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Don't like ads? Stop clicking them
blogs.zdnet.com — Do you click on advertisements in search engine result pages? If no, you might begin seeing less ads than you normally would. Barry Schwartz talks about a post on WebmasterWorld forum that explains how Google begun removing "top of the page" ads for users who don't click them.
fatmike- 522 diggs
- digg it
- sungam3D, on 10/12/2007, -9/+46Yeah... you could not click the ads to make them eventually go away..
Or u could just use FireFox, and never see any ads.
FireFox anyone?- karuberutsu, on 10/12/2007, -11/+12Here here.
- invalidusername, on 10/12/2007, -8/+31Don't like ads? Use Firefox and Adblock.
- i440, on 10/12/2007, -27/+52Have any unwanted extra memory?
Firefox will also fix that problem - JSchwage, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16Or you could just edit your HOSTS file like me and never see any ads in any browser ever again. :D
- ImTheDarkcyde, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5clicking ads can also compel sites to put them up. if a site is smothered in advertisements and no one is clicking, the webmaster might consider taking some of his space back.
- zweben, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9Or, for Safari users, PithHelmet:
http://www.culater.net/software/PithHelmet/PithHelmet.php - eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -7/+25I actually forget there are ads on the internet sometimes. Thankl you, Firefox.
- bakagaigin, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6Maybe it's just me, but don't you think PithHelmet is a horrible name for an ad-blocking add-on?
- DoubleGoodbye, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5AdBlock can stop google giving you paid results in search queries?
- miznig, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31ads pay for all your free services asshats.
if there weren't any ads you would be paying buttload of money just to google something. - phatalbert, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11since the ads are contextual they aren't actually all that bad. sometimes the links are even somewhat useful
- VFiend, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Yes, Adblock Plus CAN hide paid search results in Google searches as well as text ads on lots of other web sites even if they don't come from scripts.
It's called element hiding, but there's only one filter list I know of that takes advantage of it.
http://easylist.adblockplus.org/easylist-element.htm - koonkii, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@DoubleGoodbye
look up "customizegoogle" extension for firefox - antdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Or Mozilla or SeaMonkey suites with Adblock. ;)
- bass0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Relating to the original comment, this is not the article's point.
In fact, the article explains that Google's algorithm adapts to its individual users.
What I wonder is, is the Google cookie enough or do you have to be logged in?
- epheterson, on 10/12/2007, -8/+7When I am looking to purchase something I do click the ads in search engine results. They take me where I want to be.
- opusagogo, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2i like to click 100 or even thousands of times on ads. when i'm really bored i setup a 'wget bomb' against them, ***** ads. (hardly ever see them anyway with adsense)
- borninda818, on 10/12/2007, -10/+18only click digg ads
- foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4everyone should click Digg ads every once in a while. Kevin Rose and the crew need money to keep stuff running. Same with websites you really like visiting. It helps them, and clicking them once in a while isnt that much of a bother and doesnt hurt you.
Nonetheless, is there something that blocks Google Ads? Adblock doesnt as far as I know. Thanks - Daniel591992, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3@^
yes it does :) - foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1right-clicking doesnt give me the option to block them what to do?
- Slig, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@foolfromhell: Do you think that the money that goes to digg when you click on an ad comesfrom where? Google? NO! Comes from an advertiser! who is expecting results and NOT getting his money "donated" to digg
- foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Dont care where the money is coming from. Digg needs the money
- garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ignorance. If you click on ads which you don't have any use for, it could end up hurting the publisher. This is because of smartpricing. Lets say digg gets 1000 clicks, but 0 buys... the advertisers would then use smartpricing to lower the amount of money digg gets per click, or the ads which are high paying just won't show up anymore.
So basically, you are screwing Digg by trying to 'help them'.
Oh, and as for the rest of you wanting to block ads to websites you visit... they will just find other ways to get around your adblocking or the website might just seize to exist. You see, many webmasters have families... they get money from the ads.
- foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4everyone should click Digg ads every once in a while. Kevin Rose and the crew need money to keep stuff running. Same with websites you really like visiting. It helps them, and clicking them once in a while isnt that much of a bother and doesnt hurt you.
- cosmotron, on 10/12/2007, -7/+8Who actually reads and clicks ads?
- gregharmon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Sometimes the Adwords results within Google searches are far more relevant, or just as relevant to your query than the natural results. This is mostly true for commercial searches and not research related queries.
- generalsticky, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht who play the little ad games.
- invader, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7the only ads i've ever clicked on, as far as i can remember, have been google search results ads. just... so.... relevant....
i've never clicked an intrusive advertisement. they only motivate me to block them (i'm dumb because i don't use public black lists.. i know..). while text ads don't bother or distract me (unless they are designed to blend in with the content i'm trying to read.
- detrate, on 10/12/2007, -8/+10I _hate_ webmaster world.
- zweben, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Ditto.
Their business plan is "Hey, let's pretend to have useful information in search results so we can send people to a page that asks them to give us *$90* to subscribe, just to read the damn article."
- zweben, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Ditto.
- matija, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4firefox+adblock
- renegadeafk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26If you don't Like ads why the ***** would you click them?
- BadassCheese, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Opera+Block Content
- Soave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I just tried that same experiment with "iPod" in Google, and it didn't work.
- MySchizoBuddy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Isn't it suppose to be the other way around. IF u don't click on ads, the webmaster will make the ads more intrusive than before. making ur life even more miserable. Like the ads on ign.com.
If u clicked on the ads in the first palce, they would not have forced ads everywhere on the page. Just a thought.- invader, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16yep.. then they might resort to advertisement splash pages.. the only think adblock does for those is leave you with a blank screen and a tiny "skip ad" link in the corner
people seem to forget that advertisements help makes free sites free.
- invader, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16yep.. then they might resort to advertisement splash pages.. the only think adblock does for those is leave you with a blank screen and a tiny "skip ad" link in the corner
- nhassan, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0just disable google-analytics.com for javascript, and ads or gone. or clicksor.com, adbrite.com, and all those other things.
- sathia, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I have read your good point and I got this:
gone to google
typed queen
followed this link: http://it.mobi.dada.net/splash/specialoffer_it5.html (first and only sponsored ad)
I admit the page is full of crap, but here (Italy) the bottom line is quite easy to undestand:
"Disattivi Dada.net e tutte le funzionalità attivate inviando STOP DADANET al 48282. Costi: 3 euro a settimana. Per chi attiva il servizio la prima vo lta la prima settimana d'iscrizione e' gratuita! L'offerta e' valida fino al 30 Settembre 2006. Puoi trovare tutte le informazioni e il dettaglio sull'abbonamento a Dada.net al link Info e Costi."
this text tells you exactly how to disable the service and tells you how much it costs.
(and on my browser is quite readable)
your point is still sad, but I think that most people is aware that is going to pay for *****!
- sathia, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I have read your good point and I got this:
- farksucks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23The reason Digg.com can't seem to figure out a way to be profitable, even with the HUGE traffic numbers it has, is that most digg users have either figured out how to block ads entirely, or they simply have learned to "tune them out" and never click on them anyway.
The simple truth is that sites who get more clicks are those that have the dumbest users, who are unable to distinguish between ads and content.
Slashdot also has this same problem- their traffic would seem to indicate that the owners would all be filthy stinking rich, but once again their audience simply doesn't click on ads.
BTW- want to know where over 60% of google's revenue is coming from over the last 6 months according to the guys over at webmasterworld.com ? it's the free ringtons scam, which is dominated by one company with over 60,000 domains.. Dada Mobile.
They now purchase wildcard ads just like ebay does, ie "Looking for XYZ, then come to ebay!" except the ads say "Complimentary XYZ ringtones" ..
When you go to the ringtone site, which may have any of 40,000 domains, you enter your cell phone number and the service sends your cell phone a message. You reply to that message on your cellphone by pressing send, and suddenly you're getting charged 20 bucks a month for a subscription service with horoscopes and other *****. You wont get charged on a credit card, you get charged on your phone bill. If you read the very bottom of the light gray typeface on every dadamobile website, it disclaims that you're signing up for a subscription serivce, but the only thing most people see is the giant letters at the top saying "FREE RINGTONES! NO CHARGES EVER!!"
Also, their 1800 number has no live operators, and there has been any recorded instance of their customer service ever answering an email. The company Dadamobile is located in Florence, Italy, and has their bank account in the african country of Nigeria.
If you read any of the SEO forums you will see that nearly every single SEO scammer on earth has now switched to linkfarm and splogs trying to get people to sign up for dadamobile's service, because they pay 40 dollars per click.
Basically dadamobile has figured out the ultimate profit engine- teenagers who dont know any better and don't have credit cards, but DO have parents who will pay their cellphone bills.
Dadamobile, as of 5 months ago, has now surpassed ebay as Google's largest advertiser. Unfortunately, Dadamobile is being sued in almost every one of the 50 states in the USA for massive fraud by the FTC. try going to ripoffreport.com and just enter in dadamobile.
It's a sad state of affairs when web 2.0 has found its ultimate profit source- ripping off clueless teenagers.
This whole scam is going to end just as badly as the first dot.com crash. Probably worse.- ventro, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2This post makes a lot of sense. This is also why myspace is making so much money and is worth so much.
- apotropaic, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2What does webmasterworld.com know?
- Zonkzor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4That was an excellent post. My policy is I block ads that annoy me. For the longest time I let adsense ads pass through because I occasionally saw something useful. But lately I've been blocking them because of the complete lack of quality control Google is showing. So many of them are Ebay's dumb ass, shady looking, or outright scams. With the lack of any real way to report them or any guarantee a real human being will actually read it Google doesn't seem to care.
There is no doubt about it. Google makes a good portion of their fortunes from the unchecked hordes of scammers on the internet.
"Do no evil" - sathia, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I have read your good point and I got this:
gone to google
typed queen
followed this link: http://it.mobi.dada.net/splash/specialoffer_it5.html (first and only sponsored ad)
I admit the page is full of crap, but here (Italy) the bottom line is quite easy to undestand:
"Disattivi Dada.net e tutte le funzionalità attivate inviando STOP DADANET al 48282. Costi: 3 euro a settimana. Per chi attiva il servizio la prima vo lta la prima settimana d'iscrizione e' gratuita! L'offerta e' valida fino al 30 Settembre 2006. Puoi trovare tutte le informazioni e il dettaglio sull'abbonamento a Dada.net al link Info e Costi."
this text tells you exactly how to disable the service and tells you how much it costs.
(and on my browser is quite readable)
your point is still sad, but I think that most people is aware that is going to pay for *****!
(sorry for the double post, there's no way to delete a wrong click) - kaidadragonfly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If digg wants our money, maybe they should start selling stuff, like coffee mugs and tee shirts or something.
Just a thought though.
- gregmondro, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Advertisements are just part of life just like advertising in the real world. Almost anything you watch will have things like product placement which can be considered a discrete way of advertising a product.
The difference? Not everything on the net needs to have ads. Webmasters don't need to run ads on their page unless they want to make money or are trying to offset the cost of web hosting, etc. Many times putting advertisements on a webpage or blog is just a "becausue I can" type of thing. If you're going to be putting something on the net, you might as well make some money with the website just because it's there anyway. Pretty much something that people don't have to do, but still do because how easy it is these days. There isn't any short of affiliate programs, banner exchanges, etc on the internet to sign up for. - zweben, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1"This whole scam is going to end just as badly as the first dot.com crash. Probably worse."
I hope it does. The people in charge of it need to be thrown in jail.- garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Be thrown in jail on what charge?
- apotropaic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16WTF people... have you forgotten that its the ads from large companies that keep most of the sites we frequent FREE?! And all they ask is that you click an AD or two! OR NOT even... just displaying them gets most websites money. What a bunch of freakin looser snobs... just want everything for nothing. Screw you!
And I hope you are banned from the internet.- bitrich, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12damn right. we all consume so, so, so much free content, and all we have to do is suffer some ads. it's a good trade.
i don't block ads because i want to continue to consume free content. - Zonkzor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I don't block ads unless they are annoying or really useless. I've snatched some nice deals or free trials from advertisements before.
- timmarhy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1it's not free, we bare much of the cost of them delievering that service in the pc we buy and the internet we pay for, so no ***** we aren't getting a free lunch by any means.
the internet survived quite well before every site was covered in 20 ads for penis enlargment. - garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5timmarhy, and how much does the website owner receive from you buying the pc or paying for your internet?
And then how much does the website owner PAY to keep the website up and running, including time used to design the website and scripting then paying for hosting and spending their time writing content or paying someone else to write it. - fatnutz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0You pay for the computer, you pay for the internet, should I feel obligated to click on adverts? NO. I do click on ***** that interests me once in a blue moon on here...Like when they have a diggnation link.
This is a free service. If they wanted everyone clicking the adverts, they'd tell you to, and having EVERYONE that frequents here clicking on an ad would kill their click to cash ratio when the advertiser is getting no sales.
If you really want to help donate some money or BUY something from one of their advertisers, use the link, then if the place lets you add comments put "Digg sent me here."
Telling people just to click on ads for no reason is redundant in the end.
- bitrich, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12damn right. we all consume so, so, so much free content, and all we have to do is suffer some ads. it's a good trade.
- jizzimmy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Flash ad games + pop-up blocker = win
- timmarhy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7no, if you don't click, advertisers will make them even more obtrusive and annoying.
i click on ads which are relivant or look like something i might actually want. google gets lots of business from me. other companys get blocked at my proxy. - DoubleGoodbye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yet another digg comment thread the shows how little people actually read the articles they digg. In this case it seems most didn't even read the first *sentence* of the summary.
- AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2People are saying that ads pay for websites so I can access them for free. However, even before I had Firefox and Adblock, I STILL never clicked on ads. Ever. Now I use Adblock to hide them, since I'm never going to click on them anyway. Seems reasonable to me.
People who say that we shouldn't block ads, do you also believe that we shouldn't flip the channel or leave the room when commercials come on during a TV program? Should we sit there and diligently watch the ads like good little consumers? Ridiculous. Companies are free to inject ads into whatever medium they wish, and I am likewise free to view or ignore the ads, as I see fit.- garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Obviously you've never heard of CPM ads.
- AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1"Obviously you've never heard of CPM ads."
I have indeed. This is why Adblock can be set to downloads ads but not display them. The bandwidth used is negligible (broadband FTW), and I can still avoid having to look at ads that I'll never click on. - Zhay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just because you don't click ads doesn't mean others don't. Believe or not, people click ads. Why don't you try running a website before you say such ignorant things?
- synystar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5So did anyone actually try searching for "ipod" on google to test this artical out?
It didn't work for me. I tried refreshing dozens of times and re-searched several more. I didn't click any ads and the ads did not move or disappear, or become less obtrusive in any way.- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yep... I just pointed out the same thing below. This article is full of it, and nobody else seemed to have rtfa...
Marked as INACCURATE
- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yep... I just pointed out the same thing below. This article is full of it, and nobody else seemed to have rtfa...
- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I think that this article is a bunch of crap. I did a search for "iPod" the way the guy specified, and refreshed the page up to 100 times - the banners were still showing up.
The only logical explanation for his fluke that I can think of is that perhaps all of the advertisers on the keyword "iPod" had reached their budget for that day... thus meaning no more keywords showing up. (although this is unlikely)...
In any case - the article is full of it, and the comments could just be "copy + paste" into any generic thread on "Internet Ads" because nobody seemed to have RTFA - farksucks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0To all the people above who say the adwords advertisements on Google are more relevant than the actual search results- then I ask you why Google even needs to have a search engine at all? Why not just a yellow pages of people who pay for placement?
Remember about 5 years ago when the big debate was whether it was moral for search engines to let people pay to be the first listings in a search result? At the time- most people said no because it kills the credibility of the search engine as an unbiased source of information.
All the search engines have solved that moral quandry by basically selling the top 4 lines of text on each search result screen to advertisers, but putting a tiny light gray "Sponsored links" in the far right hand corner, in such a non-contrasting color that many people don't even notice it is there. The end result is that when people look to the top left corner of a search result page, (as is the norm for english readers) the first thing they see is advertising, except the advertising has the exact same font size and color as the regular results, and most of the time there isnt even a border to differentiate between the ads and the organic results. Only if you're experienced on the net do you know that the tiny "sponsored results" on the far side of the screen meens that everything from there to the left side of your screen is actually a paid ad.
Web 2.0 is all about tricking users into thinking that advertising is actually an unbiased part of a webpage.
If that doesn't make you doubt the morality of web 2.0, then you're either trying to make money with that method or you've got no morality to begin with.
There has to be something better than turning the entire web into a giant infomercial where the ads look just like the content.
You know who pioneered this sort of *****? Infomercials that try to look like fake newscasts, with fake reporters and fake news stories about how great some stupid product is. Newspapers have even done this for years, letting advertisers buy full page ads that copy the typeface and style of the newspaper, but have fake articles and fake reporters praising some product. At the very bottom of the page, in tiny type, they are required by law to say "Advertisement" . But the fact remains that most people don't notice that disclaimer, otherwise people wouldn't keep using it.
I dont care if you're trying to sell a product, just quit trying to SCAM PEOPLE INTO THINKING YOU AREN'T TRYING TO SELL THEM SOMETHING. Is that too much to ask? - Dracos, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Firefox + Adblock + Filterset G is a good start.
But, a massive hosts file is much better. If your machine thinks all the ad servers route to localhost, you won't see the ads or the cookies they spew. My hosts has over 18,000 entries in it.
BTW, someone needs to write Firefox extension to automatically filter/deny cookies based on regular expressions and/or blacklist. - akumal, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Please click digg ads my ass..
What's the point of clicking on ads if i ain't going to buy anything, when i need to buy something i browse reputable stores like amazon, not buying from some half-assed banner on some random blog.
One more thing to all idiots like garyh84 who bitch about keeping sites alive and free content and blah blah blah, if you don't have the money to to pay for your hosting then don't make a website! as easy as that.
Oh the webmaster has to spend a ***** of money on:
"scripting then paying for hosting and spending their time writing content or paying someone else to write it."
Guess what dumbass, nobody asked the webmaster to write or give away anything, he decided to, Just because i happen to read a random blurb on a ***** blog doesn't mean i have to pay for his hosting now.
and yes, i run an ad free website.- pacificdave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3..... Well, in your world there wouldn't be a need for digg.com because most linked to sites are advertisement driven. I would still be paying for the daily newspaper because there wouldn't be a need for them to expand to the web. Also web search definitely would have taken a back seat ride with Microsoft because of a lack of revenue model. I like my current world better....
- Zhay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not to mention, in your world, the only sites that would exist would be .net sites, .org sites, .gov sites, and .mil sites.
- limejuice, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Another recommendation Firefox extension Customize Google (http://www.customizegoogle.com/)
This is a must have extension for Firefox. It disables click tracking and randomizes the cookies sent to Google so they can't keep track of you. You can also choose to have the Ads removed. You can even choose to keep the Ads for froogle, but block them for google web search. That's what I do. Since google can't make any money off you, the services really are free then, as oppposed to "free" meaning "google learns everything about what you are doing". - BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Normally I don't mind ad's but I hate the wicked intrusive ones that pop up over the web page you want to see and play this stupid ass little flash and the X box is really small. That and its also annoying when I am reading an article to have "LOWER YOUR MORTGAGE RATES" flashing over and over, its distracting. Usually I have to right click and hit stop.
- Qtip42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2if ads were up to the minute and relavant such as pinpointing local stores that have "real" deals going on today, I'd be more apt to pay attention to them. As it stands, all advertising looks the same. How about overhaul the system?
- zeptobyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5We want free services, but don't want the ads that support them.. What a sad state of affairs.
- Minos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This comment is a bit late into the digg process and I haven't read all of the above so I might be repeating what someone else said, but:
I like ads because they let me know what products and services are available to me in relation to what I'm seeing/interested in.
Problematic ads are the ones where it makes the site look ugly/unusable. But that's not the ad's fault, it's the web master's fault. My solution to this problem is to not go back to sites that are ugly because of ads. - brindon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Ads are a necessary evil. The ignorant few who champion blocking at all costs would be lucky to be as prescient as they are selfish - because the world you'd will into creating would consist solely of Viacom, Tribune Media, Yahoo and Google owned websites...exactly the world the internet was supposed to supplant.
- AWarnack, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Hooray for editing your HOSTS file:
http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html - carlosglz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Contextual ads, like those on google are a good thing, especially when you are looking to buy something. A company willing to pay for ads is a company that is in the business of providing what you are looking for... I have saved myself a lot of time and headaches by paying for products and services from someone that knows what they are doing because they do it for a living.
- ktaneer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here is a Unique strategy to display Ads on websites (http://expressionsinsolitude.blogspot.com/2006/09/new-advertising-plan.html). There is no clicking... no mess, and guarantees you revenue.
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