Not sure how well this will go down (he is even too paranoid to say who his clients are) or if it can be made to work; if they take the piss like that I reckon hackers will write browser extensions to monkey with this software and/or claim to view the ads but send them to /dev/null which will be even worse for the online marketers; also the companies using such techniques to force through ads will be targeted..
Online advertisers have poisoned their own goose, with dodgy ads that cut across content; badly designed/distracting ones or which start up video/audio when unwanted or fill up the screen; and worse have let in malware to unsuspecting users computers.
I’ve noticed the bulk of ads on here have been removed – TBH when there were the google ads I wondered what idiots selected which ones would appear as I got all sorts of things ranging from mobility aids to a military veterans dating agency; and very little that was of any use to me. I even started to feel a bit sorry for the companies who were having their marketing budget pissed up the wall by a bunch of guffawing Shoreditch hipsters; as this was so badly done
There might have been an ad for Radiospares which reminded me they still existed and I have since become a customer again although I could equally have done so because of a thread on here (it was Cheeseweasel who helped increase the brand visibilty of CPC..) Another ad came up for some antennas which I might have actually had a use for but it disappeared off the screen before I had time to read it (it was on my mobile phone) and like most males over age 30 I do not directly buy things from a mobile phone browser link.
I don’t actually know how to – at least in a way that isn’t potentially insecure for my card details or risks my card being blocked due to mistyping security codes on a touch screen. I actually use the phone to make telephone calls on; therefore a supplier who has a telephone number and employs people with +1 brain cell to answer it might have a better chance of getting my business.
This shows exactly where the marketing firms are screwing up; if their products are any good ; they are going to be discussed on blogs and forums often with links on how to buy it; and what suppliers are best!
Quite frankly if a lot of tech “news” sites go out of business due to lack of ad revenue thats not a great loss either – most report the same stories and many of the articles are sponsored anyway so are stealth adverts.
The Internet worked in the late 90s/2000s without online ads and only basic online commerce; and we still had the capability to share rich media content (audio and a fair bit of video…)
Ex-Google exec seeks to stamp out ad-blocker software – 19 Jun 2015 – Computing News
