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I swear to god, the day people finally realize they can actually block ads, we're going to have a massive collapse of the industry. Fear that day.

by 10098 13y ago

socillion 13y ago
It's already happening: http://downloads.pagefair.com/reports/the_rise_of_adblocking.pdf http://downloads.pagefair.com/reports/the_rise_of_adblocking... I'd imagine a site like Facebook would have much lower ad blocking rates than average, though, due to low technical ability among users.
- KrisAndrew 13y ago
  They have high adblocking among younger users (<35). This is why everyone is interested in buying (non-revenue-generating) chat apps lately. Adblocking hasn't matured enough yet to block ads wholesale in applications. Facebook and Google want to recapture the ad impressions and clicks lost on users who are using blocking technologies.
infinitone 13y ago
There may be truth to this. I only recently finally decided to get AdBlock... and man... I can't imagine a world without it. Then again, whats to stop Chrome Store from removing the extension?
- selmnoo 13y ago
  > Then again, whats to stop Chrome Store from removing the extension? The fact that I'll switch to Firefox the day they do that?
- fsckin 13y ago
  Chromium, Firefox, Opera
- deepblueocean 13y ago
  How about a simple antitrust argument: if Google wants to use their power in the browser market, where they have majority power, to dictate the shape of the online advertising market, I think DoJ would have a pretty slam dunk case. Especially since Microsoft would be happy to pay for the best lawyers out there to write all the briefs in the case.
deepblueocean 13y ago
It's definitely true that content blocking is the user's trump card in the online tracking vs. privacy debate.
seiji 13y ago
Why doesn't anybody exploit the never ending stream of Windows zero days to install blanket ad blockers on every machine possible?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
TrevorJ 13y ago
Fear? No, I don't think so. I think there are a lot of people who are eager for business models that don't include having your data sold, or being advertised to. Adoption of adblock isn't something that is happening too fast to respond to, and it is a good thing, I believe, because it should create some innovation on the monetization side. Ad revenue isn't the only game in town, and I think consumers are receptive to other models that give them more control.
- Houshalter 13y ago
  The advertising industry is responsible for most malware and privacy concerns. They get money through manipulating people and I'm not certain they are actually adding much of value in the first place. Recommendation engines for app stores and online stores like amazon do the job of informing people of new things much better, and I think replaces the need for them entirely.
  - notanidiot5 13y ago
    Google and Facebook get money by manipulating people and aren't adding any value? Wow. Bold claim.
    - Houshalter 13y ago
      Ads themselves aren't. The sites supported on them might be, but the money is only coming from manipulating people into spending money they otherwise wouldn't. I said that to dispute the argument that ads are a benefit to consumers by informing them of products they might value.
mullingitover 13y ago
The lack of adblock options on mobile Safari and Chrome has to be a massive boon and a huge relief to advertisers. You can get third-party browsers that have some adblocking features, but I suspect the percentage of people on mobile who use them is in the low single digits.
- binarycrusader 13y ago
  AdBlock is available for Chrome and works just fine. I don't know about Safari.
  - mullingitover 13y ago
    I'm talking about mobile Safari and mobile Chrome. Neither supports extensions, and neither has integrated ad blocking. And while you can get third party browsers that do adblock, they're somewhat crippled in that only Safari has the Nitro javascript engine. All other browsers pay a performance tax.
    - binarycrusader 13y ago
      There's always a performance tax, even on desktop. With that said, I did miss the "mobile" bit.
- rahimnathwani 13y ago
  It's possible to block ads using squid proxy with squidguard. Although less effective than AdBlock, and requiring a little more effort to get started, it does work. I'm curious whether anyone on HN does this for themselves and, if so, is your squid server at home, on a VPS, or somewhere else?

I swear to god, the day people finally realize they can actually block ads, we're going to have a massive collapse of the industry. Fear that day.

by 10098 13y ago

I swear to god, the day people finally realize they can actually block ads, we're going to have a massive collapse of the industry. Fear that day.

socillion 13y ago

It's already happening: http://downloads.pagefair.com/reports/the_rise_of_adblocking.pdf http://downloads.pagefair.com/reports/the_rise_of_adblocking... I'd imagine a site like Facebook would have much lower ad blocking rates than average, though, due to low technical ability among users.

KrisAndrew 13y ago
They have high adblocking among younger users (<35). This is why everyone is interested in buying (non-revenue-generating) chat apps lately. Adblocking hasn't matured enough yet to block ads wholesale in applications. Facebook and Google want to recapture the ad impressions and clicks lost on users who are using blocking technologies.

infinitone 13y ago

There may be truth to this. I only recently finally decided to get AdBlock... and man... I can't imagine a world without it. Then again, whats to stop Chrome Store from removing the extension?

selmnoo 13y ago
> Then again, whats to stop Chrome Store from removing the extension? The fact that I'll switch to Firefox the day they do that?
fsckin 13y ago
Chromium, Firefox, Opera
deepblueocean 13y ago
How about a simple antitrust argument: if Google wants to use their power in the browser market, where they have majority power, to dictate the shape of the online advertising market, I think DoJ would have a pretty slam dunk case. Especially since Microsoft would be happy to pay for the best lawyers out there to write all the briefs in the case.

deepblueocean 13y ago

It's definitely true that content blocking is the user's trump card in the online tracking vs. privacy debate.

seiji 13y ago

Why doesn't anybody exploit the never ending stream of Windows zero days to install blanket ad blockers on every machine possible?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

TrevorJ 13y ago

Fear? No, I don't think so. I think there are a lot of people who are eager for business models that don't include having your data sold, or being advertised to. Adoption of adblock isn't something that is happening too fast to respond to, and it is a good thing, I believe, because it should create some innovation on the monetization side. Ad revenue isn't the only game in town, and I think consumers are receptive to other models that give them more control.

Houshalter 13y ago
The advertising industry is responsible for most malware and privacy concerns. They get money through manipulating people and I'm not certain they are actually adding much of value in the first place. Recommendation engines for app stores and online stores like amazon do the job of informing people of new things much better, and I think replaces the need for them entirely.
- notanidiot5 13y ago
  Google and Facebook get money by manipulating people and aren't adding any value? Wow. Bold claim.
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    Ads themselves aren't. The sites supported on them might be, but the money is only coming from manipulating people into spending money they otherwise wouldn't. I said that to dispute the argument that ads are a benefit to consumers by informing them of products they might value.

mullingitover 13y ago

The lack of adblock options on mobile Safari and Chrome has to be a massive boon and a huge relief to advertisers. You can get third-party browsers that have some adblocking features, but I suspect the percentage of people on mobile who use them is in the low single digits.

binarycrusader 13y ago
AdBlock is available for Chrome and works just fine. I don't know about Safari.
- mullingitover 13y ago
  I'm talking about mobile Safari and mobile Chrome. Neither supports extensions, and neither has integrated ad blocking. And while you can get third party browsers that do adblock, they're somewhat crippled in that only Safari has the Nitro javascript engine. All other browsers pay a performance tax.
  - binarycrusader 13y ago
    There's always a performance tax, even on desktop. With that said, I did miss the "mobile" bit.
rahimnathwani 13y ago
It's possible to block ads using squid proxy with squidguard. Although less effective than AdBlock, and requiring a little more effort to get started, it does work. I'm curious whether anyone on HN does this for themselves and, if so, is your squid server at home, on a VPS, or somewhere else?