Ad blocking and the future of the Internet
Your site may soon become a victim of war between the rulers of Silicon Valley. By including ad blocking in iOS9, Apple is not going to specifically shut down your site or my site - just as the development of the UAV is not directed against civilians and children. Apple is committed to combating its long-time rival Google, providing a more elegant way to enjoy the web than aggressive ad networks allow. A great example of how you can act in your own interests, without getting your hands dirty at the same time. Will independent advertising sites hurt along with Google?
One could already get used to the war between the digital giants. IPhone and iPad users can talk about Amazon’s experience. Please note that you cannot buy a book in the Kindle app for iOS. Apple supports Amazon to the extent that it allows you to distribute your software on iOS. But if you want to buy a book for the Kindle - you need to open the browser on the desktop (or on your smartphone). It encourages you to buy digital books through iBooks.
The same with the Amazon video application on iOS. You can stream all the movies, but you can not buy them through Amazon Video. We'll have to use the browser. Stimulates the purchase of movies through iTunes.
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Also, you cannot buy books and videos in the Amazon shopping app for iOS, although everything else is possible.
Since Amazon does not want to share sales revenue with Apple, Apple does not allow Amazon to sell its products in applications. Apple claims that since all the vendors pay tribute to it, Amazon should not be free. And Amazon is firmly in a position that does not allow sharing of profits, because Amazon is a ruthless rival who has won almost all online stores in the US through innovation in service and delivery, while providing users with the lowest price. And this leaves no opportunity to share with Apple. And this same low price policy is stifling companies that provide products to Amazon. Something like this.
Amazon refuses to share profits with Apple, Apple blocks sales of those merchants who do not share profits, and as a result Apple prohibits Amazon from selling goods through iOS. And who suffers? You, the user who has to postpone the smartphone and go to the desktop. Or do nothing. This, of course, is not the worst thing that can happen to you. But this policy goes against the interests of users, and casts a shadow on both Amazon and Apple.
Naturally, Amazon's video cannot be watched through Apple TV, and you cannot watch videos purchased from Apple iTunes on Amazon Fire TV without jumping through several (possibly illegal) hoops. Since the days of Microsoft's leadership on desktops in the 90s have passed, tech and media companies have not seen success as a “surviving the fittest” type of competition in which the user suffers.
But we are accustomed to and do not think about it.
At first glance, blocking ads seems to be a completely different matter. Customers, of course, may want to buy a book through the Kindle application, but hardly anyone wants to see more advertising. And media companies with advertisers themselves are responsible for the terrible experience that we got from online advertising. We hate her so much that we are used to not looking at the top or right side of the site. Even designers use a trick in which the axle link is located at the top of the side menu, where no one will see it, except for the SEO. Pop-ups that close the screen, and other nightmarish techniques led to advertising being hated and ignored.
Yes, there are stylish ad networks. The Deck gives one, small, tasteful, and appearing in the topic, one ad per page. By launching The Deck, we hoped that other networks would be inspired by it, and find a way to increase engagement without creating clutter on the pages. But, naturally, the networks went the opposite way - constantly interrupting the flow of content in order to cram uninteresting advertising into the user.
Experienced users have long been accustomed to third-party ad blockers, and applications like Readability demonstrate alternative content demonstration models, increasing the font and removing garbage from the pages. I was on the commission of experts in this project. I traveled the world, telling designers that if we don’t find a way to create readable and uncluttered pages for websites, then applications like Readability will do it for us. At the same time, they will deprive us of work and remove advertising, thereby blocking the flow of profits in media companies. And many smart site owners have found a way to bring content to the first place. The best of them (The New York Times), very elegantly integrated advertising into the pages. These pages have a large font, they are concentrated on the content and are designed so that they are easy to read.
But advertisers do not like to be ignored, and they experience euphoria from the abundance of personal data - from what Google and other networks actually sell. Advertising is almost a by-product. What companies need to know - which antiperspirant women from age categories 25 to 34 are most likely to acquire after watching the TV show House of Cards. And this leads us to the issues of privacy, surveillance and the invasion of the state in private life, and better we will not talk about it.
And while it’s almost impossible to walk around sites that are so heavily overloaded with inaccurate advertising, Apple looks heroic, offering everyone content from newspapers without ads and blocking ugly ads on websites. But if they succeed, will media companies and independent sites survive?
Apple’s actions wouldn’t matter so much if most of the users were sitting at desktops reading the news and buying gifts. But most people already use mobile computers - including for browsing the web.
That is why, in The Verge, Nilai Patel claims that by attacking Google, Apple can damage the entire web:
John Gruber has a different opinion:
In my other article, I examined the conflict between advertising and content through the lens of speed. There, I pointed out the fact that most users interact with the web from mobile devices — and this means that everything happens through mobile networks — and this means a strong restriction of bandwidth. Therefore, the performance of sites plays such an important role, what it has not played for many years. And while good designers and developers try to create fast sites more often, garbage advertising networks roughly interfere with their work and slow down the work of sites. And it threatens the future of the network, because users will blame the Web for slow work, and go into applications. At the same time, one cannot simply eliminate these ad networks, because money from advertising is the engine of digital publications; no dough - no content.
Well, Apple decided everything for us. Maybe you can not remove these ad networks - but this is already happening. How will this affect your site?
Oceania ALWAYS Fought Ostasia
One could already get used to the war between the digital giants. IPhone and iPad users can talk about Amazon’s experience. Please note that you cannot buy a book in the Kindle app for iOS. Apple supports Amazon to the extent that it allows you to distribute your software on iOS. But if you want to buy a book for the Kindle - you need to open the browser on the desktop (or on your smartphone). It encourages you to buy digital books through iBooks.
The same with the Amazon video application on iOS. You can stream all the movies, but you can not buy them through Amazon Video. We'll have to use the browser. Stimulates the purchase of movies through iTunes.
')
Also, you cannot buy books and videos in the Amazon shopping app for iOS, although everything else is possible.
Since Amazon does not want to share sales revenue with Apple, Apple does not allow Amazon to sell its products in applications. Apple claims that since all the vendors pay tribute to it, Amazon should not be free. And Amazon is firmly in a position that does not allow sharing of profits, because Amazon is a ruthless rival who has won almost all online stores in the US through innovation in service and delivery, while providing users with the lowest price. And this leaves no opportunity to share with Apple. And this same low price policy is stifling companies that provide products to Amazon. Something like this.
Amazon refuses to share profits with Apple, Apple blocks sales of those merchants who do not share profits, and as a result Apple prohibits Amazon from selling goods through iOS. And who suffers? You, the user who has to postpone the smartphone and go to the desktop. Or do nothing. This, of course, is not the worst thing that can happen to you. But this policy goes against the interests of users, and casts a shadow on both Amazon and Apple.
Naturally, Amazon's video cannot be watched through Apple TV, and you cannot watch videos purchased from Apple iTunes on Amazon Fire TV without jumping through several (possibly illegal) hoops. Since the days of Microsoft's leadership on desktops in the 90s have passed, tech and media companies have not seen success as a “surviving the fittest” type of competition in which the user suffers.
But we are accustomed to and do not think about it.
Ad blocking is another thing.
At first glance, blocking ads seems to be a completely different matter. Customers, of course, may want to buy a book through the Kindle application, but hardly anyone wants to see more advertising. And media companies with advertisers themselves are responsible for the terrible experience that we got from online advertising. We hate her so much that we are used to not looking at the top or right side of the site. Even designers use a trick in which the axle link is located at the top of the side menu, where no one will see it, except for the SEO. Pop-ups that close the screen, and other nightmarish techniques led to advertising being hated and ignored.
Yes, there are stylish ad networks. The Deck gives one, small, tasteful, and appearing in the topic, one ad per page. By launching The Deck, we hoped that other networks would be inspired by it, and find a way to increase engagement without creating clutter on the pages. But, naturally, the networks went the opposite way - constantly interrupting the flow of content in order to cram uninteresting advertising into the user.
Experienced users have long been accustomed to third-party ad blockers, and applications like Readability demonstrate alternative content demonstration models, increasing the font and removing garbage from the pages. I was on the commission of experts in this project. I traveled the world, telling designers that if we don’t find a way to create readable and uncluttered pages for websites, then applications like Readability will do it for us. At the same time, they will deprive us of work and remove advertising, thereby blocking the flow of profits in media companies. And many smart site owners have found a way to bring content to the first place. The best of them (The New York Times), very elegantly integrated advertising into the pages. These pages have a large font, they are concentrated on the content and are designed so that they are easy to read.
But advertisers do not like to be ignored, and they experience euphoria from the abundance of personal data - from what Google and other networks actually sell. Advertising is almost a by-product. What companies need to know - which antiperspirant women from age categories 25 to 34 are most likely to acquire after watching the TV show House of Cards. And this leads us to the issues of privacy, surveillance and the invasion of the state in private life, and better we will not talk about it.
And while it’s almost impossible to walk around sites that are so heavily overloaded with inaccurate advertising, Apple looks heroic, offering everyone content from newspapers without ads and blocking ugly ads on websites. But if they succeed, will media companies and independent sites survive?
Product goods discord
Apple’s actions wouldn’t matter so much if most of the users were sitting at desktops reading the news and buying gifts. But most people already use mobile computers - including for browsing the web.
That is why, in The Verge, Nilai Patel claims that by attacking Google, Apple can damage the entire web:
A side effect of the war in which Apple is targeting Google’s revenue platform will inevitably affect the entire web and every small online publisher who cannot invest in its own platform for product distribution, embedded advertising, and other things needed to distribute products. In this war, we will drown in the blood of independent publications. Leakage of money and attention from the network will mean that the speed of network innovation will slow down terribly.
John Gruber has a different opinion:
Apparently, the income of the Daring Fireball project will not be affected by ad blocking by Safari browser, and this confirms that in the past ten years I have done everything right: I put the interests of my readers above all, and published only the ads I wanted to use. even if it meant lost profits. But I am not at all pleased to realize that publications like The Awl will suffer from this. But they are smart enough to adapt.
In my other article, I examined the conflict between advertising and content through the lens of speed. There, I pointed out the fact that most users interact with the web from mobile devices — and this means that everything happens through mobile networks — and this means a strong restriction of bandwidth. Therefore, the performance of sites plays such an important role, what it has not played for many years. And while good designers and developers try to create fast sites more often, garbage advertising networks roughly interfere with their work and slow down the work of sites. And it threatens the future of the network, because users will blame the Web for slow work, and go into applications. At the same time, one cannot simply eliminate these ad networks, because money from advertising is the engine of digital publications; no dough - no content.
Well, Apple decided everything for us. Maybe you can not remove these ad networks - but this is already happening. How will this affect your site?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/295564/
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