You can’t blame companies that run advertisements on Facebook for being a bit suspicious after the social media platform has acknowledged problems with over-estimating how long users interact with videos and how much time users spend reading Instant Articles and interacting with brand pages. Now the company will submit to an outside audit of that advertising data. [More]
online advertising
It’s Impossible To Shut Off The Ads That Make Fake News Stories Profitable
By 12.9.16
Sometimes the stories are political; other times they’re too intriguing not to share, with tempting pieces of celebrity news. “That can’t possibly be true,” we say when seeing a headline that, say, Hillary Clinton and Yoko Ono have been lovers for years. You click, and advertisements load on the site, benefiting its creators… and the ad networks that profit. [More]
Some Online Publishers Backing Away From Those Fake “Around The Web” Ads
By 10.31.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
The internet is covered in advertising.* It’s a fact of life. Some of that advertising, though, is a lot better — or at least, less completely sketchy — than other ads fighting for some time with your eyeballs. And since the sketchy stuff may make you think less well of the company running it, some media outlets are quietly disappearing the bars that always seem to end up full of “one weird trick” and bogus “celebrity death” stories. [More]
Americans Apparently Don’t Hate Mobile Ads As Badly As Rest Of The World
By 5.31.16
If you’re using ad-blocking technology on your smartphone, you’re not alone. Some 2.5 million Americans are employing mobile browsers and other tech on their devices to avoid unwanted ads, but that’s nothing compared to the vast number of consumers blocking ads in China, India, and Indonesia. [More]
Google Now Promoting Search Results For Sites With Fast-Loading Mobile Pages
By 2.24.16
Last fall, Google announced AMP — the Accelerated Mobile Pages project — in an effort to nudge content publishers to design mobile websites that load as quickly as possible. Now that a number of publishers have sped up their mobile sites, Google has begun tagging some search results that lead to faster pages. [More]
European Wireless Carriers Want To Block Customers From Seeing Ads On Smartphones
By 2.19.16
A growing number of people are choosing to use ad-blocking technology to prevent ads from loading on their smartphones, resulting in billions of dollars of unearned ad revenue by publishers. But what if the choice to block ads wasn’t yours, but was a network-wide ban on ads from your wireless carrier? [More]
Want Wired.com Without Ads? That’ll Be $3.99/Month
By 2.8.16
With billions and billions of ad dollars going unearned by websites each year because of the increase use of ad-blocking technology, it’s no wonder that some publishers are fighting back. Last year, magazine giant Conde Nast started erecting virtual walls to prevent ad-block users from visiting some of its sites, and now the company is going to try to give these anti-ad readers the option of a monthly access model for Wired.com. [More]
“Injected Ads” Are An Annoying Security Risk Affecting Millions Of Internet Users
By 5.6.15
Legitimate advertising is an annoyance that most of us tolerate and do our best to ignore. But there are more pernicious forms of advertising that aren’t just a nuisance but actually pose a potential security risk, like the “injected ads” that find your way into your web browser through software and extensions. [More]
Retailers Only Have Eyes For You With Latest Online Marketing Efforts
By 4.1.15
On the one hand, it can be very convenient to get a coupon emailed to you based on your obsession with tacos. On the other, having every website you visit blast your eyes with ads for the same darn pair of lime green shoes you already bought as part of a Halloween costume and never intend to buy again. But some retailers say they’re working on tailoring such marketing efforts down to each person individually, to maximize effectiveness and cut down on irritation. [More]
Should Online Publishers Block Users Who Install Ad-Blockers?
By 4.4.14
The Interactive Advertising Bureau is a trade group for, well, interactive advertising. That’s to say clickable online banner and video ads. If you’re one of the smarmy people piping up right now to say, “there are ads on the Internet? I wouldn’t know, I use ad-blockers,” you’re part of the problem as far as the IAB is concerned. [More]
AdBlock Raising Money For Ad Campaign. Wait, What?
By 9.5.13
Depending on who you ask, ad-blocking browser extensions are either the only thing that makes the Internet tolerable, or instruments of evil that are strangling digital media to death. (Or maybe both.) The maker of extension AdBlock counters that the real problem is that not enough people know that they can banish ads from their browsers. So they’re raising money through crowdfunding to get the word out. Through ads. [More]
You're 475 Times More Likely To Survive A Plane Crash Than Click On A Banner Ad
By 7.1.11
New data shows that there’s a slew of things you’re more likely to do than click on a banner ad. For instance, you’re 475 times more likely to survive a plane crash. [More]
Survey Finds That Most People Don't Want To Be Tracked Online
By 12.23.10
Do you like it when marketers track your behavior across the Internet, in the name of providing you with targeted ads? If you said no, you’re in the majority, according to a new Gallup Poll and common sense. But don’t worry. Advertisers will continue to follow you anyhow. [More]
9/11 Terrorist Stars In Facebook Ad
By 2.16.10
Online advertisers will do anything for clicks, and Facebook will take anybody’s money. A Facebook advertiser decided the best way to grab eyeballs was to put a picture of a 9/11 terrorist in his banner ad. Yep, it’s good ol’ Mohamed Atta, the guy who steered the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center. [More]
New Microsoft Patent App Provides "Enforceable" Ads That Can't Be Skipped
By 12.21.07
Last year Microsoft filed a patent application, published yesterday, that explains a method by which embedded advertising can’t be skipped. From the application abstract: “Enforcing rendering advertisements and other predetermined media content in connection with playback of downloaded selected media content. Playback of selected media content is made conditional on acquisition of a playback token that is generated in response to playback of the predetermined content.”
