Google Chrome "Heavy Ad Blocker"

[skaterpunk]

[9to5google.com...]

[Dimitri]

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[Dimitri]

the Chrome team may be expanding on this effort with a new blocker that targets ads that use too much network or CPU,

I wonder if Adsense will start serving simpler ads, because it's insane the number of calls, and files loaded for each single ad slot.

[matbennett]

Good! "heavy ads" are a key driver of adblocker adoption.

This is different from the Better Ads Standards enforcement though, as it is Google's own definition rather than a CBA definition being enforced. Also, it targets the creative rather than the website, which is good news for publishers. Presumably this is aimed at heavy video ads and possibly an extra line of defence against sneaky crypto mining.

I can't think of any downside to this, (although I bet someone is writing a blog post somewhere right this minute about how "evil" this is)

[Dimitri]

I can't think of any downside to this, (although I bet someone is writing a blog post somewhere right this minute about how "evil" this is)

Oh, you know, when you search, you can always find things to say :)

Some will say that this Chrome will abusively blocks ad networks which do no belong to Google. Others will say that this is like for AMP, Google will soon propose to speed up ad serving by using their services, etc...:)

[matbennett]

abusively blocks ad networks which do no belong to Google

Yup - I suspect that will be the narrative. Meanwhile we have firefox promising "ad free internet" for $5/month and being hailed as heroes for diverting money from content producers.

[Dimitri]

And you have the Brave browser, which , from what i understand, "replaces" ads on our site by their own "safer" ads :)

[matbennett]

Has anyone had anything from being a Brave content creator yet? It seems very geared to sites with a regular returning readership, rather than long tail publishers. I'm also not sure what revenue share they are paying content creators? The rewards sections shows that 70% goes to users and 30% back to brave, but I didn't see how much of that 30% then goes back to the people actually producing the content.

One of the biggest issues I see with the Brave model is that their platform probably has little appeal to brand advertisers. That might change as the ecosystem is forced to move away from cookies, but there seems to be a lot of ground to cover. Quite an interesting experiment though

[Dimitri]

That might change as the ecosystem is forced to move away from cookies

Don't worry , things will be the same without cookies, the almighty AI will do the job :) ... No, we are not tracking, it's the AI guessing ...

[matbennett]

Sadly I think that the solution will be more tracking - but by fewer players. The big advertising players (Google, Facebook, Amazon and potentially Apple in the future) have plenty of first party data on users that they can get direct consent for. No AI needed. Ironic when these are the same companies that most privacy law was directed at!

[Dimitri]

No AI needed.

Shhh... Today, you need to put the words AI in everything, otherwise you sound has-been. Even if it has nothing to do with AI, you need to say that you are using AI ! Also, AI is the perfect scapegoat. It's not our fault, it's the AI ! One day judges will have to decide if a company is liable for things done by their AI ...

Ironic when these are the same companies that most privacy law was directed at!

Indeed. But look at it, all the laws / regulations made "against" Internet Giants, are just making them stronger. Small businesses can't achieve compliance and do not have the finances to face "problems/lawsuits" and slowly disappear. Internet Giants have the resources to handle all this, and also to find tricks to bypass the rules ...

[matbennett]

Shhh... Today, you need to put the words AI in everything, otherwise you sound has-been

Ah - that's why we're still founder-owned after all these years. Maybe I should stick a few mentions of AI onto our pages and see what investors turn up :D

[trebuchet]

Meanwhile we have firefox promising "ad free internet" for $5/month

Sounds like we need a Firefox-free internet.

I understand the frustrations that have led to adblocking - but selling an "ad-free internet" is simply profiteering by doing nothing more than blocking elements of other people's sites.

[Dimitri]

I should try to sell a device which removes TV ads, and see what happens ...

[skaterpunk]

I should try to sell a device which removes TV ads, and see what happens ...

I recall cable OnDemand allowing FF through commercials several years ago, but now the FF function is disabled and can only be used on recorded shows. Annoying, yes, but I get money has to come from somewhere, and that's eyeballs actually seeing the commercials.

Meanwhile we have firefox promising "ad free internet" for $5/month

The difference with "Ad Free" paid subscription for shows and music is the content creators get paid something…somewhere in the chain, but who's paying us web content creators for the same business model.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why I thought providing information for free, then expecting to get paid for it somehow, was a sustainable business plan. Reminds me of restaurants that tried the "pay us what you can afford for the sandwich". Yeah, I don't here anything like that anymore.