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Seeing these big sites with no ads is strange. CNN, NYPost, etc. This is going to be wildly expensive for Google. Anyone internal know what's going on? We s

Seeing these big sites with no ads is strange. CNN, NYPost, etc. This is going to be wildly expensive for Google. Anyone internal know what's going on? We started seeing GAM not returning responses about an hour ago, yet their status page and accounts were silent till 10 minutes ago.

koolba 4y ago
Does this mean every page is loading faster? Or do they just hang halfway trying to load ads?
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Should be faster I think. Pihole just refuses to resolve ads servers and generally improves performance, right?
  - kevingadd 4y ago
    If the ad server is instead taking a long time to respond, it'll probably make pages load slower.
    - Waterluvian 4y ago
      Only very very poorly built websites. So all the news sites.
    - bee_rider 4y ago
      There are definitely a thousand people here more qualified on this stuff (I write Fortran lol) but I thought JavaScript was all asynchronous now? Shouldn’t the actually desired content load independently of the ads?
      - mooooooooooooo 4y ago
        Fortran is cool, what do you work on?
        bee_rider 4y ago
        Parallel linear system solvers. Grad student, so mostly I use Fortran so it’ll plug into my professor’s code more easily, haha. No complaints, though. It is a fine language.
      - nimchimpsky 4y ago
    - more_corn 4y ago
      Requests for remote content don’t delay rendering of the page. Everything will be significantly faster.
- powvans 4y ago
  Anecdotally it feels like all of these sites are super fast right now. I even reinstalled the heinous Weather Channel app and it’s working wonderfully. With ads that app is essentially unusable on an iPhone 14.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  CNN is zippy without the chumboxes. Time to party like it's 1999.
DiggyJohnson 4y ago
Genuinely curious, do you not use an adblocker?
- midoridensha 4y ago
  It always feels bizarre when someone on HN complains about lots of ads on web pages.
- mattacular 4y ago
  I used to browse without one when I worked on an ad-supported site and had to implement and make sure they were working correctly. Gotta assume it's a similar situation here?
  - throwaway09223 4y ago
    I worked at one of the top ad networks for a decade and blocked them the entire time. Would usually just open a separately configured browser window for testing.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - lzaaz 4y ago
    I have a "clean" (no addons at all) Chrome profile for web development purposes.
- celestialcheese 4y ago
  On personal machines, yes. Work involves ads so I keep it off the work machine so I understand what's going on.
bagels 4y ago
Nobody on here is going to be authorized to talk about about it while it's going on.
- celestialcheese 4y ago
  Eh - worth a shot. HN surprises me sometimes with anons jumping in and giving a behind-the-curtain look.
grishka 4y ago
> Seeing these big sites with no ads is strange. I've been using ad blockers for many years, so for me it's the opposite: it would be extremely strange and unsettling seeing any ads on my own devices at all.
- mpsprd 4y ago
  Same. When I help relatives with their tech woes, loading a website on a vanilla browser after all these years without ads is shocking. All these flashing and moving gizmos and pop up videos. It's so jarring, like having a flashlight flickered in your face constantly. I have honestly no idea how people manage to work the web without adblock nowadays.
  - dwighttk 4y ago
    yep... I've started loading pages I want to send to my mom with adblockers turned off just to check how bad they'll be because somehow despite turning them on every time I visit by the time I get back they have been turned back off...
    - culi 4y ago
      just teach them to download adblock. It might be an annoying 20 minutes of your life but it'll do wonders for their mental health in the long run
    - TeMPOraL 4y ago
      I'm going to guess it's one or more of: - Lack of experience or awareness that running an ad blocker isn't something weird or niche, but is in fact basic hygiene when on-line. - Sites that ask, demand, beg or cajole visitors into turning your ad blocker off, many of which provide detailed instructions aimed at non-technical people; your mom may have needed something from one of such sites, and didn't bother or remember to turn the adblocker back on. If I were to bet, I'd pick a link to an interesting article on a news site that employs this technique. - Perhaps your mom uses one of those cashback extensions to get some money back when shopping on-line? They're somewhat popular and regularly advertised by vloggers and influencers. Disabling ad blocker is AFAIK necessary - for technical reasons - for the service to award you cashback. My wife uses one of those cashback services, but we did some research on their inner workings and business model first, to be sure she's taking advantage of it, instead of being taken advantage of herself. And she follows a strict routine: she disables uBlock before visiting a participating e-commerce store, does the purchase, and re-enables it immediately afterwards.
culi 4y ago
Damn I tried turning off my adblock just to see but it's probably been years since I've seen those sites _with_ ads so I have no way to relate to this experience

koolba 4y ago

Does this mean every page is loading faster? Or do they just hang halfway trying to load ads?

bee_rider 4y ago
Should be faster I think. Pihole just refuses to resolve ads servers and generally improves performance, right?
- kevingadd 4y ago
  If the ad server is instead taking a long time to respond, it'll probably make pages load slower.
  - Waterluvian 4y ago
    Only very very poorly built websites. So all the news sites.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    There are definitely a thousand people here more qualified on this stuff (I write Fortran lol) but I thought JavaScript was all asynchronous now? Shouldn’t the actually desired content load independently of the ads?
    - mooooooooooooo 4y ago
      Fortran is cool, what do you work on?
      - bee_rider 4y ago
        Parallel linear system solvers. Grad student, so mostly I use Fortran so it’ll plug into my professor’s code more easily, haha. No complaints, though. It is a fine language.
    - nimchimpsky 4y ago
  - more_corn 4y ago
    Requests for remote content don’t delay rendering of the page. Everything will be significantly faster.
powvans 4y ago
Anecdotally it feels like all of these sites are super fast right now. I even reinstalled the heinous Weather Channel app and it’s working wonderfully. With ads that app is essentially unusable on an iPhone 14.
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
CNN is zippy without the chumboxes. Time to party like it's 1999.

DiggyJohnson 4y ago

Genuinely curious, do you not use an adblocker?

midoridensha 4y ago
It always feels bizarre when someone on HN complains about lots of ads on web pages.
mattacular 4y ago
I used to browse without one when I worked on an ad-supported site and had to implement and make sure they were working correctly. Gotta assume it's a similar situation here?
- throwaway09223 4y ago
  I worked at one of the top ad networks for a decade and blocked them the entire time. Would usually just open a separately configured browser window for testing.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- lzaaz 4y ago
  I have a "clean" (no addons at all) Chrome profile for web development purposes.
celestialcheese 4y ago
On personal machines, yes. Work involves ads so I keep it off the work machine so I understand what's going on.

bagels 4y ago

Nobody on here is going to be authorized to talk about about it while it's going on.

celestialcheese 4y ago
Eh - worth a shot. HN surprises me sometimes with anons jumping in and giving a behind-the-curtain look.

grishka 4y ago

> Seeing these big sites with no ads is strange. I've been using ad blockers for many years, so for me it's the opposite: it would be extremely strange and unsettling seeing any ads on my own devices at all.

mpsprd 4y ago
Same. When I help relatives with their tech woes, loading a website on a vanilla browser after all these years without ads is shocking. All these flashing and moving gizmos and pop up videos. It's so jarring, like having a flashlight flickered in your face constantly. I have honestly no idea how people manage to work the web without adblock nowadays.
- dwighttk 4y ago
  yep... I've started loading pages I want to send to my mom with adblockers turned off just to check how bad they'll be because somehow despite turning them on every time I visit by the time I get back they have been turned back off...
  - culi 4y ago
    just teach them to download adblock. It might be an annoying 20 minutes of your life but it'll do wonders for their mental health in the long run
  - TeMPOraL 4y ago
    I'm going to guess it's one or more of: - Lack of experience or awareness that running an ad blocker isn't something weird or niche, but is in fact basic hygiene when on-line. - Sites that ask, demand, beg or cajole visitors into turning your ad blocker off, many of which provide detailed instructions aimed at non-technical people; your mom may have needed something from one of such sites, and didn't bother or remember to turn the adblocker back on. If I were to bet, I'd pick a link to an interesting article on a news site that employs this technique. - Perhaps your mom uses one of those cashback extensions to get some money back when shopping on-line? They're somewhat popular and regularly advertised by vloggers and influencers. Disabling ad blocker is AFAIK necessary - for technical reasons - for the service to award you cashback. My wife uses one of those cashback services, but we did some research on their inner workings and business model first, to be sure she's taking advantage of it, instead of being taken advantage of herself. And she follows a strict routine: she disables uBlock before visiting a participating e-commerce store, does the purchase, and re-enables it immediately afterwards.

culi 4y ago

Damn I tried turning off my adblock just to see but it's probably been years since I've seen those sites _with_ ads so I have no way to relate to this experience