When one finds a nice little bit of 'something that works' be it for query ranking or visitor conversion or what have you there is some level of irritation when it stops performing. More, of course, when some idjit outs it to sound authoritative before it actually hits it's best by date.
So the latest is fairly minor as the coming loss of advantage was sadly apparent for a while (if 6-months sooner than I expected) but has now gone fairly widely public via a Hacker News link to a BugReplay article: bypassing ad blockers via web sockets is increasingly toast. Not completely yet, by my stats, but certainly a significant stoppage of what was a loverly little end run.
So once again (soon) the defenders prevail and one needs to reach deeper into the web arsenal of unexpected usage and unusual behaviour. Software against software, Spy vs. Spy, in the never ending Secret Secret Wars (so secret, the rest of the Universe doesn't even remember it!) for third party display supremacy. :)
I don't just read bug reports, documentation, patents, theses, and white papers for their characterisation and plot! :)
Ah well, competitive advantage is a fleeting advantage best savoured early and often for it soon will whither and die: Winter is always coming.
