.
life, the universe, and my head
advertising, timeshifting, adblock, oh my!
Advertising is really in the consumer's best interest.
No really, it is. When I'm watching [scrubs] on NBC at home, rarely see the ads. I make it a point to either have time saved up, or have the show already recorded. I hate ads, and I particularly hate how local channels cannot equalize their ad volume to the volume of the show (though this is less of a problem with satellite TV); so I just skip them. I hit the little grey jump forward button—now completely lacking it's printed arrow—six or seven times, then back twice, and I'm back at the show. Why would I waste my time I've set aside for entertainment on boring, uninteresting television?
At least GE has gotten smart (or, more accurately, their advertising firm), and given those consumers who do sit through ads and who own television time-shifting devices—such at TiVo or ReplayTV or the DISH DVR—some extra entertainment in the form of one second goodies in their ads. So, why is advertising good for the consumer? Well, simply, it reduces the upfront cost we pay for an unrelated service. I think that's worded correctly, an economist would argue that it costs us more in time, and emotional strain and overall wellbeing, and they're probably correct. But I'm a huge fan of advertising subsidizing the goods I use, especially relevant unobtrusive ads.
Google has done a marvelous job with their contextual advertising, for one, when I send a message from gMail it doesn't say "SIGN UP FOR gMAIL NOW!!!!1111ONEONEONE and SAVE $$$$" in fact, aside from the "from" address and the headers of the mail message (which would terrify most users if they ever saw it) the recepient never even knows I used a free web-mail service to send them their e-mail. Google can, of course, afford to do this because they've got little faeries or gremlins looking inside every message I've ever sent or received coming up with what they deem relevant ads to show me. A recent one that showed up was a neuroscience research award.
These ads don't hurt me, I generally don't even notice them. And to those who cry out that it's an gross invasion of our privacy... Bullshit. As I think I've said before, you're crazy, if you don't want targeted ads don't sign up. Use another service and feel secure in the knowledge that your e-mails are sent in plain text through the very secure pneumatic tubes of the Internet, which are controlled by only trustworthy reputable individuals.
To combat all ads on the Internet, not just harmless pleasant ads: enter Adblock, more relevantly Adblock Plus (as a side note there's a nice history of Adblock which is also a fine account of why open-source developers are silly). Adblock Plus is fantastic, you can block those annoying pop-ups from fastclick get rid of flash ads, remove the obnoxious flashing banners. Plus to top it all off, you can make sure you never see those banner ads for Child's Play, or webcomics related to the one you're currently viewing, or announcements of new sites, or television shows. But the built in subscription in Adblock plus, and Filterset.G are the true menaces of web consumers. Before individuals could block ads and be on their merry way, making the decision all the while as to whether this was just an ad they wanted to block, or if they should block every ad from the provider, Filterset.G is over the top though. EasyList USA isn't much better, bit is some. As time-shifting is doing in television, advertising will just move to be part of the content. Why pay for a 30 second spot on TV when you can pay a similar amount and have your brand forever embedded (until someone takes Photoshop to it, at least) within the show? Hey, why is it now obvious that the—apparently—delicious food Dr. Dorian eats at the hospital is made by Sodexho? It's interesting that Dell exists in the year 3050 as a benevolent technology company, and wow, those invading aliens really can't resist the Coca-Cola, can they?
I know that if I'm going to try to make money on the web it's not going to be through banner ads (though there are easy ways around Adblock and Filterset.G), I'm going to go straight to the source, you want to advertise to my readers? Okay, sure, yeah I can plug Fukk, not a problem, hmm, maybe I'll write an article about how much better it is for you can Cocaine (the drink), perhaps I'll talk of how I've been using it in cooking. You want to advertise your laptop to my readers, sure I'll talk about how I use it every day, and it's never done wrong by me, I won't even have to lie when I talk about the fantastic customer support, because you're giving me straight access to the engineers.
I'll kick you in the head if you break out the roaring full screen Hulk-smash ads, or most pop ups, but relevant text ads, tasteful banners, even well done hot-linked ad words, I'm uncaring. So, since I like some advertising I think I might start putting together a sane Adblock Plus subscription, just to block the obnoxious and bandwidth hogging stuff.
No really, it is. When I'm watching [scrubs] on NBC at home, rarely see the ads. I make it a point to either have time saved up, or have the show already recorded. I hate ads, and I particularly hate how local channels cannot equalize their ad volume to the volume of the show (though this is less of a problem with satellite TV); so I just skip them. I hit the little grey jump forward button—now completely lacking it's printed arrow—six or seven times, then back twice, and I'm back at the show. Why would I waste my time I've set aside for entertainment on boring, uninteresting television?
At least GE has gotten smart (or, more accurately, their advertising firm), and given those consumers who do sit through ads and who own television time-shifting devices—such at TiVo or ReplayTV or the DISH DVR—some extra entertainment in the form of one second goodies in their ads. So, why is advertising good for the consumer? Well, simply, it reduces the upfront cost we pay for an unrelated service. I think that's worded correctly, an economist would argue that it costs us more in time, and emotional strain and overall wellbeing, and they're probably correct. But I'm a huge fan of advertising subsidizing the goods I use, especially relevant unobtrusive ads.
Google has done a marvelous job with their contextual advertising, for one, when I send a message from gMail it doesn't say "SIGN UP FOR gMAIL NOW!!!!1111ONEONEONE and SAVE $$$$" in fact, aside from the "from" address and the headers of the mail message (which would terrify most users if they ever saw it) the recepient never even knows I used a free web-mail service to send them their e-mail. Google can, of course, afford to do this because they've got little faeries or gremlins looking inside every message I've ever sent or received coming up with what they deem relevant ads to show me. A recent one that showed up was a neuroscience research award.
These ads don't hurt me, I generally don't even notice them. And to those who cry out that it's an gross invasion of our privacy... Bullshit. As I think I've said before, you're crazy, if you don't want targeted ads don't sign up. Use another service and feel secure in the knowledge that your e-mails are sent in plain text through the very secure pneumatic tubes of the Internet, which are controlled by only trustworthy reputable individuals.
To combat all ads on the Internet, not just harmless pleasant ads: enter Adblock, more relevantly Adblock Plus (as a side note there's a nice history of Adblock which is also a fine account of why open-source developers are silly). Adblock Plus is fantastic, you can block those annoying pop-ups from fastclick get rid of flash ads, remove the obnoxious flashing banners. Plus to top it all off, you can make sure you never see those banner ads for Child's Play, or webcomics related to the one you're currently viewing, or announcements of new sites, or television shows. But the built in subscription in Adblock plus, and Filterset.G are the true menaces of web consumers. Before individuals could block ads and be on their merry way, making the decision all the while as to whether this was just an ad they wanted to block, or if they should block every ad from the provider, Filterset.G is over the top though. EasyList USA isn't much better, bit is some. As time-shifting is doing in television, advertising will just move to be part of the content. Why pay for a 30 second spot on TV when you can pay a similar amount and have your brand forever embedded (until someone takes Photoshop to it, at least) within the show? Hey, why is it now obvious that the—apparently—delicious food Dr. Dorian eats at the hospital is made by Sodexho? It's interesting that Dell exists in the year 3050 as a benevolent technology company, and wow, those invading aliens really can't resist the Coca-Cola, can they?
I know that if I'm going to try to make money on the web it's not going to be through banner ads (though there are easy ways around Adblock and Filterset.G), I'm going to go straight to the source, you want to advertise to my readers? Okay, sure, yeah I can plug Fukk, not a problem, hmm, maybe I'll write an article about how much better it is for you can Cocaine (the drink), perhaps I'll talk of how I've been using it in cooking. You want to advertise your laptop to my readers, sure I'll talk about how I use it every day, and it's never done wrong by me, I won't even have to lie when I talk about the fantastic customer support, because you're giving me straight access to the engineers.
I'll kick you in the head if you break out the roaring full screen Hulk-smash ads, or most pop ups, but relevant text ads, tasteful banners, even well done hot-linked ad words, I'm uncaring. So, since I like some advertising I think I might start putting together a sane Adblock Plus subscription, just to block the obnoxious and bandwidth hogging stuff.
Labels: ads, firefox, timeshifting
2 Comments:
Post a CommentI'd totally use it. Hell, I'd probably even help maintain it if you needed help.
Do you know Carol Reandeau that used to live in Shelton Wa? If so, this is an old friend looking for her mailing address. I went to middle school with her. I just googled her name on a shot in the dark, and ur blog from like 2000 popped up!! Thanks!