5 ms·

We’re Dropping Google Ads (2017)

83 points by metadat 4y ago

nevi-me 4y ago
5 years later, the system (not just GAdds) remains broken. The same kind of ads that Ground Up refers to, everywhere. MS Edge's launch page is riddled with these ads, they appear on otherwise high profile news outlets. The other irritating thing with the tracking. You could look for a fridge, find, buy, receive it. But you'll remain getting ads about fridges for a week. Repeated ads, go to the speedcheck website, I sometimes get the same thing plastered all over the page. As long as the listicle websites receive traffic, there'll be buyers for these nonsense and scammy ads.
- Filligree 4y ago
  > The other irritating thing with the tracking. You could look for a fridge, find, buy, receive it. But you'll remain getting ads about fridges for a week. Repeated ads, go to the speedcheck website, I sometimes get the same thing plastered all over the page. Most people who buy fridges have recently bought a fridge. Having done so is the single strongest signal for “will buy a fridge“ in existence. The reason for this is that sometimes fridges immediately malfunction and the customer goes looking for another one, which happens far more often than buying one in the first place. Not that this makes it look any less strange.
  - jjulius 4y ago
    Not to speak for OP, but the fridge is just one example of millions. If the product involves me doing any research on it ahead of time, or trying to debate the merits of competing products, it's almost always advertised to me ad nauseam post-purchase. One example of many, I bought a subwoofer in August for my studio and have been bombarded with ads for the very same sub ever since, even just this morning. Edit: I'd also like to see a statistic, re: "Most people who buy fridges have recently bought a fridge". If that's the case, then the fail rate for fridges on the market is egregiously high. You say "sometimes fridges malfunction", but I can't square away that "sometimes" with the phrase "most people" used earlier.
    - taneq 4y ago
      Yep, a few years ago I bought a drone. Months of ads for the same drone that I’d bought. A year ago I bought a high end upgrade monitor and I’m still getting spammed with similar models. Meanwhile over the last year I’ve consistently been buying end mills and work holding stuff for the CNC router I bought at the same time and… nothing. You’d think they’d focus on consumables related to recent big purchases.
      - 13of40 4y ago
        Counterpoint (true story): A few years ago I bought a drone, it turned out to be crap, so I sent it back and bought a DJI instead. Just like they track "people who bought A also bought B" I can imagine them tracking "people who bought A are likely to learn from their mistake and buy B".
        taneq 4y ago
        Fair call if I didn't buy a DJI Spark and then get ads for months for the base DJI Spark drone. Sell me batteries (of which I bought a couple), sell me the R/C unit with the beefy access point and joysticks built in, sell me a long range kit, sell me a headset, sell me whatever other addons! But how many damn baseline Sparks do I need?
    - prepend 4y ago
      I wonder if it’s kind of a scam as products think they are buying ads for people looking for a subwoofer or fridge but the advertiser is purposely grouping them together or is just incompetent. Maybe it’s just wastage that they can’t avoid. I’m still getting political letters in my mailbox even though I’ve already voted.
    - bombolo 4y ago
      Amazon is amazing: you just bought a guitar tuner? Here's 50 more guitar tuners!!!!! They know I just bought one… and yet…
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    > The reason for this is that sometimes fridges immediately malfunction and the customer goes looking for another one… Probably time to buy fridges with warranty coverage. Which should be basically all of them, as long as you’re not buying stuff that “fell off the back of the truck”.
  - candiodari 4y ago
    Crap. I actually did that 4 months ago (it was soooo much faster than the service repair) and now I feel ashamed.
  - blep_ 4y ago
    > happens far more often than buying one in the first place In the absolute worst case, wouldn't it be exactly as often (if every fridge immediately fails)? Though now I'm imagining someone having a fridge fail and then buying two backup fridges just in case.
  - prepend 4y ago
    > The reason for this is that sometimes fridges immediately malfunction and the customer goes looking for another one, which happens far more often than buying one in the first place. I don’t think this is true. First, I’m aware of probably 50 fridge purchases and none have immediate failed. Definitely an anecdote but better than your unsourced claim. Second, if I bought a fridge that immediately failed it would be under warranty and it would be repaired or replaced with the same model. Third, ConsumerReports.org rates fridges and none of the top brands report this problem.
  - freetime2 4y ago
    Maybe it’s just hard for Google/advertisers to distinguish between “recently searched for a fridge”, and “recently purchased a fridge” - and people seeing these ads after they already bought one are just false positives?
summerlight 4y ago
> 10 April 2017 | By Nathan Geffen I think it's helpful for viewers to put the year in the title, which is an important signal in that this site was able to survive for 5 years without ads.
- metadat 4y ago
  Thank you summerlight; updated.
strongpigeon 4y ago
Display Ads from ads network are the some of the worst. Since they’re around the content you care about, they try to be as attention grabbing as possible to make you look away. Hence, you get pictures of famous people, weird looking things and sexually suggestive images… I know money is nice, but I can’t imagine being so disrespectful to my users as to put unvetted display network ads like this. Don’t get me started on Taboola.
- odysseus 4y ago
  Big agree here. Trash ads were exactly the reason why I started running an ad blocker.
motoboi 4y ago
I'd like to aimlessly comment that I tried very hard and could not remember the last time I clicked in an google AD. I suppose that the last time that happened should be _at least_ 5 years, because that was when started using ad blockers. Before that, I was just annoyed by them, so I suppose the last click was years before that, when maybe they made any sense.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- FrontierPsych 4y ago
  Yes. I do not think that I have EVER clicked on a google ad, in almost 25 years or however long they've been around.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
cpurdy 4y ago
Ads suck. Google sucks. Put those two things together, and not surprisingly, the result is awful.
- paulcole 4y ago
  Ads don’t suck! They’re a way for us to read articles, watch videos, see images, etc. without paying with our credit cards. Plus they’re a way for us to learn about new products and services we might be interested in. What’s wrong with that?
  - phh 4y ago
    > without paying with our credit cards I'm not sure whether your message is an advocacy for 0 click micro-payment, or whether it's assuming that consumers don't pay for the ads.
    - paulcole 4y ago
      I do not pay for ads with money. I pay for ads with my attention and personal data. Please do not make the argument that I technically pay for my internet connection and so do in fact pay for ads. Please also do not make the argument that my time is money. It isn’t. I’m not interested in trading my time for money (outside of my day job).
      - HWR_14 4y ago
        > I’m not interested in trading my time for money (outside of my day job). Then you should oppose ads. You are literally trading your time to compensate for content, as opposed to trading your money for content.
        paulcole 4y ago
        I’m not trading my time for money. I’m trading (part of) my attention and some of my data for content. > You are literally trading your time to compensate for content This is literally not trading time for money.

83 points by metadat 4y ago

5 years later, the system (not just GAdds) remains broken. The same kind of ads that Ground Up refers to, everywhere. MS Edge's launch page is riddled with these ads, they appear on otherwise high profile news outlets. The other irritating thing with the tracking. You could look for a fridge, find, buy, receive it. But you'll remain getting ads about fridges for a week. Repeated ads, go to the speedcheck website, I sometimes get the same thing plastered all over the page. As long as the listicle websites receive traffic, there'll be buyers for these nonsense and scammy ads.

Filligree 4y ago
> The other irritating thing with the tracking. You could look for a fridge, find, buy, receive it. But you'll remain getting ads about fridges for a week. Repeated ads, go to the speedcheck website, I sometimes get the same thing plastered all over the page. Most people who buy fridges have recently bought a fridge. Having done so is the single strongest signal for “will buy a fridge“ in existence. The reason for this is that sometimes fridges immediately malfunction and the customer goes looking for another one, which happens far more often than buying one in the first place. Not that this makes it look any less strange.
- jjulius 4y ago
  Not to speak for OP, but the fridge is just one example of millions. If the product involves me doing any research on it ahead of time, or trying to debate the merits of competing products, it's almost always advertised to me ad nauseam post-purchase. One example of many, I bought a subwoofer in August for my studio and have been bombarded with ads for the very same sub ever since, even just this morning. Edit: I'd also like to see a statistic, re: "Most people who buy fridges have recently bought a fridge". If that's the case, then the fail rate for fridges on the market is egregiously high. You say "sometimes fridges malfunction", but I can't square away that "sometimes" with the phrase "most people" used earlier.
  - taneq 4y ago
    Yep, a few years ago I bought a drone. Months of ads for the same drone that I’d bought. A year ago I bought a high end upgrade monitor and I’m still getting spammed with similar models. Meanwhile over the last year I’ve consistently been buying end mills and work holding stuff for the CNC router I bought at the same time and… nothing. You’d think they’d focus on consumables related to recent big purchases.
    - 13of40 4y ago
      Counterpoint (true story): A few years ago I bought a drone, it turned out to be crap, so I sent it back and bought a DJI instead. Just like they track "people who bought A also bought B" I can imagine them tracking "people who bought A are likely to learn from their mistake and buy B".
      - taneq 4y ago
        Fair call if I didn't buy a DJI Spark and then get ads for months for the base DJI Spark drone. Sell me batteries (of which I bought a couple), sell me the R/C unit with the beefy access point and joysticks built in, sell me a long range kit, sell me a headset, sell me whatever other addons! But how many damn baseline Sparks do I need?
  - prepend 4y ago
    I wonder if it’s kind of a scam as products think they are buying ads for people looking for a subwoofer or fridge but the advertiser is purposely grouping them together or is just incompetent. Maybe it’s just wastage that they can’t avoid. I’m still getting political letters in my mailbox even though I’ve already voted.
  - bombolo 4y ago
    Amazon is amazing: you just bought a guitar tuner? Here's 50 more guitar tuners!!!!! They know I just bought one… and yet…
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  > The reason for this is that sometimes fridges immediately malfunction and the customer goes looking for another one… Probably time to buy fridges with warranty coverage. Which should be basically all of them, as long as you’re not buying stuff that “fell off the back of the truck”.
- candiodari 4y ago
  Crap. I actually did that 4 months ago (it was soooo much faster than the service repair) and now I feel ashamed.
- blep_ 4y ago
  > happens far more often than buying one in the first place In the absolute worst case, wouldn't it be exactly as often (if every fridge immediately fails)? Though now I'm imagining someone having a fridge fail and then buying two backup fridges just in case.
- prepend 4y ago
  > The reason for this is that sometimes fridges immediately malfunction and the customer goes looking for another one, which happens far more often than buying one in the first place. I don’t think this is true. First, I’m aware of probably 50 fridge purchases and none have immediate failed. Definitely an anecdote but better than your unsourced claim. Second, if I bought a fridge that immediately failed it would be under warranty and it would be repaired or replaced with the same model. Third, ConsumerReports.org rates fridges and none of the top brands report this problem.
- freetime2 4y ago
  Maybe it’s just hard for Google/advertisers to distinguish between “recently searched for a fridge”, and “recently purchased a fridge” - and people seeing these ads after they already bought one are just false positives?

summerlight 4y ago

> 10 April 2017 | By Nathan Geffen I think it's helpful for viewers to put the year in the title, which is an important signal in that this site was able to survive for 5 years without ads.

metadat 4y ago
Thank you summerlight; updated.

strongpigeon 4y ago

Display Ads from ads network are the some of the worst. Since they’re around the content you care about, they try to be as attention grabbing as possible to make you look away. Hence, you get pictures of famous people, weird looking things and sexually suggestive images… I know money is nice, but I can’t imagine being so disrespectful to my users as to put unvetted display network ads like this. Don’t get me started on Taboola.

odysseus 4y ago
Big agree here. Trash ads were exactly the reason why I started running an ad blocker.

motoboi 4y ago

I'd like to aimlessly comment that I tried very hard and could not remember the last time I clicked in an google AD. I suppose that the last time that happened should be _at least_ 5 years, because that was when started using ad blockers. Before that, I was just annoyed by them, so I suppose the last click was years before that, when maybe they made any sense.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
FrontierPsych 4y ago
Yes. I do not think that I have EVER clicked on a google ad, in almost 25 years or however long they've been around.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

cpurdy 4y ago

Ads suck. Google sucks. Put those two things together, and not surprisingly, the result is awful.

paulcole 4y ago
Ads don’t suck! They’re a way for us to read articles, watch videos, see images, etc. without paying with our credit cards. Plus they’re a way for us to learn about new products and services we might be interested in. What’s wrong with that?
- phh 4y ago
  > without paying with our credit cards I'm not sure whether your message is an advocacy for 0 click micro-payment, or whether it's assuming that consumers don't pay for the ads.
  - paulcole 4y ago
    I do not pay for ads with money. I pay for ads with my attention and personal data. Please do not make the argument that I technically pay for my internet connection and so do in fact pay for ads. Please also do not make the argument that my time is money. It isn’t. I’m not interested in trading my time for money (outside of my day job).
    - HWR_14 4y ago
      > I’m not interested in trading my time for money (outside of my day job). Then you should oppose ads. You are literally trading your time to compensate for content, as opposed to trading your money for content.
      - paulcole 4y ago
        I’m not trading my time for money. I’m trading (part of) my attention and some of my data for content. > You are literally trading your time to compensate for content This is literally not trading time for money.