I recommend reading Advertising is a cancer on society, by Jacek Złydach.
Advertising is a cancer on society
It is that bad. Lots of links you can follow up on if you want to.
Also recommended: The Website Obesity Crisis, by Maciej Ceglowski.
If you work in the industry, ask yourself: do you really want to?
#Ads #Privacy
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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I’ve noticed that basically every Wordpress site has ads now, possibly due to a change in some default setting?
– Anne 2020-02-18 23:47 UTC
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Like tax breaks, the ability to run ads is given to all of us. Like tax breaks, most of us don’t benefit... 😆
That’s what I think at least. Back when people started putting AdWords on their blogs, most made minuscule amounts, as far as I remember.
As for Wordpress specifically, if people didn’t all opt in, perhaps that is how Wordpress is financing the free tier?
Either way, I run uBlock Origin...
– Alex Schroeder 2020-02-19 06:05 UTC
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I just found the Wordpress Ad Inserter plugin:
Ad management plugin with many advanced advertising features to insert ad codes at optimal positions.
Supports all kinds of ads including Google AdSense, Google Ad Manager (DFP – DoubleClick for publishers), contextual Amazon Native Shopping Ads, Media.net and rotating banners.
This plugin is more than AdSense plugin or plugin for ads. It provides many advanced options to insert opt-in forms, header scripts, Javascript, CSS, HTML, PHP, analytics, tracking or advert code anywhere on the page.
– Alex Schroeder 2020-02-19 07:41 UTC
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Online Privacy Should Be Modeled on Real-World Privacy by John Gruber talks about the tracking permissions of iOS 14.
Online Privacy Should Be Modeled on Real-World Privacy
The tracking industry is correct that iOS 14 users are going to overwhelmingly deny permission to track them. That’s not because Apple’s permission dialog is unnecessarily scaring them — it’s because Apple���s permission dialog is accurately explaining what is going on in plain language, and it is repulsive. Apple’s tracking permission dialog is something no sane person would agree to because this sort of tracking *is* something no sane person would agree to.
– Alex Schroeder 2020-09-08 20:20 UTC
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The effect of search engine optimization (SEO) is having on the web:
Not only is the front-page of the internet aggressively penalizing websites which aren’t bland and monotonous, it’s also punishing any site which has the audacity to link to more interesting parts of the web. – Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google.
Why Is the Web So Monotonous? Google.
Having other sources such as a feed collection, or planets collecting feeds for you, is critical.
Maybe I should try Marginalia again.
I want to show you that the Internet you used to go exploring is still very much there. There are still tons of small personal websites, and a wealth of long form text from both the past and the present. – Marginalia: About
– Alex 2022-08-05 06:10 UTC
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The adverse effect of Google on search:
I don’t think that Google meant to dumb down searching for students and academics. They are trying to make a search engine which works for ten-year-olds and octagenarians, people with multiple PhDs and people with an eighth-grade education. But they chose to design an interface which deskills users instead of encouraging them to educate themselves. I don’t think that Google is especially evil. But I will be very glad when they break up and several smaller companies take their place. – Google and the Culture of Searching
Google and the Culture of Searching
– Alex 2022-08-07 09:50 UTC
