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Google Wants Online Ad Improvement Within Months, Not Years (wsj.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the hurry-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's WSJD Live Conference, Google's senior vice president of adverts and commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy has said (paywalled) that advertisers need to address the shortcomings of online ads within 'months'. "This is essential to our survival" said Ramaswamy. "We're talking about getting this in a time frame of months rather than years. We need to get going on this." Ramaswamy was referring to recent commitment from the advertising industry to halt the rise of adblocking services by addressing common reader annoyances such as autoplay video, overly complex and slow-loading content, and excessive tracking.

4 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. well then by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well then the first thing Google should do is go back to text ads that didn't drag our poor browsers all over the damned web. You know, the actual reasonable ads that they put out once upon a time. That would be great.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  2. And then ? by rudy_wayne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "This is essential to our survival" said Ramaswamy. "We're talking about getting this in a time frame of months rather than years. We need to get going on this."

    And when advertisers do nothing, then what? A sternly worded blog entry?

    Advertisers don't give a shit. That's why there's a problem in the first place

  3. easy fixes by laurencetux · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1 have ads limited to less than 25% of the page

    2 stop cutting articles into index card sized chunks to increase ad slots

    3 NO AUTOPLAYING VIDEOS (unless the page is for a single video)

    4 no more than 3 videos per page

    5 no POP under over in down up (or any of the 8 possible directions)

    6 absolutely no mimicking SYSTEM level elements or hiding existing ones (gimme a proper close button that does so)

    7 No Audio or Animations

  4. Re:taking the internet back... by chipschap · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "We had an ad-free internet once. We can have one again."

    I wish that were true. Maybe it's possible.

    I run a site for checker enthusiasts ... I've run it almost 11 years with weekly updates and no ads, not ever, not even one. I run it because I want to, and there are plenty of other people doing similar things. Do I feel the need to monetize it? It costs me $10 a month for hosting, and how much revenue could I realistically get? It's not worth ruining it for my readers, even if I could make a little money. The fun would be gone for me and for them.

    That's what most of the internet used to be. There's still some of it left, but the percentage isn't high.