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Ad-blockers have been around for years and I have always wondered why the Ad industry has not moved to server-side yet. Then I realized that maybe they weren't

Ad-blockers have been around for years and I have always wondered why the Ad industry has not moved to server-side yet. Then I realized that maybe they weren't hit at all by this, but actually that helped with that 50% budget they often claim go to waste in advertising. Much like Nigeriam Scams self-select the most naive users with their silly stories, some advertisers may likely get better impression/click ratios once the savvy users are out of their game.

bweitzman 6y ago
Server side tracking would mean that ad companies don't have access to cookies + user fingerprints, so they would be less effective at serving targeted ads.
- ffpip 6y ago
  Why so? Do the tracking inside the browser, send it back, render the ad server side and send it to the user? It's already being implemented in many places.
  - tinus_hn 6y ago
    Do you think the ads are ‘rendered’ client side? Also you have to specify what server side means because the ad networks don’t trust the web sites their ads are on.
    - ffpip 6y ago
      By server side, I mean, everything is loaded on servers as a single file and served as a blob that adblockers can't block or read. Like Google AMP. Client site rendering can easily be blocked by just domain blocking.
  - bweitzman 6y ago
    Most ad blockers also block the tracking, not just the displaying of ads, so the benefit here would likely be marginal. That said, I think minimally-tracked (i.e based on what the website you're using knows about you) server side ads would be a great step forward for both user privacy + ethical content consumption, I just don't see advertisers jumping at the opportunity.
  - theamk 6y ago
    User goes to shoes.com, which loads ads from adserver.com, which sets a tracking cookie on domain adserver.com User goes to news.com, which loads ads from adserver.com. Adserver.com sees the cookie, and shows the ads about shoes. If you do everything on the server side, shoes.com won't be able to place a global tracking cookie. So when the user goes to news.com, they'll have to see the generic ad, and not a targeted one.
    - ffpip 6y ago
      User goes to shoes.com. Adserver.shoes.com acts as frontend for adserver.com. Adserver.com sends a cookie and adserver.shoes.com sets it. User goes to news.com. adserver.news.com loads ads from adserver.com . Adserver.com checks cookie from adserver.shoes.com and and generates ads server side and shows it with the news.
      - theamk 6y ago
        > Adserver.com checks cookie from adserver.shoes.com 1. This is not possible from server-side. The way cookies work, cookies set by adserver.shoes.com are only visible from documents hosted on *.shoes.com domains. And if the tracking is done client-side, by image, iframe or some other remote call, then this is trivially detected and blocked by adblocker. 2. How did "adserver.com" knew to check for "adserver.shoes.com" cookies? there might be hunderds clients, and trying to load cookies from every domain (adserver.shoes.com, adserver.computers.com, adserver.travel-to-india.com and so on) will take way too long.
thehappypm 6y ago
The ad industry has overwhelmingly moved to server side. Google AdWords, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, sponsored search results on travel sites. Server side means you need more trust that it’s an actual user and not a server farm, so it’s less usable outside the walled gardens.
- nieve 6y ago
  This is also part of why uBlock and others blocking ad elements via heuristics as well as URL patterns is vital and almost certainly a chunk of why Google doesn't look favorably on those techniques.

bweitzman 6y ago

Server side tracking would mean that ad companies don't have access to cookies + user fingerprints, so they would be less effective at serving targeted ads.

ffpip 6y ago
Why so? Do the tracking inside the browser, send it back, render the ad server side and send it to the user? It's already being implemented in many places.
- tinus_hn 6y ago
  Do you think the ads are ‘rendered’ client side? Also you have to specify what server side means because the ad networks don’t trust the web sites their ads are on.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    By server side, I mean, everything is loaded on servers as a single file and served as a blob that adblockers can't block or read. Like Google AMP. Client site rendering can easily be blocked by just domain blocking.
- bweitzman 6y ago
  Most ad blockers also block the tracking, not just the displaying of ads, so the benefit here would likely be marginal. That said, I think minimally-tracked (i.e based on what the website you're using knows about you) server side ads would be a great step forward for both user privacy + ethical content consumption, I just don't see advertisers jumping at the opportunity.
- theamk 6y ago
  User goes to shoes.com, which loads ads from adserver.com, which sets a tracking cookie on domain adserver.com User goes to news.com, which loads ads from adserver.com. Adserver.com sees the cookie, and shows the ads about shoes. If you do everything on the server side, shoes.com won't be able to place a global tracking cookie. So when the user goes to news.com, they'll have to see the generic ad, and not a targeted one.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    User goes to shoes.com. Adserver.shoes.com acts as frontend for adserver.com. Adserver.com sends a cookie and adserver.shoes.com sets it. User goes to news.com. adserver.news.com loads ads from adserver.com . Adserver.com checks cookie from adserver.shoes.com and and generates ads server side and shows it with the news.
    - theamk 6y ago
      > Adserver.com checks cookie from adserver.shoes.com 1. This is not possible from server-side. The way cookies work, cookies set by adserver.shoes.com are only visible from documents hosted on *.shoes.com domains. And if the tracking is done client-side, by image, iframe or some other remote call, then this is trivially detected and blocked by adblocker. 2. How did "adserver.com" knew to check for "adserver.shoes.com" cookies? there might be hunderds clients, and trying to load cookies from every domain (adserver.shoes.com, adserver.computers.com, adserver.travel-to-india.com and so on) will take way too long.

thehappypm 6y ago

The ad industry has overwhelmingly moved to server side. Google AdWords, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, sponsored search results on travel sites. Server side means you need more trust that it’s an actual user and not a server farm, so it’s less usable outside the walled gardens.

nieve 6y ago
This is also part of why uBlock and others blocking ad elements via heuristics as well as URL patterns is vital and almost certainly a chunk of why Google doesn't look favorably on those techniques.