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Google Launches Service To Replace Web Ads With Subscriptions

Posted by Soulskill on from the what-everyone-says-they-want-but-nobody-actually-wants dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Everyone understands by now that ads fund most of the sites on the web. Other sites have put up paywalls or started subscription bonuses, with varying success. Google, one of the web's biggest ad providers, saw a problem with that: it's a huge pain for readers to manage subscriptions for all the sites they visit — often more trouble than it's worth. And, since so few people sign up, the subscription fees have to be pretty high. Now, Google has launched a service called Contributor to try to fix this situation.

The way Contributor works is this: websites and readers can opt in to the service (and sites like Imgur, The Onion, and ScienceDaily already have). Readers then pay a fee of $1-3 per month (they get to choose how much) to gain ad-free access to all participating sites. When the user visits one of the sites, instead of showing a Google ad, Google will just send a small chunk of that subscription money to the website instead.

10 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Ads by seededfury · · Score: 3, Informative

    Haven't seen ads since I installed adblock plus and no script. Cost me nothing.

    1. Re:Ads by morgauxo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've done that a few times but always end up uninstalling it. There are too many sites I visit regularly where the ads aren't that obtrusive and the revenu from them is the only compensation the authors are getting for entertaiing me. And, there aren't that may sites I go to anymore where the ads are so bad that I feel I just HAVE to block them. I haven't seen any pop overs or unders or endless spawning popups in a long time. Or.. maybe the browsers are just smart enough to block that crap on their own.

      Although... those damn videos that suddenly pop up out of nowhere and ambush you as you scroll... those have me coming close to blocking again!

      It's too bad though, it's usually big corps that do evil stuff that makes blocking worthwile and individuals just trying to support themselves while doing what they love that have the reasonable ads.

    2. Re:Ads by crypticedge · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've cleaned far too many viruses in my day to trust any ad network at all. They all must be blocked.

    3. Re:Ads by dotancohen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Haven't seen ads since I installed adblock plus and no script. Cost me nothing.

      Exactly. Now I can get off Adblock and start contributing to the websites I visit.

      I would happily pay $1-3 per month for an ad-free but publishers-making-money web. I think that they found the sweet spot of enough money to fund the program vs. too expensive for most web users. I signed up before even reading the comments here, I've been waiting for this for years.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    4. Re:Ads by davester666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Really? Every time I disable adblock, I get a "what the hell" moment. Banner ads, footer ads, ads on both sides of the content, and if the text is more than a paragraph or two, ads in the middle. And for fun, if flashblock is also off, time for some auto-playing video ads.

      On it goes.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. With it work without tracking? by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will this work with google analytics disabled/blocked. If not, no thank you.

  3. Re:Adblock plus is free by Graydyn+Young · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Think of it less as a way to avoid ads, more of a way for your favourite sites to stay in business.

  4. Micropayments are finally here, YouTube is next by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Informative

    This could turn into a real micropayment system.

    About 7 years ago I (incorrectly) predicted that ISPs could bootstrap micropayment systems by allowing users to put money into an account with their ISP. When the user visits a site with ads, the site could "bill" the customer via the ISP anonymously, transparently to the user, and cheaply. The payment system would essentially live in the ISP's HTTP proxy server.

    The Google model sounds like a variation of that, with Google collecting the money and distributing the micropayments to the web site via the ad network.

    A similar ad-free subscription-oriented option will be available for YouTube soon. I am surprised to see this announcement without it connecting to that one.

  5. Mod parent up. by khasim · · Score: 3, Informative

    My first question is what needs to be allowed in order for this to work? Do I have to whitelist sites in adblock? NoScript? Do I have to abandon those addons?

    What about any of the anti-tracking stuff I use?

    And, lastly, the main reason I use all of that is because I got very tired of clicking on a site and WAITING FOR ALL THE SHIT TO LOAD AND RELOAD AND RERELOAD.

    I might use this. I might not. But there isn't enough information available right now to tell whether it will be better or worse for me than what I'm doing today.

  6. Invite link? by Teppy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would love one. I would actually pay as much as $100/month for a fully ad-free web experience (and I realize that most adds are not Google ads.) But $3/month is a no-brainer. Hope this includes YouTube.