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DoubleClick Warns Against Ad-Blocking Browsers
An anonymous reader writes "The end of free Internet content will come when Web browsers start blocking online advertisements by default, a DoubleClick executive has warned. Bennie Smith, the online advertising network's privacy chief, said the popularity of tools like Adblock -- an extension to the Mozilla Firefox browser -- which makes blocking online ads simple was tied to 'a negative vibe against advertising in general'."
So you run a company who's job it is to annoy people, and you are mad because someone wants to run your out of business with their new product. Sounds like capitalism at it's best.
Why read the article when I can just make up a snap judgement?
...I can't make first post as a pop up!
In other news, burglars are urging consumers to stop using locks on their doors.
We just need more product placement.
something like:
"Today an Abu Ghraib, where prisoners enjoy cold delicious coca-cola classic, investigators uncovered....."
DoubleClick's trademark infringes on the Amazon patent -- twice.
Worst. Analogy. Ever. From TFA:
"He said if a similar tool could be produced for newspapers, it would not be accepted by consumers. 'You'd go to your local corner shop and buy the daily paper, and you'd have these large holes where the ads were. You'd somehow feel like your 25 cents had not gotten full value,' he said."
What if you went to a baseball game, and there were only open space -- holes, that is -- where the billboards usually were, and your beer cup had a hole where the "Budweiser" logo goes, and the peanuts were generic (with holes in them), and there were dogs with holes in their mouth and when they bark they shoot holes at you? I say, you'd somehow feel you didn't get a good value!
Give FOX News some time. They'll eventually stoop to that level, but will take it a step further by only advertising Republican-owned corporations.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
PODUNK, NH - John "The Weasel" Gibbons complained that active policing was putting a cramp on his style.
"Youz all needs burglars, see?" said Gibbons in an interview from his cell. "We're keeping the economy running, you shoulds be thanking us!"
Arguing that product theft spurred economic activity by forcing consumers to purchase more, Gibbons estimates that if burglary drops by a mere 15% nationally, the effects could be felt in the form of hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs as demand for replacement products wane.
"It's like this," he said as he preened his whiskers. "Them cops, they're always sniffing around where they ain't welcome, but instead of helping the economy by buying donuts like theys do in the movies, they're out busting honest, hard working economic invigorators like myself!"
His tail whipping back and forth in a frenzy, Gibbons then launched into a tirade against the specific officers that had arrested him earlier that afternoon for cutting a stereo out of a parked car.
Finally, he closed the interview with this prediction: "If yous all don't hold in the reins on Magruff over there, industries are gonna topple! Let me and my friends free, for the sake of our country!" He then scampered to his nest at the back of the cell.
""You'd go to your local corner shop and buy the daily paper, and you'd have these large holes where the ads were. "You'd somehow feel like your 25 cents had not gotten full value," he said." I would personally love to have newspapers with giant blank spaces in place of ads. If only I read newspapers in the first place, and didn't rely on Slashdot and Fark for my news.
Hint: Change your company's ways of advertising to something reasonable and maybe people will stop binding your domains to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file. If the way you make money is unethical (legal != ethical), don't be surprised when people boycott your company. This is like the Italian Mafia Godfather complaining that people protect their stores with alarms.
Bored? Browse Slashdot with a +6 modifier for Troll comme
I only installed AdBlock after the Crazy Frog advert. I'm sitting there, surfing away, and suddenly there's this ABOMINATION coming through my speakers.
It may be the most popular ringtone in the world, but it makes me WANT TO KILL PEOPLE.
*twitch*
So, how about this; if you make the ads just a little less ANNOYING, not only will I stop blocking them so much, I will not come after the advertising executives WITH A BLUNT, RUSTY SPOON!
Doubleclick and other advertisers need to learn that "grabbing your attention" generally equates to "annoying as hell". People hate animated ads, flash ads, and their ilk. However, Google has done a very good job with its simple text-based ads, and I've supported those by clicking them. They're unobtrusive and more relevant to the topic I'm reading about (well, usually).
People don't block ads. People block annoyances. Witness the "click to play" Flash plugins as well.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
From TFA...
He said if a similar tool could be produced for newspapers, it would not be accepted by consumers.
That might be true if ads in the newspaper and those online were even remotely similar. Funny, I don't remember an ad for a dating service in the newspaper covering up a story I wanted to read until I acknowledged it. Nor have I ever finished the paper, laid it down, and then found an ad laying in my lap underneath it!
I'm angry, and I Meta Moderate!
The end of my company's revenue stream will come when Web browsers start blocking online advertisements by default, a DoubleClick executive has warned.
Software Wars
If DoubleClick is to go out of buisness, it should exploit its remaining time by focusing on penis enlargment. I mean someone must be making money of on those ads, and I know double click can do a much better ad: No popup/under, just a big slowly growing penis eventually filling & obscuring the page and inspiring millions of men and women to buy their system.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Firefox and AdBlock provide a service that is in high demand: the blockery of ads.
I shall build you a shrubbery if you send me a copy of these things you speak of!
I would, but it would be too intrusive and annoying.
Someone should just make a REALLY ANNOYING ad that basically just says: "if you were using Opera or Firefox, you would not be seeing this".
Linux, MySQL, Perl, gcc, Slashcode... Q: what do all of these things have in common?
They all have advertisements on their websites?
> Firefox and AdBlock provide a service that is in high demand: the blockery of ads.
*Bletch* *urgh* How many years of school did you have to unlearn to come up with inanery like this?
Go somewhere random
It's not up to every guy who runs a bakery or a stationary store or whatever to come up with entirely new business models whenever they hit hard times...
Yeah, well, if the baker starts to shout about his "special prices" into my ear every time I walk in, I'm going to wear ear plugs.
What?
"First of all, let's can the idealism and be a little realistic here."
You're new here, aren't you?
What? This guy's the Chief Privacy Officer for Doubleclick?
Isn't that a lot like being the Chief Legal Compliance Officer for the Mafia?
There is a spellbook here; eat it? [ynq]