Google Cracks Down on Adblock

[Barbas]

Yo, I just wanna add, do not admit to, link to or advocate the use of Ad-blocking software. You can talk about it just fine, just don't do any of those things, because they're against the CoC and we'll have to give out warnings, which always sucks in a thread like this. Whatever your feelings on them, ads bring in the money that basically keeps the site afloat.

EDIT: See this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/7.882055.22229866] post.

Which reminds me: if one of them auto-plays with sound or expands to cover the page, you should take a screenshot and report them as obtrusive in the Tech Team [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/chat/Tech-Team] group. They do try and get rid of the shite ones, but sadly the ad companies aren't as cooperative as we'd all like them to be.

 

[IceForce]

Yo, I just wanna add, do not admit to, link to or advocate the use of Ad-blocking software.

Uhh, yeah, that's going to present a bit of a problem. Plenty of people in this thread already have talked about their experiences in using ad-blocking software on youtube.

If you start smashing the hammer around left and right, this will end up another repeat of Jim's thread, ie: it will end badly, for everyone.

 

[Barbas]

Uhh, yeah, that's going to present a bit of a problem. Plenty of people in this thread already have talked about their experiences in using ad-blocking software on youtube.

If you start smashing the hammer around left and right, this will end up another repeat of Jim's thread, ie: it will end badly, for everyone.

Ah, sheeeeeyit, not again. You'd think they'd have gone and read the CoC after last time - which hasn't changed in that respect for a while - but I bet it's going to be the site's fault this time as well. Lemme get in touch with the CM for a sec...

 

[IceForce]

Ah, sheeeeeyit, not again.

Well okay, I doubt it will get quite the (negative) momentum that Jim's thread did, since I doubt one small news article will garner the same amount of traffic as a Jimquisition video.

Anyway, regardless, glad to hear you're on the CM's case!

 

[Lightknight]

Interesting, this may have the unintended effect of getting Chrome users to switch browser for Youtube. I mean, it's not much of anything to have a second window open and it be another browser.

But maybe they feel like their brand is strong enough to withstand any kind of negative fallout or that the revenue derived from preventing adblock is already enough to compensate?

As for me personally, I have never used any adblock software. I guess I'm not that impatient and most ads are only 5 seconds before you can skip them.

 

[Smooth Operator]

It's not just now, they have been fucking with extension Google doesn't like since the start of the browser.
And this is precisely why I keep on going with Firefox, not only does it allow any home baked software you can come up with, but the developer also isn't fucking working against you and making shit not work at random intervals.

Also Escapist it's pretty fucking insane you demand people not talk about Adblock in the very topic where you discuss Adblock.

 

[ffronw]

BAN ALL THE ADBLOCKS!

Seriously, we all know the rule about advocating for adblock. Having read this thread, I feel that all of these posts can be called legitimate discussion of a news post. There are certainly quality discussions that can be had about this sort of thing, especially in light of Google's actions in this story. This does not mean that you can advocate for people to start adblocking The Escapist, of course.

 

[Leon Royce]

About Adblock. Here's something most advertisers, in their infinite wisdom, have not understood yet. Most people never buy anything they see advertised.

I remember the last time only because it normally never happens. Two years ago, I was taking a flight from Ecuador to Columbia, with my final destination being Paris. On the first flight over, I saw an add in a magazine for a panasonic electric razor. I'd been thinking of getting an electric razor for months, because traditional shaving is a hassle and irritates my skin.

During my 8 hour wait at Columbia Int. Airport to board my second flight, while someone working for the airport was going through my luggage and stealing my cellphone, I saw the same electric razor in a store and bought it. It was a good purchase. Two years later I'm still using it. It hasn't lost it's charge and the original blades still work.

Since then, nothing, ever.

Here's how I buy. I read reviews and recommendations from trusted sources, like friends and review sites.

When I decided to switch my seven year computer for a new one last March, I didn't go out and buy the first setup I saw advertised in the subway. I went online and bargain hunted, finding a setup 600 Euros cheaper than those premade by the big brands, but which I had to assemble myself. When I wanted to find which monitor, keyboard and mouse to go with it, I went to PCGamer.com and looked at their best hardware reviews and went with that.

When it comes to advertising Reviews > Commercials

Reviews go into detail, and if the source is reliable, won't bullshit you. It will actually tell you the pros and cons of a product.

(Traditional) Commercials are almost completely full of shit. When was the last time you saw an add for a car where they told you any of its negative qualities?

I've whitelisted the Escapist

 

[Joabbuac]

Eh... time to try opera i guess.

 

[ffronw]

About Adblock. Here's something most advertisers, in their infinite wisdom, have not understood yet. Most people never buy anything they see advertised.

*snip*

Advertisers aren't looking to have you buy something because of the ad. They'll take it if you do, but that's not the point. They want to put their name in front of you as much as possible. They know that if you see their name a lot, it'll stick in your head. Then one day, when you're browsing the store aisle and you need something that they sell, there's a better-than-average chance that you'll recall that brand name when you see it, and that you'll buy it because of that.

 

[Leon Royce]

That's a pretty general statement. I'm looking at the escapist's adds now.

One I keep seeing on this site is for a french gambling service (PMU). I'm in France, so obviously I'm seeing french commercials. But I don't gamble and never will.

I'm also seeing adds for games (in this case a new guild wars)

I understand about getting brand names out there, but fact is quite a lot of people (or maybe it's just me) are quite conscious about their purchases. When it comes to weekly purchases like food I go out of my way to avoid big brands, because they charge more and lately they have been lowering quality to hide inflation.

I shop local and organic. Blasting me with Nestle adds is a waste of time, and quite a lot of adds are trying to sell a particular product or service.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Google isn't an overbearing company, they said. They won't start bending us over for profits, they said. What could go wrong if we all use Chrome, they said.

Honestly, judging by this thread, the news that Google rules their products with an iron fist doesn't seem to come as a surprise to many. I'll chalk this up to yet another reason never to use their browser.

 

[Twintix]

Perhaps I'd be less inclined to used the add-on-that-should-not-be-named if the ads on most sites weren't so fucking obnoxious.

I don't want to have to sit through a 30-second to two-minute ad[footnote]I know most of the long ones are skippable, but some are not and it bugs me.[/footnote] for a 10-second video. I don't want to have to listen to droning asshats trying to sell me products or screechy music playing as soon as I accidentally hover my mouse over an ad. If the ads weren't so in-your-face about their ad-ness, I would tolerate them.

Spoiler: So in essence, a bit like this.

Also, earning money from ad-revenue alone is, like others have said, a terrible idea.

 

[LordLundar]

Eh, I haven't noticed. Of course, this is because I download the videos directly because my internet connection gets funky from time to time and their DASH system is unavoidable if you want 60 FPS videos.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Main reason I exercise control over my browser with such tools like NoScript (edit: I checked and there's equivalents for Chrome, so whatever it is, for that also) is that ads either make pages load significantly slower with such shit like Flash and full length videos, or might be carrying malicious bullshit, neither of which I want to be the gracious host in those situations. If ads just went back to their stupid static images or even distracting gifs that don't make dumb noises or block my screen if I accidentally mouse over them, I would gladly let them do whatever they want as long as it's not bmp or covers more than 12 square inches (which is unlikely in our mobile based world anyway).

Basically all of this. I'll be more sympathetic to complaints about adblock ruining the internet the day that loud, animated, garish ads linking to websites full of viruses stop popping up and outright crashing my browser. Though I do have sympathy for websites that are trying to cut down on those in spite of the push from ad services.

I don't mind watching short advert "commercials" before videos or seeing static banner adverts on websites. Anything beyond that though and things start getting...problematic. And don't even get me started on having three to five minute long adverts in front of a video that is less than a minute long.

 

[sXeth]

Ads pay for free content.
There is no way around that fact. If you use patreon or donations as a means to pay for content, it's no longer free for you. You will have chosen to pay for something that was free, in order to better support the individual(s) making it (I approve, btw).

I'm not 100% behind Patreon for video producers online. It's asking for someone to get riled up and cause this sort of stuff from the video hosts, because you get this chain of events going on

Consumer Patreons Producer.
Consumer blocks Site Ads.
Producer uses site for free.
Producer gains compensation from Consumer.
Site gets screwed on whatever it costs them to host possibly thousands of HD videos on demand.

To date, I don't know of any major video producers that have actually established their own video hosting setup either.

 

[1981]

Good thing I've never liked Google Chrome. I used Opera for years until it decided to become another Chrome. Then I started using Firefox.

Let's be honest, people wouldn't use Adblock if ads were just ads. They uses them from bad experiences, from having their browser taken over, from having pop-up ads obscure their screens, from having loud "screamers" pop up with the belief they can scare you into winning a new iPad.

I've browsed these forums a couple of times without adblock.

Case 1: Firefox started lagging, alerted me of an unresponsive script and kindly offered to stop it.
Case 2: Nothing happened when I clicked on a link to a post or forum (Steam overlay). The only way to open another page was to copy the link to another tab.
Case 3: Got a popup stating that I had won an iCrap. Closed it and was forwarded to an iCrap scam site.

I'm used to scrolling and resizing the browser window to hide distracting animations. Before responsive design was a thing, I sometimes used another window, a sheet of paper or my hand to cover them so I could focus on the content. But one does not simply ignore an ad (sorry, couldn't help it).

 

[gact]

what if addblock takes the add and reproduces it somewhere we cant see it?, doesnt everyone win in this scenario?

 

[LordLundar]

what if addblock takes the add and reproduces it somewhere we cant see it?, doesnt everyone win in this scenario?

Those are called Pop-unders and they still use up system resources. Considering a number of these ads utilize audio, video, and various other methods they can bog the system down pretty quick. To add those have a particularly nasty habit of having viruses, malware, and all other forms of nasty crap attached to them because people don't spot them before they can be loaded up and do some real damage.

 

[Ylla]

As a person who grew up with a TV i dont really see any problem with waiting 5 seconds to watch a video.
Do you guys remember how the TV was 1/3 adds? A 20min Simpsons episode lasted 30min with adds, SpongeBob was like 11mins and lasted 15 with adds.... Do you want to watch a 2 hours movie on TV? Better prepare to spend 3 hours because theres going to be 1 hour of adds....
And then the old internet wasnt any different, most pages where just flooded with annoying adds "YOURE THE VISITOR 1000000" yadda yadda...

Nowadays i just have to wait 5 seconds before watching a Youtube video, and the adds are just sort of there and i have no problem ignoring them.
So i dont see all the fuzz with AdBlock, and some of the comments here make no sense to me. I never have to wait 3mins to watch a 1min video, i just clic on Skip, and it doesnt wait 10 seconds, it waits 5.

Are Google policies different in other countries?

Also i dont see the appeal with Firefox, it always stutters for me, no matter if its on my PC rig or my Laptop, and as PC Master race(XD) thats sort of annoys me, Chrome is a memory hog yeah, but i live on a world where my 600 bucks Laptop has 8gb RAM and my PC has 16, so thats never a problem.

I also dont see the people taking the hassle of installing Firefox just because of ads, hell, i havent fully switched to Firefox even when Unity doesnt work with Chrome... I just open Firefox when i need to.