One of my first blog posts in a while, I go over Google’s recent web proposal, and point out exactly why it won’t turn out well. Hope y’all have fun with it.
Users don’t use adblockers because they don’t want to see ads at all; they they use adblockers because getting a usable web experience requires it.
Users don’t block advertisements; they block annoying advertisements. They block trackers. They block malware. They block privacy invasion.
I block advertisements because I don’t want to see any advertisements. They are poison for the mind and I want to eliminate any form of advertisement I can control. Obviously you can’t avoid a lot of it - but I can definitely avoid it in my web browser.
I would prefer a subscription based model or a donation based model. For example Wikipedia or Lichess I’ve donated to because I believe they provide a good service and show no ads. Or for example Kagi which is a search engine that charges a monthly fee.
My personal rule is that I seek out a product/service, not the other way around. And ads really annoy me because they’re not useful, they’re just trying to sell me something, or get me to sell myself (looking at you, TikTok).
And they inevitably turn every service into an ad delivery service. Thus, enshitification. Subscription services directly convert the utility of the application into revenue. It will always make a better platform, but it might not scale as well.
I don’t want to see any ads either. Even unobtrusive ones. It’s just different levels of annoying and given the choice, I’ll pick zero annoyance. I also don’t want to be the product. Not just as a target for advertisements, but from information gathering for profit.
I do see the problem with this. Most sites are run with the expectation of profit. And while not explicitly my intent, I go out of the way to be as unprofitable as possible to these kinds of business models.
I do opt to pay for a couple of privacy respecting online services and I… rarely but not never donate to sites I use frequently that are privacy respecting and not ad supported. And that gives me some feel goods to support sites and services that align with my values but it’s not really viable for the internet as a whole right? Hoping for some spare change from a tiny fraction of your visitors.
I don’t know what the solution to this is. But I mirror OP’s concerns about this specific thing. I don’t want my browsing to be DRM’d, and I have zero trust for Google. If this happens, they will abuse it.
Edit: Changed organizations to services. Felt more accurate.
Coming from someone with an unstable source of income, and that can just barely get by: I’ll take advertisements over a subscription/donation based model. Just don’t flood your website with them. Or use shitty ad services. And don’t make it an unusable experience cough britannica cough
Trusted computing is back in a new form. :\
I can block users I don’t want visiting my site? I can’t speak for every web developer, but I’m all in for this. Saves me time and money too. Hell yeah!
This virtue signalling of how “internet freedom” only applies to users is showing its consequences. Users don’t want ads or trackers, that’s fine. But you want all the things that are funded by it? You can keep using adblock, Online platforms may be soon able to block you too. No ads and trackers for you, No wasted resource for the website. Everyone is happy
Everyone in here/reddit is always whining about the old internet, but nobody ever takes time to do any thing to contribute to it.
And these strawman arguments are what people in a bubble make up to give themselves a pat in a back. You don’t want to use it, then don’t. let people who want to use it. Aren’t you for “Internet freedom” or does that just apply to your contrived version of reality when you’re the main character?
People like you are why AdNauseam exists, FYI. If you make the non-adblock experience intolerable and then ban adblockers, people have a nasty tendency to fight back rather than knuckling under. I say that as someone who’ll whitelist ads - or donate to - sites I use regularly that aren’t run by shitheads throwing video ads in my face and selling my data to the highest bidder.
nobody ever takes the time to do any thing to contribute to it
You are literally on the direct counterexample to this. Lemmy is like the old Internet.
You want to block users from visiting your site, go for it. But you should quit “virtue signaling” yourself that people need to just volunteer their privacy for the internet to even exist. Tracking is only necessary for rich corporations to get get richer by brokering surveillance data, and all we really get in turn is an ad for diapers on a tech blog instead of what might have been flash storage or something. It’s dumb.
Block users all you want, but don’t expect me to “attest my hardware and software” from a 3rd party. Let alone make this a standard and think about leaving the keys to parties which are probably “themselves” only.
How on earth the expectation can be giving authority to third parties to set my hardware and software to be validated so they attest to an arbitrary standard which I will never have control over?
See the current SSL certificate authorities mess. I have to pay to a third party to asure my clients that my server can securely communicate with them. Now they are doing this to clients with a more strict manner.
well, you certainly live up to your name
Your opinion might not win any popularity contests here, but I’d have to agree that this is a natural consequence of the fact that people feel entitled to use online services for free, including not wanting to watch ads.
Voluntary donations generally just won’t work well enough for it to be a viable option in many cases, so sites have more or less had to optimize content for ad generating ad views because that’s usually the only way they can stay afloat.
Sure there’s some sites that get by with donations, voluntary payments or merch sales or whatever, but they’re the exception rather than the rule.
I find it ironic when people eg. complain about clickbait headlines and at the same time refuse to pay for news. This idea that we have to get everything for “free” online has directly led to the enshittification we all know and love
Said the person using an online platform for free, without ads
Almost like I said there are exceptions but they are exceptions rather than the norm. How about let’s not get into the whole “aha gotcha” mentality and actually read what others are saying?
I guess I have to spell this out: services that run purely off voluntary payment / donation do exist and I’m using one right now, but good luck running a business or even making ends meet with that model. It’s doable but rare and mostly non-profit.
And no I’m not saying a profit motive is necessary, but you can’t expect people running internet services, or writing newspapers, or whatever, to do it for free and alongside their day job. Yes, again, some do, but it can be a ton of work and not everybody has the capacity for it, for one reason or another
Yah, nah, eat a bag of pig bung, Google. I will simply not use any services that goes along with this fecal material. The users who will are going to be very low margin in regarded to ad revenue.
