4 ms·

Why is this even at the front page of HN? I give them credit for the brilliant marketing. This is an ad disguised as an article targeting the "tech savvy" by b

by mgh2 5y ago

Why is this even at the front page of HN? I give them credit for the brilliant marketing. This is an ad disguised as an article targeting the "tech savvy" by bundling HN and Reddit (a truth + a lie makes the statement more true), a common clickbait tactic > This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices. Nope, it is really easy: is just an extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94-best-ad-blocker/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94-... It makes me think Reddit users are inflating/manipulating this article w/ votes and comments Correction: "difficult to install adblocker on mobile devices"

ehsankia 5y ago
The headline is the perfect anti-Google HN-clickbait, and it is quite misleading. These people just run any ad-blocker, they mostly all block Google Analytics as a side-effect. The majority of those 58% probably don't care about GA specifically.
- Breza 5y ago
  To be honest, I've used Brave for a long time and I didn't realize it blocked GA.
Jorengarenar 5y ago
It says it's difficult to install on mobile
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- mgh2 5y ago
  My bad, but the original premise still stands
  - mdoms 5y ago
    No it doesn't.
    - mgh2 5y ago
      Care to elaborate? Not sure why the HN title changed
- mgh2 5y ago
  I see where the disconnect was: the article had a subtitle of "68% of laptop and desktop users block Google Analytics" Yet, their stated cause ("how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome") refers to mobile users A logic shift there - a bait and switch? Not sure if this is an error, or outright manipulation This puts the entire article's credibility in question Proof: in case they modify it like they did in HN's title 1. Title: https://ibb.co/Q87pDPr https://ibb.co/Q87pDPr 2. Subtitle: https://ibb.co/nDshDCT https://ibb.co/nDshDCT
  - Jorengarenar 5y ago
    One sentence says that mobile users block GA less than desktop users. The following sentence states it makes sense since installing add-ons on most popular mobile browser is difficult. Context matters: >At the device level, laptop and desktop users (68.2%) block Google Analytics more frequently than mobile and tablet users (49.9%). >This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices.
    - mgh2 5y ago
      Thank you for the explanation.
blackoil 5y ago
How do you install extension on mobile Chrome? The link shows button to install on Desktop.
PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Well, for extra irony, I use the Steven Black /etc/hosts content to block on the order of 70,000 domain names, and plausible.io is in there. So I can't even read the article because I'm one of the people it describes.
- zaphar 5y ago
  Isn't the primary use-case for plausible that you can run the tracking entirely off of your own domain. Which means that blocking plausible.io doesn't really give you much.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    it's just one of a list of about 68,800 hosts in the blocking data. nothing specifically intended to block plausible alone.
Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
> > This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices. > Nope, it is really easy: is just an extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94-... The key word here is mobile devices. AFAIK, ad blocking in Chrome on my phone is difficult. But with Firefox, I can easily install uBlock Origin. I use a PiHole on my phone occasionally to block ads in anything that isn't Firefox, but I found that the OpenVPN client is a significant battery drain (~7% per hour).
- ryankrage77 5y ago
  Wireguard may use less power, I've not noticed any loss of battery life when using it across multiple devices.
  - Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
    I'm trying the option to pause the VPN while the screen is off again. I had done it before, but found that it frequently didn't reconnect to the VPN when I powered back on.

by mgh2 5y ago

ehsankia 5y ago

The headline is the perfect anti-Google HN-clickbait, and it is quite misleading. These people just run any ad-blocker, they mostly all block Google Analytics as a side-effect. The majority of those 58% probably don't care about GA specifically.

Breza 5y ago
To be honest, I've used Brave for a long time and I didn't realize it blocked GA.

Jorengarenar 5y ago

It says it's difficult to install on mobile

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mgh2 5y ago
My bad, but the original premise still stands
- mdoms 5y ago
  No it doesn't.
  - mgh2 5y ago
    Care to elaborate? Not sure why the HN title changed
mgh2 5y ago
I see where the disconnect was: the article had a subtitle of "68% of laptop and desktop users block Google Analytics" Yet, their stated cause ("how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome") refers to mobile users A logic shift there - a bait and switch? Not sure if this is an error, or outright manipulation This puts the entire article's credibility in question Proof: in case they modify it like they did in HN's title 1. Title: https://ibb.co/Q87pDPr https://ibb.co/Q87pDPr 2. Subtitle: https://ibb.co/nDshDCT https://ibb.co/nDshDCT
- Jorengarenar 5y ago
  One sentence says that mobile users block GA less than desktop users. The following sentence states it makes sense since installing add-ons on most popular mobile browser is difficult. Context matters: >At the device level, laptop and desktop users (68.2%) block Google Analytics more frequently than mobile and tablet users (49.9%). >This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices.
  - mgh2 5y ago
    Thank you for the explanation.

blackoil 5y ago

How do you install extension on mobile Chrome? The link shows button to install on Desktop.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

Well, for extra irony, I use the Steven Black /etc/hosts content to block on the order of 70,000 domain names, and plausible.io is in there. So I can't even read the article because I'm one of the people it describes.

zaphar 5y ago
Isn't the primary use-case for plausible that you can run the tracking entirely off of your own domain. Which means that blocking plausible.io doesn't really give you much.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  it's just one of a list of about 68,800 hosts in the blocking data. nothing specifically intended to block plausible alone.

Sohcahtoa82 5y ago

> > This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices. > Nope, it is really easy: is just an extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94-... The key word here is mobile devices. AFAIK, ad blocking in Chrome on my phone is difficult. But with Firefox, I can easily install uBlock Origin. I use a PiHole on my phone occasionally to block ads in anything that isn't Firefox, but I found that the OpenVPN client is a significant battery drain (~7% per hour).

ryankrage77 5y ago
Wireguard may use less power, I've not noticed any loss of battery life when using it across multiple devices.
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  I'm trying the option to pause the VPN while the screen is off again. I had done it before, but found that it frequently didn't reconnect to the VPN when I powered back on.