Category: Ad Block
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Google Begins Phase Out of Third-Party Cookies for Chrome Users
According to a new report by Engadget, Google has disabled third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users globally on January 4th, marking the start of its Privacy Sandbox project that was first introduced years ago. With Chrome accounting for over 50% of the worldwide browser market share, this initial rollout…
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Website and Cross-Site Tracking Is Out of Control
I know I’m not the first to point this out, but tracking by websites is out of control. After an hour of being online today, all at mainstream websites, I somehow managed to accumulate more than 8,000 trackers. After clearing it, a journey to a news website, a Google search,…
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A Game-Changer for Internet Privacy
You’ve probably never heard of it, but a new protocol called DOH could be a game-changer for online privacy. DOH stands for DNS-over-HTTPS. It would encrypt DNS traffic within your browser and hide requests and responses. When you enter a website’s URL into a web browser, it’s sent to the…
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With the Rise of Ad Blockers and Privacy Concerns, Can We Reverse “Ad Avoidance?”
Let’s face it. Most folks don’t like ads. They put up with them in order to get free access. But these days, more people are saying “enough is enough.” Consumers are bombarded by more than 10,000 messages every day. Is it any wonder they are trying to avoid looking at…
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Google Chrome Browser Live with Built-In Ad Blocker
The new version of Google’s chrome browser is now live, with its built-in ad blocker. Here’s the short version of what it will block going forward: And here’s Google’s explanation of how it will work. Chrome – the world’s most popular web browser (56% market share) will automatically block ads…
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Nearly a Quarter of Websites Have as Many as 10 Ad Trackers
It’s no secret that websites are tracking your behavior and dropping third-party pixels on your browser so they can follow you where you go online and serve up ads. In fact, a study by CliqZ and Ghostery of more than 144 million page loads, showed that 77.4% of all page…
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Seismic Shifts in Digital Marketing in 2018
As we look ahead to 2018, there are some clear pattern emerging when it comes to digital marketing and advertising. What’s in and out? Here are my predictions for 2018: Content Marketing, SEO, and Value Exchange With the reduced reach of social and the continuing fragmentation of media, marketers are finding…
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Ad industry revolts against Apple’s browser blocking ad tracking
Apparently the entire digital advertising community is up in arms because Apple is baking anti-tracking into its Safari browser. Marketers will only be able to track your online behavior for 24 hours before it restarts in the upcoming release. So no more “visit a shoe website once and gets ads…
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How to check if your website violates new Google Chrome “Annoying Ads” filter
Google recently announced its going to penalize websites that have poor ad experiences in its upcoming update to the Chrome browser. Starting next year, Chrome will block sites with “annoying ads” in search results. If you think because you’re a name brand publisher, you’ll be exempt, think again. Google has…
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Programmatic ad buying continues to rise, but is it really an efficient way to buy advertising?
I’ve written a lot about Programmatic Advertising over the past four years because of the rise in usage among media buyers. While recognizing the efficiency, I’ve also cautioned against eliminating the direct buy of premium websites from name publishers. There’s no arguing that more people are using programmatic – machine-driven…
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Google says no to pop-up and pop-under ads
Google has taken another positive step in trying to help reign in the mess of annoying ads on website. Google will no longer permit placing pop-up or pop-under ads, the company declared in a blog post. They also won’t allow the use of any Google ads on sites that contain…
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Game Changer: Google confirms built-in ad blocker coming to its Chrome browser
It’s been rumored for a while, but now Google confirms it will update its Chrome browser to include an ad blocker. If your site has what Google terms “unacceptable ads,” it’s going to block all the advertisements on your site. The list of what is unacceptable will include pop-ups, videos…
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FTC cracks down on Zombie Cookies that track your online behavior even after you opt-out
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a settlement with Turn over its use of Supercookies (also called Zombie Cookies). The FTC has accused Turn of deception by tracking consumers for ads even after people tried to opt out. While not admitting any wrongdoing, the settlement will prohibit Turn from misrepresenting…
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Would you rather pay for content or put up with advertising?
85% say give us ads. 75% say they would drastically reduce their online activities if they had to pay. In fact, Americans assigned a value of nearly $1,200 per year to the array of free, ad-supported services and content currently available to them on computers and mobile devices, according to…
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Is Google getting ready to launch its own ad blocker?
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is readying its own ad-blocker as part of its Chrome browser. Chrome is the undisputed most used browser in the world with a market share north of 41%. The ad blocker would be added to both mobile and desktop versions, per the report,…
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When did we become an opt-out world?
We all know that nobody reads Terms of Service on anybody’s website, or User Agreements when downloading an app. We have just come to accept that there’s probably bad stuff in there that we won’t want but it’s the price we have to pay. I say enough! It’s time to…
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Google taking on interstitial ads and pop-ups
You’re visiting a website and interested in what’s there and… suddenly… one of those pesky popup ads shows up. Or the dreaded “interstitial ad” which blocks the content on the page until you take an action. Don’t you just hate that? Finally, one of the power players is doing something…
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Are people being honest about why they use ad blockers? We may soon find out
The majority of people that use ad blockers claim that it’s about avoiding overly-intrusive and ads that clog up – and slow down – their web experience. We may get a chance to see if that’s true, or whether it’s just a more politically correct way of saying I don’t…
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Publishers file FTC complaint against Ad Blockers “deceptive practices”
Ad blocking is a growing trend and, while publishers HATE it, they accept it for the most part. But when ad blockers go too far — like substituting their own ads — or whitelisting your site only if you pay them, then the trouble starts. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) filed a Complaint…
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How do I reach people using ad blockers?
While nobody can seem to agree on how many people are actually using ad blockers, there is consensus about three things: There’s a bunch of people using them. The number is growing. Publishers are increasingly worried about losing revenue. A study by Juniper Research estimates that it will cost publishers…
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The fight over ad blocking: Watch Proponents and Critics face off
Earlier this year, AdBlock Plus announced it had 500 million downloads and 50 million active users. At Tech Crunch Disrupt NY 2016, it announced 100 million active installations. Does that mean they could be closing in on ONE BILLION downloads worldwide? And that’s just one of the options available for…
