10 ms·

Google, I've had enough. How about a Compromise?

114 points by hawke 14y ago

kayge 14y ago
The author briefly picks on Hulu's advertising methods, but I have actually been fairly pleased with their AdTailor(?) service. I don't see female-targetted ads anymore, and there has been a definite increase in advertising for products/services I might be interested in. It does still seem like there are a disproportionate amount of Insurance ads shown, and I'm not sure if that's because Insurance Companies have more advertising dollars, or because I have limited the pool of potential ad "archetypes" to show by using the AdTailor.
- toemetoch 14y ago
  I can relate to his frustration re Hulu ads. Discovery Channel (here in Europe) advertises mostly for their own programs - often for the program you're actually watching. The remainder is for a handful of companies. Clueless about why they'd do that.
- nate 14y ago
  Ah nice. I didn't realize they had this as I only use Hulu on my TV with a Roku.
loumf 14y ago
On google ads (at least Display ads), there's this little triangle in the corner with plenty of opt-out options. More info here: http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/static.py?hl=en&gl=US&ts=1631343&page=ts.cs http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/static.py?hl=en&gl...
recoiledsnake 14y ago
A couple of months ago, I searched for online stock brokerages and visited a couple of sites. For next few weeks, ALL is saw was online brokerage ads whichever site I went, from my home machine and laptop to my office machine. It was really irritating.
- oinksoft 14y ago
  I think this is why many people nowadays use ad blockers like AdBlock Plus, and tracking blockers like Ghostery.
alecbenzer 14y ago
It's funny that Hulu is supposed to have that "This ad isn't relevant" button to do exactly what he's describing (er, doing, I guess), but it doesn't seem to be effective for me at all.
- reginaldo 14y ago
  Depending on what I watch, I get only cars, cell phones, foundations, and of course 5-hour energy. I've always thought that this is because they don't have any other advertisers for that particular show. Like "this ad is not relevant but it's the only one we have so we'll show it to you anyway".
vladd 14y ago
Google allows you to manage your ads preferences at: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/ http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/ Retargeting is basically disabled if one opts out there (for the web, search&gmail or both).
- nate 14y ago
  Yep, totally useful if that's what you wanted. But like I mentioned in the article, I didn't want to turn off all re-targeting since some of those ads are relevant. Also to change your "preferences" you need a Google account, I have 100 of those :) I also don't want to manage categories of ads, I just didn't want to see specific vendors.
- EvilTerran 14y ago
  Well, they've got me sussed. With unsettling accuracy.
- getpost 14y ago
  I checked that link, and Google's profile of me is way off. Earth Sciences? Seriously? This is a comfort, since I figure letting the system run on bad information is just fine. It does suggest that Google isn't using some information it has on me. I'm sure it knows my birth year, but my browsing habits seem to suggest someone much younger. I must be 'immature.'
  - vibrunazo 14y ago
    It put my inferred age as 65+ years old, when I'm 29. I'm not sure what to make of that, other than google is much worse at this than I thought they were ^^
- niels_olson 14y ago
  Er, mine says I currently do not have an 'id' cookie. What's that mean? Am I untouchable or completely exposed?
sparkie 14y ago
Google only gives me ads for products I've already bought. I'm not sure which genius thought that kind of targeted advertising was a good idea. Perhaps if I used gmail, so they could read my emails and see what I've bought already, I wouldn't have this problem. I'll pass on that idea though.
- EvilTerran 14y ago
  Using gmail only makes it worse, as far as I can tell. I don't get the impression they pick your emails apart enough to distinguish between "bought this" and just "looking at this". I guess there's also the chance that, say, after buying a Frobnitz, you'll want to visit a Frobnitz-seller's website to buy accessories.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- laconian 14y ago
  Are you also going to quit visiting every site that is subsidized by ad revenue?
notjustanymike 14y ago
Pro-tip: look for the triangle in the top right of the ad. Usually clicking on it will provide an option for opting out, although it doesn't appear on all ads.
rogerbinns 14y ago
Don't ever make the mistake of looking up medical conditions you see on a show like House. You will forever be plagued by ads trying to address your condition!
- Teapot 14y ago
  Hey, at least you get to pick your ads. :P Btw, a simple search for anything geeky gets me tons of dating ads. (i havent installed adblock on my Opera test-browser). Pics of smiling chicks may be preferred over ugly medical conditions.
rglullis 14y ago
I really, really don't buy the idea that I should feel bad for using adblock. The whole "ads can be a way to provide quality services, and adblock removes that revenue" is the marketer's equivalent to the {MP|RI}AA's "every pirate is a stolen sale". The whole thing with the Internet is about desintermediation, and marketing departments are nothing but middle-men between producers and consumers. Even worse that they actually sell the idea that producers need to "build a brand". Zero actual value-add to the chain, but work to increase perceived and actual costs of the goods produced.
- tomkarlo 14y ago
  I agree with you that the MPAA claim is silly. But in this case, you're actually consuming the product - using their bandwidth, their servers, etc, all of which costs money - and denying them the revenue they use to support that service. The argument with the MPAA concept is that you're not denying them a sale, nor are you increasing their cost of doing business, but here you're you're doing the latter. Do you really believe that advertising (which is only part of what marketing departments do) is "zero value-add"? How do you learn about new products? How do you think the press who review products learn about them? How does a product become available for your to buy at Walgreens on the corner? All of that is "marketing"...
  - joejohnson 14y ago
    That argument is false for a few reasons. With many online services, who's to say precisely what the product is. Aren't we (the users) the real product for a lot of large, free services (gmail, Facebook, etc.)? And for the bandwidth, I'm paying for that too. I pay an ISP every month to browser the internet. Shouldn't I be able to control what I use this bandwidth for? When I click on a link, I don't truly know what resources resolving that address will require; it only seems fair that smart consumers can decide to black/whitelist content that they don't want.
    - tomkarlo 14y ago
      I don't disagree that as a consumer you should have the right to choose what gets sent to you - but generally, if you're using a site, you're also consenting to its terms of service (which generally include accepting its ads.) As such, the product IS actually defined for you, and not up for you to define as you see fit. Using it outside of those terms is theft of service. If you don't want accept those ads, fine, but from an ethical and legal standpoint you shouldn't be consuming its content or using its service, either. This whole "the users are the product" thing sounds great but it's an oversimplification; ultimately, it's the user's consumption of advertising that's the product for an ad-supported site; the user itself (ex ads) is often worthless or less than worthless. You're making a deal with the provider of the site that you'll consume their product in exchange for also viewing the ads; if you don't like that bargain, don't accept it and don't consume the content. The fact that you pay for your bandwidth, btw, has nothing to do with the fact that the site also pays for its bandwidth. Your ISP is not using part of what you pay to cover the bandwidth costs of the content provider.
ben1040 14y ago
I had no idea retargeting even was a thing, until one particular ad kept repeatedly showing up. When my grandmother died last year we looked up the website for a cremation service to find their phone number. Then for the next week or so I kept seeing banner ads for the same cremation service all over the web, on completely unrelated sites. I would expect to see a cremation service ad on an obituary page, maybe a local newspaper, etc. I would not expect to see it on, say, a tech blog or an Android user forum. And I could consistently refresh threads on that forum and keep seeing that particular ad from that same company. Maybe it was the nature of the service advertised and my frame of mind at the time I was seeing it, but I was really creeped out. I cleared cookies and it stopped. At that point I realized that the advertiser was doing something in particular to tell Google that I visited their site and to start throwing ads at me elsewhere. I checked out the AdWords docs to see how they were doing this and figure out how to opt out. I don't know how long this has been a service offered by Google. Up until that one instance I likely had countless ads retargeted at me, and I may have even clicked such ads. And it works great until one instance where I'm creeped the heck out and I push back.
- larrik 14y ago
  Me too. We had considered using one of the sites for finding a babysitter, and I was haunted by their ads for months. Of course, it replaced seeing EVE Online ads everywhere for years (literally).
- Estragon 14y ago
  Almost exactly the same thing happened to me. That's when I installed Adblock and Ghostery. (Hmm, I should install Ghostery in this browser, actually...)
- dasil003 14y ago
  When it started happening to me I was more or less indifferent other than to think: "why are they showing me an endless stream of ads for things I'm already a customer of?". I have more disposable income, so show me something new ferchrissakes.
  - 14y ago
shinratdr 14y ago
Internet advertising is always at the forefront of the shadiest practices. I'm not about to constantly monitor it. Either the industry reforms or I have AdBlock on forever.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  So very much this. My time is worth more than you could possibly charge per impression/click when one of your shady ad networks gives me some form of malware. Until ad network administrators take responsibility for what's being shown under their name, adblock stays on.
joejohnson 14y ago
That "Kudos" meter in the top right corner is inaccurate. I moused-over the black circle before I realized what it did, and it counted my "vote" anyway.
- nate 14y ago
  I'll make sure to remember that you'd like to take away the praise and honor you bestowed upon me for my achievement. :)
bartl 14y ago
Every other ad I see on YouTube is from Native Instruments. No, actually, it's more than half of the ads. I'm getting very tired of it.
12uu45dd 14y ago
Now, let's be serious. If we all block ads, whic is really trivial to do, then the web would cease to be an important medium, the quality of content found through the web would drop sharply and our lives would lose the enrichment that online advertising brings. It would just be terrible. Don't block ads. A kitten is tortured everytime you do.
- Lockyy 14y ago
  I understand this point and it is a good one. But do people really click on ads that much? I didn't even realise that they registered for people. They must or it wouldn't be a profitable system. Strange.
  - getsat 14y ago
    You might only need 1 in 10,000 ad views to result in a click to make money. It entirely depends upon what you're trying to get them to do/buy/sign up for on your site.
- gergles 14y ago
  Yeah, I remember that the Internet was completely useless until the corporate interests started throwing ad money into it, too.
- petercooper 14y ago
  I think you have your tongue in cheek, but I'm going to bite because I have something to say even if you're not being serious ;-) I'm an online publisher who has a significant percentage of income that comes via advertising and I think ad blocking is a good force for the Web. I don't use it, but I don't have a problem with those who do. Ad blockers typically block poorly performing display advertising (the CTRs on banners nowadays is ridiculously low and the levels of recall have been shown to be abysmally low in studies) and text link advertising from the big networks. Ad blockers typically do not block 'content marketing', videos on sites like YouTube, editorial mentions of products, references to products and services within content, adverts in podcasts, job ads (usually), sponsors in e-mail newsletters, and a whole myriad of other ways that smart advertisers and publishers are using. It's about time we killed off mass market display advertising online. Why? Because it gives publishers an incentive to actually work to provide experiences that benefit both readers and advertisers and not sit on their fat asses collecting checks for doing sod all.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
mephi5t0 14y ago
I have another addon instead: ad-block in Google Chrome. No problems at all. Sometimes I need it disabled for work, so I also have 3rd party cookies disabled. This way even if I come to coca-cola site I will not see it everywhere :)
thelastknowngod 14y ago
You should check out Collusion: http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/collusion-who-is-tracking-you/ http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/collusion-who-is-tracking-you/ Then install TrackerBlock: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackerblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackerblock/
- zanny 14y ago
  Upboats for Collusion, I can't sleep anymore knowing 95% of the websites I visit are sending info to or from Facebook.
- RexM 14y ago
  What's funny is you post the link to makeuseof.com which seems to be one of the worse offenders. For a direct link, http://collusion.toolness.org/ http://collusion.toolness.org/
socceruci 14y ago
Statics have shown that showing an ad every other day for a month is more effective than any more often.
RobAtticus 14y ago
ESPN3 and NBC Sports online are SO bad at showing the same two commercials at every single break. I assume its because nobody wants to spend their money on ads only to have them shown online, but damn. I must've seen that "We just had a Journey moment there" ad a thousand times while watching college basketball this winter. It doesn't help that they have some annoying catchphrase that stands out or high-pitched sound/song to up its annoyance factor. Something really, really needs to be done about this.
polshaw 14y ago
I had this happen recently with airbnb.. I went to check out prices in a city, and decided youth hostels offered better value for the situation so left. Virtually every single website i visited for a week was shoving airbnb in my face. Yes, i know you exist, i went there. There has to be more complexity to the 'rule of 7' because i'm sure there must be better sales patterns than just shoving 7 ads in a row for the same thing at you. The same thing happens with comedy central's online shows.. every time the same ad-- it just makes me hate the product after the first few times.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
robomartin 14y ago
Aren't you just angry because your girlfriend keeps seeing that penile enlargement ad every time she uses your computer? It sure bothers me! All kidding aside, I'd say that the minute you start paying for Google's search engine, email, docs and other services you are automatically entitled to them blocking ads from AdSense-powered sites. Until then I can't see how someone can complain given the value received. Fair trade.
spwmoni 14y ago
Ninjas AND robots???!? SO EPIC!
cnbeuiwx 14y ago
Why do people even trust ads? Why would I pick a certain brand just because I see it over and over? Wouldnt someone intelligent just do 5 minutes of googling to find out which one is the best? Not to mention that I think it grabs my attention from what Im trying to do and redirects it into me wanting to buy a product all of a sudden. No. Proud Adblock user ever since it came.
Digit-Al 14y ago
Last year I visited a site to do with laser eye surgery. I was then subjected to ads for laser eye surgery for 3 or 4 months, even after I had surgery and was definitely not going to be buying the service again. This gave me an idea for how to prank a friend if they leave you alone with their computer for a short while. Just visit loads of sites for an embarrassing subject (maybe haemorrhoids, vaginal rash, penis enlargement, etc...) They will then be subjected to ads for that subject for months after, with no idea why :-)
pilot_pirx 14y ago
Companies are lucky if I use AdBlock, because my personal "Rule of 7" states that company adds I see more than 7 times make this company an automatic member of the "annoying company list" (Adds that blink or play sound (hear me coka cola?)) are immediate candidates.

114 points by hawke 14y ago

kayge 14y ago

The author briefly picks on Hulu's advertising methods, but I have actually been fairly pleased with their AdTailor(?) service. I don't see female-targetted ads anymore, and there has been a definite increase in advertising for products/services I might be interested in. It does still seem like there are a disproportionate amount of Insurance ads shown, and I'm not sure if that's because Insurance Companies have more advertising dollars, or because I have limited the pool of potential ad "archetypes" to show by using the AdTailor.

toemetoch 14y ago
I can relate to his frustration re Hulu ads. Discovery Channel (here in Europe) advertises mostly for their own programs - often for the program you're actually watching. The remainder is for a handful of companies. Clueless about why they'd do that.
nate 14y ago
Ah nice. I didn't realize they had this as I only use Hulu on my TV with a Roku.

loumf 14y ago

On google ads (at least Display ads), there's this little triangle in the corner with plenty of opt-out options. More info here: http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/static.py?hl=en&gl=US&ts=1631343&page=ts.cs http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/static.py?hl=en&gl...

recoiledsnake 14y ago

A couple of months ago, I searched for online stock brokerages and visited a couple of sites. For next few weeks, ALL is saw was online brokerage ads whichever site I went, from my home machine and laptop to my office machine. It was really irritating.

oinksoft 14y ago
I think this is why many people nowadays use ad blockers like AdBlock Plus, and tracking blockers like Ghostery.

alecbenzer 14y ago

It's funny that Hulu is supposed to have that "This ad isn't relevant" button to do exactly what he's describing (er, doing, I guess), but it doesn't seem to be effective for me at all.

reginaldo 14y ago
Depending on what I watch, I get only cars, cell phones, foundations, and of course 5-hour energy. I've always thought that this is because they don't have any other advertisers for that particular show. Like "this ad is not relevant but it's the only one we have so we'll show it to you anyway".

vladd 14y ago

Google allows you to manage your ads preferences at: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/ http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/ Retargeting is basically disabled if one opts out there (for the web, search&gmail or both).

nate 14y ago
Yep, totally useful if that's what you wanted. But like I mentioned in the article, I didn't want to turn off all re-targeting since some of those ads are relevant. Also to change your "preferences" you need a Google account, I have 100 of those :) I also don't want to manage categories of ads, I just didn't want to see specific vendors.
EvilTerran 14y ago
Well, they've got me sussed. With unsettling accuracy.
getpost 14y ago
I checked that link, and Google's profile of me is way off. Earth Sciences? Seriously? This is a comfort, since I figure letting the system run on bad information is just fine. It does suggest that Google isn't using some information it has on me. I'm sure it knows my birth year, but my browsing habits seem to suggest someone much younger. I must be 'immature.'
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  It put my inferred age as 65+ years old, when I'm 29. I'm not sure what to make of that, other than google is much worse at this than I thought they were ^^
niels_olson 14y ago
Er, mine says I currently do not have an 'id' cookie. What's that mean? Am I untouchable or completely exposed?

sparkie 14y ago

Google only gives me ads for products I've already bought. I'm not sure which genius thought that kind of targeted advertising was a good idea. Perhaps if I used gmail, so they could read my emails and see what I've bought already, I wouldn't have this problem. I'll pass on that idea though.

EvilTerran 14y ago
Using gmail only makes it worse, as far as I can tell. I don't get the impression they pick your emails apart enough to distinguish between "bought this" and just "looking at this". I guess there's also the chance that, say, after buying a Frobnitz, you'll want to visit a Frobnitz-seller's website to buy accessories.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

laconian 14y ago
Are you also going to quit visiting every site that is subsidized by ad revenue?

notjustanymike 14y ago

Pro-tip: look for the triangle in the top right of the ad. Usually clicking on it will provide an option for opting out, although it doesn't appear on all ads.

rogerbinns 14y ago

Don't ever make the mistake of looking up medical conditions you see on a show like House. You will forever be plagued by ads trying to address your condition!

Teapot 14y ago
Hey, at least you get to pick your ads. :P Btw, a simple search for anything geeky gets me tons of dating ads. (i havent installed adblock on my Opera test-browser). Pics of smiling chicks may be preferred over ugly medical conditions.

rglullis 14y ago

I really, really don't buy the idea that I should feel bad for using adblock. The whole "ads can be a way to provide quality services, and adblock removes that revenue" is the marketer's equivalent to the {MP|RI}AA's "every pirate is a stolen sale". The whole thing with the Internet is about desintermediation, and marketing departments are nothing but middle-men between producers and consumers. Even worse that they actually sell the idea that producers need to "build a brand". Zero actual value-add to the chain, but work to increase perceived and actual costs of the goods produced.

tomkarlo 14y ago
I agree with you that the MPAA claim is silly. But in this case, you're actually consuming the product - using their bandwidth, their servers, etc, all of which costs money - and denying them the revenue they use to support that service. The argument with the MPAA concept is that you're not denying them a sale, nor are you increasing their cost of doing business, but here you're you're doing the latter. Do you really believe that advertising (which is only part of what marketing departments do) is "zero value-add"? How do you learn about new products? How do you think the press who review products learn about them? How does a product become available for your to buy at Walgreens on the corner? All of that is "marketing"...
- joejohnson 14y ago
  That argument is false for a few reasons. With many online services, who's to say precisely what the product is. Aren't we (the users) the real product for a lot of large, free services (gmail, Facebook, etc.)? And for the bandwidth, I'm paying for that too. I pay an ISP every month to browser the internet. Shouldn't I be able to control what I use this bandwidth for? When I click on a link, I don't truly know what resources resolving that address will require; it only seems fair that smart consumers can decide to black/whitelist content that they don't want.
  - tomkarlo 14y ago
    I don't disagree that as a consumer you should have the right to choose what gets sent to you - but generally, if you're using a site, you're also consenting to its terms of service (which generally include accepting its ads.) As such, the product IS actually defined for you, and not up for you to define as you see fit. Using it outside of those terms is theft of service. If you don't want accept those ads, fine, but from an ethical and legal standpoint you shouldn't be consuming its content or using its service, either. This whole "the users are the product" thing sounds great but it's an oversimplification; ultimately, it's the user's consumption of advertising that's the product for an ad-supported site; the user itself (ex ads) is often worthless or less than worthless. You're making a deal with the provider of the site that you'll consume their product in exchange for also viewing the ads; if you don't like that bargain, don't accept it and don't consume the content. The fact that you pay for your bandwidth, btw, has nothing to do with the fact that the site also pays for its bandwidth. Your ISP is not using part of what you pay to cover the bandwidth costs of the content provider.

ben1040 14y ago

I had no idea retargeting even was a thing, until one particular ad kept repeatedly showing up. When my grandmother died last year we looked up the website for a cremation service to find their phone number. Then for the next week or so I kept seeing banner ads for the same cremation service all over the web, on completely unrelated sites. I would expect to see a cremation service ad on an obituary page, maybe a local newspaper, etc. I would not expect to see it on, say, a tech blog or an Android user forum. And I could consistently refresh threads on that forum and keep seeing that particular ad from that same company. Maybe it was the nature of the service advertised and my frame of mind at the time I was seeing it, but I was really creeped out. I cleared cookies and it stopped. At that point I realized that the advertiser was doing something in particular to tell Google that I visited their site and to start throwing ads at me elsewhere. I checked out the AdWords docs to see how they were doing this and figure out how to opt out. I don't know how long this has been a service offered by Google. Up until that one instance I likely had countless ads retargeted at me, and I may have even clicked such ads. And it works great until one instance where I'm creeped the heck out and I push back.

larrik 14y ago
Me too. We had considered using one of the sites for finding a babysitter, and I was haunted by their ads for months. Of course, it replaced seeing EVE Online ads everywhere for years (literally).
Estragon 14y ago
Almost exactly the same thing happened to me. That's when I installed Adblock and Ghostery. (Hmm, I should install Ghostery in this browser, actually...)
dasil003 14y ago
When it started happening to me I was more or less indifferent other than to think: "why are they showing me an endless stream of ads for things I'm already a customer of?". I have more disposable income, so show me something new ferchrissakes.
- 14y ago

shinratdr 14y ago

Internet advertising is always at the forefront of the shadiest practices. I'm not about to constantly monitor it. Either the industry reforms or I have AdBlock on forever.

Karunamon 14y ago
So very much this. My time is worth more than you could possibly charge per impression/click when one of your shady ad networks gives me some form of malware. Until ad network administrators take responsibility for what's being shown under their name, adblock stays on.

joejohnson 14y ago

That "Kudos" meter in the top right corner is inaccurate. I moused-over the black circle before I realized what it did, and it counted my "vote" anyway.

nate 14y ago
I'll make sure to remember that you'd like to take away the praise and honor you bestowed upon me for my achievement. :)

bartl 14y ago

Every other ad I see on YouTube is from Native Instruments. No, actually, it's more than half of the ads. I'm getting very tired of it.

12uu45dd 14y ago

Now, let's be serious. If we all block ads, whic is really trivial to do, then the web would cease to be an important medium, the quality of content found through the web would drop sharply and our lives would lose the enrichment that online advertising brings. It would just be terrible. Don't block ads. A kitten is tortured everytime you do.

Lockyy 14y ago
I understand this point and it is a good one. But do people really click on ads that much? I didn't even realise that they registered for people. They must or it wouldn't be a profitable system. Strange.
- getsat 14y ago
  You might only need 1 in 10,000 ad views to result in a click to make money. It entirely depends upon what you're trying to get them to do/buy/sign up for on your site.
gergles 14y ago
Yeah, I remember that the Internet was completely useless until the corporate interests started throwing ad money into it, too.
petercooper 14y ago
I think you have your tongue in cheek, but I'm going to bite because I have something to say even if you're not being serious ;-) I'm an online publisher who has a significant percentage of income that comes via advertising and I think ad blocking is a good force for the Web. I don't use it, but I don't have a problem with those who do. Ad blockers typically block poorly performing display advertising (the CTRs on banners nowadays is ridiculously low and the levels of recall have been shown to be abysmally low in studies) and text link advertising from the big networks. Ad blockers typically do not block 'content marketing', videos on sites like YouTube, editorial mentions of products, references to products and services within content, adverts in podcasts, job ads (usually), sponsors in e-mail newsletters, and a whole myriad of other ways that smart advertisers and publishers are using. It's about time we killed off mass market display advertising online. Why? Because it gives publishers an incentive to actually work to provide experiences that benefit both readers and advertisers and not sit on their fat asses collecting checks for doing sod all.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

mephi5t0 14y ago

I have another addon instead: ad-block in Google Chrome. No problems at all. Sometimes I need it disabled for work, so I also have 3rd party cookies disabled. This way even if I come to coca-cola site I will not see it everywhere :)

thelastknowngod 14y ago

You should check out Collusion: http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/collusion-who-is-tracking-you/ http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/collusion-who-is-tracking-you/ Then install TrackerBlock: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackerblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackerblock/

zanny 14y ago
Upboats for Collusion, I can't sleep anymore knowing 95% of the websites I visit are sending info to or from Facebook.
RexM 14y ago
What's funny is you post the link to makeuseof.com which seems to be one of the worse offenders. For a direct link, http://collusion.toolness.org/ http://collusion.toolness.org/

socceruci 14y ago

Statics have shown that showing an ad every other day for a month is more effective than any more often.

RobAtticus 14y ago

ESPN3 and NBC Sports online are SO bad at showing the same two commercials at every single break. I assume its because nobody wants to spend their money on ads only to have them shown online, but damn. I must've seen that "We just had a Journey moment there" ad a thousand times while watching college basketball this winter. It doesn't help that they have some annoying catchphrase that stands out or high-pitched sound/song to up its annoyance factor. Something really, really needs to be done about this.

polshaw 14y ago

I had this happen recently with airbnb.. I went to check out prices in a city, and decided youth hostels offered better value for the situation so left. Virtually every single website i visited for a week was shoving airbnb in my face. Yes, i know you exist, i went there. There has to be more complexity to the 'rule of 7' because i'm sure there must be better sales patterns than just shoving 7 ads in a row for the same thing at you. The same thing happens with comedy central's online shows.. every time the same ad-- it just makes me hate the product after the first few times.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

robomartin 14y ago

Aren't you just angry because your girlfriend keeps seeing that penile enlargement ad every time she uses your computer? It sure bothers me! All kidding aside, I'd say that the minute you start paying for Google's search engine, email, docs and other services you are automatically entitled to them blocking ads from AdSense-powered sites. Until then I can't see how someone can complain given the value received. Fair trade.

spwmoni 14y ago

Ninjas AND robots???!? SO EPIC!

cnbeuiwx 14y ago

Why do people even trust ads? Why would I pick a certain brand just because I see it over and over? Wouldnt someone intelligent just do 5 minutes of googling to find out which one is the best? Not to mention that I think it grabs my attention from what Im trying to do and redirects it into me wanting to buy a product all of a sudden. No. Proud Adblock user ever since it came.

Digit-Al 14y ago

Last year I visited a site to do with laser eye surgery. I was then subjected to ads for laser eye surgery for 3 or 4 months, even after I had surgery and was definitely not going to be buying the service again. This gave me an idea for how to prank a friend if they leave you alone with their computer for a short while. Just visit loads of sites for an embarrassing subject (maybe haemorrhoids, vaginal rash, penis enlargement, etc...) They will then be subjected to ads for that subject for months after, with no idea why :-)

pilot_pirx 14y ago

Companies are lucky if I use AdBlock, because my personal "Rule of 7" states that company adds I see more than 7 times make this company an automatic member of the "annoying company list" (Adds that blink or play sound (hear me coka cola?)) are immediate candidates.