NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Web Ad Wars Continue: Will the Real Darth Vader, Please Stand Up?
The Web Ad Wars Continue: Will the Real Darth Vader, Please Stand Up?
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000644.html
Greetings. In our previous two installments of what I had originally
intended to be a one-shot blog posting ("How to Sink a Major Web Site
with a Single Ad" - http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000642.html --
and "The Hard-Core Web Ad Haters Strike Back!" -
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000643.html ) we explored my
annoyance with "auto-play" audio ads and the responses I received from
readers who hate *all* Web advertising.
Subsequently my inbox has been filling with comments covering a
broader range of views on this subject, and I felt it appropriate to
devote one more posting to the topic right now to illuminate some of
those opinions.
As noted in my original entries, there appears to be universal disgust
for ads that start playing audio as soon as you navigate to a page --
especially when audio material isn't expected on those pages. This is
the type of Web ad that I despise the most, though as I've said I
don't use ad blockers as a matter of principle
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000281.html ).
But lots of folks do use ad blockers, and they weren't shy about
telling me why.
Most commonly cited were blocking tools that targeted flash-based ads.
While some persons simply were annoyed by all of the visual activity
that such ads often represent -- even if silent until un-muted --
other correspondents had more technical complaints that are especially
difficult to ignore.
I received a large number of notes complaining about ad problems for
users on relatively slow Internet connections, and how loading of
"heavy" ads (flash, significant amounts of JavaScript or other "rich"
content, etc.) dragged down to a crawl everything that these users
were doing.
This brings up another pertinent point. How often have you had a Web
page freeze up completely during loading, and when you looked down at
the activity bar you could see that everything was hanging waiting for
a third-party ad server like "wowsupergreatdealsserver.com" to
connect? Slow or badly configured ad servers just rub salt into the
wound for people who aren't kindly disposed toward Web ads in the
first place.
Coincidentally, Google's Steve Souders commented on exactly this issue
during a newly published interview -- definitely worth reading
( http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/steve-souders-making-web-sites.html ).
Some users are less interested in the content of ads per se when it
comes to blocking, and are mainly blocking due to perceived
privacy-related tracking concerns. There were also a number of folks
who noted the increasingly seen phenomenon of pages that refuse to
load if common ad blocking mechanisms are active (of course there are
ways around this, in a continuing ad-related "arms race").
There were also actually a few people who professed -- apparently in
light of my arguments -- to feeling a bit guilty about their broad use
of ad blockers, and who pledged to at least experiment with not
blocking ads on those sites that they felt were deserving of support.
But overall the sense I get from all of this is something just short
of bedlam.
There is no Dark Lord pulling the strings of the situation. Given the
wide spectrum of opinions pervading all aspects of Web ad
controversies, it's likely to be impossible to attain any general
agreement about who are really the bad guys -- or the good guys -- in
the Web advertising universe. More likely it's usually going to be a
complex shade of gray.
I want the largely ad-supported Web to survive. I don't want the
Internet to become the 21st century equivalent of New York's old
Automat -- and having to "insert coins" in profuse numbers to access
conventional Web sites.
Yet a range of factors suggest that we're on the cusp of big, perhaps
radical changes. The EU is embracing broad restrictions on Web site
cookies that may have collateral effects way beyond the privacy issues
that are purportedly its focus. Here in the U.S., Congress seems
poised to possibly pass legislation that would put major new
limitations on Web site tracking.
And of course we have Web users who routinely block some or all Web
ads.
Imagine the ramifications (and the boost to that ads blocking arms
race) if one or more major Web browsers came pre-configured to block
most existing Web ads.
We end up pretty close to where we started. I am not convinced that
sufficient thought and analysis have been given to either short or
long-term funding models for the vast majority of Web sites if the
current ad-based paradigm becomes untenable for any of a number of
reasons.
If individuals (via ad blocking) and/or legislators (via laws)
sufficiently "devalue" the ad-based Web model and that model cannot
adapt sufficiently, then we either need to resign ourselves to a
fee-based model (like Murdoch's pay-through-the-nose concept, which I
don't believe is practical nor desirable), or some other funding
mechanism entirely.
But if none of these alternatives turns out to be workable and
acceptable, the most likely outcome is a major contraction in the
number of Web sites available to the Internet-using public at large.
That, I believe, would not only be a waste, but could potentially be
quite dangerous as well -- especially if key sources of Web-based
information are unable to survive in the resulting funding vacuum.
We really need to be getting ahead of the game on this one, gang. Or
else we risk having a large percentage of the Web -- including perhaps
many of its most useful sites -- being abandoned to figuratively swing
uselessly in the wind.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein