/ad-blocking-in-the-uk-2018 https://www.emarketer.com/content/ad-blocking-in-the-uk-2018 https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/global-ad-blocking-behavior-2019-infographic/551716/ https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/global-ad-blocking-beh...

I wasn't aware putting trackers on subdomains was a working adblocker workaround. Now that I know it, I'm surprised it hasn't been a massive problem since much earlier.

Normal_gaussian 7y ago

Essentially most sites are not "owned" by a single technical authority in the business - this is the main reason such a simple workaround goes unused. The key parts there are: - single - technical - authority Watching businesses attempt an integration of a line code anywhere to download the third party tool is painfully hilarious. Getting them to set up a DNS record to point to you is often so far off the table its playing in the forest with the faeries. Having them pull your code and serve it statically alongside their site... I couldn't imagine

cyborgx7 7y ago
I believe you, but this still seems strange to me with the overdesigned behemoths, on the verge of toppling over at any moment, most big corporate sites appear to be nowadays.
- mobjack 7y ago
  Websites get bloated because the companies aren't aware of all the tracking going on in the first place. What usually happens is that the marketing team signs a contract then developers copy and paste a JavaScript snippet to embed on the website and move on. The work arounds require much more intention and the solutions can be hacky like modifying urls in a minified JS file. If that tracking is blocked, it is invisible to the company especially if only the third party who has access to the data.
paol 7y ago
I agree, but given enough incentive these barriers can be overcome. I thing these are signs that ad-blocking is becoming sufficiently painful to provide that incentive.

beagle3 7y ago

It is not, on its own, a workaround. Cookies are still separate, and any foolproof online correlation call must go through the browser and can be blocked. Not going through the browser is possible but requires trust between organizations; publishers have an incentive to inflate numbers, and trust has so far been lacking (and rightly so). That may change.

celim307 7y ago

i actually had this conversation with a friend last night, and we figured the effort put in to serve ads to an audience so vehemently blocking them probably costs way more than the potential revenue, considering if a user is blocking ads they are probably hostile to any messaging anyways. But that's before getting into the rabbit hole of saturation strategy and any press is good press type of theories

Spare_account 7y ago
This was probably correct until a couple of years ago. Ad-blocking has now become much more commonplace, hence the advertisers innovating so hard to get around it. 'normal' people are starting to run ad-blockers now, not just tech-savvy users. https://www.emarketer.com/content/ad-blocking-in-the-uk-2018 https://www.emarketer.com/content/ad-blocking-in-the-uk-2018 https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/global-ad-blocking-behavior-2019-infographic/551716/ https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/global-ad-blocking-beh...