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I do find it interesting that the author specifies they use an ad blocker whilst also wanting to view the industry 'from the inside'. I'm not sure there isn't a

I do find it interesting that the author specifies they use an ad blocker whilst also wanting to view the industry 'from the inside'. I'm not sure there isn't a level of hypocrisy there, albeit understandable. As staunchly anti-advertising, I wouldn't include advertising on anything I publish personally, but then I also don't publish anything, so I have no pressure to change my stance. I think I've convinced myself that my opinion doesn't matter to those who may be able to earn a decent stream from advertising (as much as I dislike that, and as much as I dislike my opinion being value-less).

kevin_thibedeau 7mo ago
It's an act of self-protection. I'm not anti-advertising. I'm anti-running-untrusted-software on my property. If they had stuck to adwords and static images with no invasive tracking I'd let their ads run. But the surveillance capitalists can't help themselves and want to run their 50MB spyware payload on my computer. I say no to that garbage.
- ceejayoz 7mo ago
  Precisely this. The industry has themselves to blame.
- coliveira 7mo ago
  Correct. Google had initially a good program that was based on keywords and non-intrusive ads. They killed that in the pursuit of more profits.
  - BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
    A grand failure on behalf of society is that this was a good business decision (it succeeded at improving their profits) because it has faced effectively zero governmental intervention despite the fact it is used as a foundation for the launch of a million scams.
    - cindyllm 7mo ago
      [dead]
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
- Terr_ 7mo ago
  "I'll run the arbitrary code you send me if you acknowledge that you are legally liable if it turns out to be a virus or a scam... No? Why won't you take that deal?"
dotancohen 7mo ago
The problem is not the marketing of services and products. The problem is the vector for tracking and for installing malware on users' browsers. I'd actually love to be notified when interesting products are available - but I block ads out of the defensive stance that the advertising industry pushed many people into.
greyface- 7mo ago
There's no contradiction; ad blocker usage is common within the industry.
- akoboldfrying 7mo ago
  There certainly is a contradiction, but it's so deeply ingrained that using ad blockers is OK that people can't see it even when it's right in front of their faces. If everyone used 100% effective ad blockers, Alphabet (minus GCP) and Meta would not exist, and nor would the very large number of free-as-in-beer services that make up a large part of what makes the internet useful to people.
  - vkou 7mo ago
    > nor would the very large number of free-as-in-beer services that make up a large part of what makes the internet useful to people. Whatever replaced them could hardly be worse than the shit we currently have. I refuse to believe we live in a global maximum.
    - akoboldfrying 7mo ago
      You could be right, but I personally am much more comfortable paying with a few milliseconds of my attention for news/email/short comedy clips/timezone conversion/etc. than even a single cent of actual money. And it has to be one or the other -- right?
      - vkou 7mo ago
        Of course you are, that's why we are in this Faustian bargain. It's hard to compete with free-as-in-beer.
      - modo_mario 7mo ago
        >than even a single cent of actual money. I think we often pay those cents without knowing. Companies we employ or purchase from despite never having been subject to their adspend, etc
princevegeta89 7mo ago
Well, I think either way, Internet ads are dead for the most part. They have been dead for many years now. They started exactly the same way and went through the same flow. There were all kinds of ads: ads to install junk, ads that were totally misleading, ads that were very sexual in nature just to tempt users into clicking them, and ads that were totally irrelevant to the topic of the website or the user's interests. But then it got so bad that people started using ad blockers long ago, and they got rid of this mess. Later, companies slowly started moving away from Internet advertising in general, and when the mobile and smartphone market started to take off, all the money flowed into that world instead. If you look at the way ads work in the mobile industry, even today, they are full of junk and incentivize users to install apps and perform specific actions. There is an equal amount of junk and misleading content in mobile ads today, like there used to be in Internet ads more than a decade ago. But right now, we are at that point. Mobile ads will also start getting muted one way or the other, and there will be huge incentive and opportunity sitting on top of that right there. To add to this specific article, though, I would say it would have hardly made a difference anyway for the author in 2025.
- sanswork 7mo ago
  ads definitely aren't dead. Though ads on random networks like adsense probably are because the quality of traffic is horrendous. Basically every beginner adwords guide will have you disable network traffic(turn off adsense). Advertising direct on sites is still very valuable.
  - bookofjoe 7mo ago
    >Google posts $82.3 billion of ad revenue, YouTube's advertising business hit $11.4 billion in Q4 2025 https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/google-posts-82-3-billion-of-ad-revenue-youtubes-advertising-business-hit-11-4-billion-in-q4-2025-88901.htm https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/google-posts-82-3-b...
- coliveira 7mo ago
  Large news sites still depend on ads. They don't make much, but there's not much else they can do to increase revenue.

kevin_thibedeau 7mo ago

It's an act of self-protection. I'm not anti-advertising. I'm anti-running-untrusted-software on my property. If they had stuck to adwords and static images with no invasive tracking I'd let their ads run. But the surveillance capitalists can't help themselves and want to run their 50MB spyware payload on my computer. I say no to that garbage.

ceejayoz 7mo ago
Precisely this. The industry has themselves to blame.
coliveira 7mo ago
Correct. Google had initially a good program that was based on keywords and non-intrusive ads. They killed that in the pursuit of more profits.
- BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
  A grand failure on behalf of society is that this was a good business decision (it succeeded at improving their profits) because it has faced effectively zero governmental intervention despite the fact it is used as a foundation for the launch of a million scams.
  - cindyllm 7mo ago
    [dead]
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
Terr_ 7mo ago
"I'll run the arbitrary code you send me if you acknowledge that you are legally liable if it turns out to be a virus or a scam... No? Why won't you take that deal?"

dotancohen 7mo ago

The problem is not the marketing of services and products. The problem is the vector for tracking and for installing malware on users' browsers. I'd actually love to be notified when interesting products are available - but I block ads out of the defensive stance that the advertising industry pushed many people into.

greyface- 7mo ago

There's no contradiction; ad blocker usage is common within the industry.

akoboldfrying 7mo ago
There certainly is a contradiction, but it's so deeply ingrained that using ad blockers is OK that people can't see it even when it's right in front of their faces. If everyone used 100% effective ad blockers, Alphabet (minus GCP) and Meta would not exist, and nor would the very large number of free-as-in-beer services that make up a large part of what makes the internet useful to people.
- vkou 7mo ago
  > nor would the very large number of free-as-in-beer services that make up a large part of what makes the internet useful to people. Whatever replaced them could hardly be worse than the shit we currently have. I refuse to believe we live in a global maximum.
  - akoboldfrying 7mo ago
    You could be right, but I personally am much more comfortable paying with a few milliseconds of my attention for news/email/short comedy clips/timezone conversion/etc. than even a single cent of actual money. And it has to be one or the other -- right?
    - vkou 7mo ago
      Of course you are, that's why we are in this Faustian bargain. It's hard to compete with free-as-in-beer.
    - modo_mario 7mo ago
      >than even a single cent of actual money. I think we often pay those cents without knowing. Companies we employ or purchase from despite never having been subject to their adspend, etc

princevegeta89 7mo ago

Well, I think either way, Internet ads are dead for the most part. They have been dead for many years now. They started exactly the same way and went through the same flow. There were all kinds of ads: ads to install junk, ads that were totally misleading, ads that were very sexual in nature just to tempt users into clicking them, and ads that were totally irrelevant to the topic of the website or the user's interests. But then it got so bad that people started using ad blockers long ago, and they got rid of this mess. Later, companies slowly started moving away from Internet advertising in general, and when the mobile and smartphone market started to take off, all the money flowed into that world instead. If you look at the way ads work in the mobile industry, even today, they are full of junk and incentivize users to install apps and perform specific actions. There is an equal amount of junk and misleading content in mobile ads today, like there used to be in Internet ads more than a decade ago. But right now, we are at that point. Mobile ads will also start getting muted one way or the other, and there will be huge incentive and opportunity sitting on top of that right there. To add to this specific article, though, I would say it would have hardly made a difference anyway for the author in 2025.

sanswork 7mo ago
ads definitely aren't dead. Though ads on random networks like adsense probably are because the quality of traffic is horrendous. Basically every beginner adwords guide will have you disable network traffic(turn off adsense). Advertising direct on sites is still very valuable.
- bookofjoe 7mo ago
  >Google posts $82.3 billion of ad revenue, YouTube's advertising business hit $11.4 billion in Q4 2025 https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/google-posts-82-3-billion-of-ad-revenue-youtubes-advertising-business-hit-11-4-billion-in-q4-2025-88901.htm https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/google-posts-82-3-b...
coliveira 7mo ago
Large news sites still depend on ads. They don't make much, but there's not much else they can do to increase revenue.