Slashdot Mirror


Fighting Ad Blockers With Captcha Ads

krou writes "Living in an ad-free internet thanks to ad blockers? That could be a thing of the past if software firm NuCaptcha has their way by making captchas into ads. 'Instead of the traditional squiggly word that users have to decipher, the new system shows them a video advert with a short message scrolling across it. The user has to identify and retype part of the message to proceed. Companies including Electronic Arts, Wrigley and Disney have already signed up.'"

31 of 450 comments (clear)

  1. A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, this is going to endear me to EA and Disney - basically not only making me wait through an ad, but FORCING me to pay attention to it.

    1. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You ever watched a Disney DVD or video? Their entire business is based around making you watch ads for their own products.

    2. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by Toe,+The · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's an appeal to the authoritarian personality. Some people really like being told what to do, and will respect a brand that makes them do uncomfortable things. Hm... or is that called BDSM? Meh, same difference.

    3. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by drunkennewfiemidget · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure I've said this at least one occasion before on /., but it bears repeating.

      I wouldn't turn ads off if they weren't so idiotic, invasive, and everywhere.

      Half of the websites I use are significantly faster because my browser isn't loading 8 flash instances for one page for all of the ads.

      Then there's the ads that try and make themselves look like they're part of the site you're visiting to intentionally bait you into clicking on them.

      Why not actually try and sell me shit I might actually want to buy, with tasteful or even funny ads that actually convey something about the product I might be interested in?

    4. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I block ads because they're in flash and there's a new remote root hole for it every fucking week.

    5. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You ever watched a Disney DVD or video? Their entire business is based around making YOUR KIDS watch ads for their own products.

      Fixed that for you.

      Kids - the advertiser's force multiplier.

      Still, as bad as Disney is, they're not as bad as the low-rent scum like Nickelodeon. Seriously - as kid's TV goes, PBS is tops, Disney is second, everything else is utter crap.

    6. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by vadim_t · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ocassionally I do watch trailers, when I'm interested in finding something new to watch. But what I'll do is rewinding a few seconds into it to skip past the titles, take a quick look to see if it looks interesting, if so rewind back, and if not skip to the next one. So an unskippable one would still annoy the heck out of me.

      Some ads are indeed a work of art, like the car ad with the rube goldberg machine made from pieces. But I don't remember which company it was for, and don't particularly care about what's it advertising. When I buy a car, I'll still come up with a price I'm willing to pay, the features I need, find every model that matches those requirements then pick something from there.

    7. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by inviolet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When I buy a car, I'll still come up with a price I'm willing to pay, the features I need, find every model that matches those requirements then pick something from there.

      What determines how much you are willing to pay? How do you determine which features are must-have? If you think those decisions are not being constantly manipulated by others, guess again.

      --
      FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
    8. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not quite. Most consumers choose the smallest evil. It's not like you really have a choice anymore, what you really want rarely gets made.

      Else everyone with half a brain would buy DVD players that let you skip ads or make digital copies of your DVDs. They don't exist. Why don't they exist, it's exactly what the customer wants.

      It's because you're just the consumer. Not the customer.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:A sure-fire way to make me HATE your product by mlts · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't forget the unscrupulous ad rotator "services" which allow their clients randomly drop ads with malicious JavaScript or Flash code, and do it in a way where the same IP and machine signature isn't hit twice.

      I'm sorry, until ad spewing companies stop being an enabler to botnet installs, compromised code and machine infections, I will continue to make sure their stuff gets blocked. This is a security issue, plain and simple.

  2. Shrinking Your Market by GDI+Lord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hooray for video captcha ads in expensive bandwidth countries!

    --
    You know its love when you memorize her IP address to skip DNS overhead.
  3. No thanks by tbannist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I see one of these, I think I'll just go somewhere else. It'd have to be something really compelling to make me endure that kind of abuse.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
    1. Re:No thanks by vadim_t · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Really? Even if these captchas actually turn out easier to use than the current ones? I mean no more guesstimating which bit of what overlapping miscoloured squiggles belong to which potential letters (and is that a 1 or an l? O or 0?), just a quick message and an easily identifiable word within it.

      Really.

      Or, to rephrase the question: would you oppose the system if it wasn't about ads but just another innovation in captchas? Assuming, of course, that this innovation does actually make captchas less of a hassle. Just sayin' that this isn't necessarily bad and you might find that the benefits outweigh the agony of having to listen to an ad message (is that really so bad?).

      Probably not. It's the advertising angle that's offensive.

      Also, normal use of captchas works to my advantage, like helping ensure every third comment isn't an ad for Viagra. That I can cooperate with.

    2. Re:No thanks by WillDraven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. I find it highly ironic that what we have here is a method to prevent advertising being used as an advertising medium.

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
  4. To everyone posting "We'll go elsewhere" by edremy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Guess what. They don't care. The sort of folks who obsessively block ads aren't good customers anyway, and they aren't interested in random traffic, they are only interested in traffic from potential consumers.

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  5. goes against basic ad psychology by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    an advertisement is essentially a form of seduction. that's why sex figures so large in advertising. you are trying to entice someone into buying your product, to woo them to come hither

    so when you intrusively force someone to view your ad, you've just completely destroyed the psychology of what makes any advertisement work

    you have in fact performed a pavlovian experiment: you've force someone into an unpleasant experience, then associated that unpleasant experience with your brand name. much as with pavlov's dogs who started salivating whenever they heard a bell because you always played a bell before feeding them, forced viewing associates the unpleasurable feeling of coercion with your brand name and products

    so all these idiots have done is perfected the art of anti-advertising, of driving people away from your product

    just make the ad nonintrusive, and anyone who is predisposed to your product might click. that's the best you can do. anything more intrusive simply destroys your brand name with the pavlovian association as described above

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:goes against basic ad psychology by lxs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you're saying that this is more like rape than like seduction?

    2. Re:goes against basic ad psychology by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      an advertisement is essentially a form of seduction. that's why sex figures so large in advertising. you are trying to entice someone into buying your product, to woo them to come hither

      Sex figures large in advertising because it works, not because of any supposed parallel to sexual seduction. We look at sexual images because our brains want us to do that, it's a survival mechanism.

      so when you intrusively force someone to view your ad, you've just completely destroyed the psychology of what makes any advertisement work

      That's total bullshit, because advertisements work by increasing your familiarity with a product or trademark.

      you have in fact performed a pavlovian experiment: you've force someone into an unpleasant experience, then associated that unpleasant experience with your brand name.

      Unfortunately studies show that even these unpleasant experiences can increase purchases. The event was so trivial that you don't remember it when you go to make a purchase.

      so all these idiots have done is perfected the art of anti-advertising, of driving people away from your product

      Since even advertising like this works, I suspect that you are the idiot.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Oh do stop complaining by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its about time that a lot of people on slashdot realised that money doesn't grow on trees and what they enjoy on the net eventually has to be paid for by someone. If putting up with a short advert means I can continue to enjoy a lot of free sites then thats fine by me and I suspect a lot of other people.

    1. Re:Oh do stop complaining by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It sounds like you're assuming everyone here blocks every ad they come across. I respect that the people running sites I enjoy visiting want/need to turn a profit but I want those sites to respect me as well. Some ads are so obnoxious they overshadow the very content that got me to the site in the first place and those are the ones I block.

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
    2. Re:Oh do stop complaining by Announcer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A *SHORT* Advert, meaning what?

      A static image. A basic block of text. These will not be blocked by me. Jumping things. Blinking things. Moving things. Things that BLOCK the site I'm trying to read... those will go into the bit-bucket EVERY time.

      Static images and blocks of text have actually led me to click them. Score 1 for tasteful advertisements.

      --
      Willie...
    3. Re:Oh do stop complaining by Megane · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And don't forget the ones that make freaking noise when I've loaded the page into another tab to be read a few minutes later. Those are the ones that will get me to stop what I'm doing and update my custom ad blocker configuration (I use a hand-edited CSS configuration for blocking) so that nothing from the domain that served the ads (as in doubleclick, etc.) will ever be loaded by my browser ever again.

      In fact, I find it both interesting and amusing when I get an ad that isn't blocked, and isn't annoying either.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  7. Anyone got a list of sites signing up for this? by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll add them to my list of "websites I will never visit, places I will never buy anything from", it's a steadily growing list.

    When mega rich multinational megacorps stop STEALING ALL MY BANDWIDTH then maybe I'll think about buying their product.

    MAYBE.

    Actively going out of your way to piss off your customers is NOT a good business model - one day you will learn.

    --
    Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
  8. Accessibility? by davidbrit2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How exactly are vision-impaired visitors supposed to read this scrolling message?

  9. What about 56k? by apn_k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are they are forgetting that there are still people out there stuck on dialup?

  10. Re:ads don't make you buy stuff... by Terrasque · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ads mostly exist to put their brand name in front of your eyeballs.

    Later on, when you're out buying some stuff, you need some $foo. You see two packages, brand X and brand Y. You have seen X before, but Y is entirely unfamiliar to you. So you buy X. What you don't remember at the moment is that only reason why X is familiar is because you've seen it in ads.

    --
    It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
  11. Toxic Advertising by decipher_saint · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, who is not getting this message? Why do ad-blockers exist at all?

    How about finding a new revenue stream that doesn't annoy me to the point where I get off my ass and do something about it!

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
  12. Re:Proxy? by Dishevel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The "Average User" dose not even know how to not click ok every time it pops up.

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  13. Re:ads don't make you buy stuff... by cerberusss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ads don't make you buy stuff...your lack of self-control, willpower, and independent thought makes you buy stuff

    It's not that simple. It has been scientifically proven that when seeing certain ads multiple times, even not consciously, can result in people having a positive opinion on a product. They forget the source of their opinion is actually an advertisement.

    At first, I used ad blockers because of their distraction. Now, I use them mainly because I don't want marketeers pilfering in my mind.

    Source: Hawks in sheep's clothing.

    --
    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  14. Yes and no by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The original poster is wrong. They do care, and you are wrong, because they care for the wrong reason.

    The problem is that advertisers sell ads, not the product they are advertising. Ads themselves are the product advertising companies like the one in this article are selling. Those who buy ads are often as bamboozled as ordinary consumers with statistics made up on the spot being sold as facts.

    At the core is a fundemental believe that ads work. This is not suprising since ads themselves often work on certain base believes. That a smell will attract scores of women. That cars are driven on open roads with not another car insight.

    In this fantasy world, the idea that people REALLY DO NOT FUCKING WANT TO SEE YOUR GODDAMNED AD doesn't exist. And partly they are right. All those annoying flash ads? They work. They sell the product behind them. So naturally if you can make your ad even more annoying, even more intrusive, surely that would mean even bigger results?

    And here the flaw comes in: Human beings operate on the "straw that broke the camels back" principle. They got a high tolerance but when it is broken it is completly gone. If you block ads because of the most annoying flash ad ever, you will block every ad from there on. Even the nicest completly unobstrusive ad.

    But then these companies wonder why you ain't watching their nice ad. And want a solution.

    Advertising is totally unregulated industry and they are paying the price for it. Ad blockers once installed don't care about relevancy or niceness of an ad. Block it all because some monkey ad broke the users back.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  15. Re:Good luck with that by Ryanrule · · Score: 3, Insightful

    by mouse, you mean penis, right?