And they wonder why people use an ad blocker???

[romanof]

Walmart suddenly started advertising M1 Airs at $699 and as an impulse I bought one. The experience was good - showed up in two days in a brand new Apple box. I didn't need it yet because I am still using my favorite 2017 non-retina MBA but it is very old and a little rickety.

Anyway, I set up my first new Mac in years, getting the basic install loaded, then moved to Safari to download some new versions of old apps that I used. Then tried a little surfing...

Criminy!!! I dropped by Macworld to see if anything was new and got gobsmacked by what came up. I have used Ghostery or Disconnect for years and forgot about them, turning them off for sites that I want to support and who have a decent ad presentation format.

But now I was running barefoot, so to speak, and instantly my brand new super sharp screen was inundated with popups, blaring video, moving banners, windows that would move with scrolling to stay in your face, windows with no apparent X to get out of, etc. Did I mention blaring video? And even blaring video with popups in the video? It made the entire site worthless. I could barely view the content.

Then some more investigation. Places like CNN and ABC news were unusable.

Then I remembered why I used ad blockers, but certainly don't remember the situation being this bad. My wonder is if the site owners ever look at their raw feeds to the public and know what is happening.

Anyway, a new load of Ghostery was installed posthaste.

Wow.....

 

[B S Magnet]

“No glove, no love,” is no less relevant for maintaining one’s hygiene online.

 

[max2]

I use AdGuard but mainly because it does everything.

 

[Analog Kid]

I don't think they wonder why, I think they just assume you do. It has gotten really bad...

 

[B S Magnet]

I use AdGuard but mainly because it does everything.

My add-on friends for every browser I use — always — are uBlock origin, uMatrix, SponsorBlock for YT, and as needed, a cookie-clearer (there are a few).

If an aggressively commercial internet wants to ram through their advertising payload (and it does), these are the glove.

Without the glove, there can be no joy.

 

[romanof]

Interestingly, I was going to show a friend my experiences with running barefoot for a time. I turned off Ghostery and went back to the sites that had been the most bloated, but this time, while there were ads in plenty, the overwhelming deluge did not occur. I backed up and cleaned out all cookies, and tried again, but still just got the usual stuffing of junk. I cranked up another obscure browser - Seamonkey, used for the first time on this computer - and tried it, but still it just got the normal run of too many ads.

The other sites were the same - ad stuffed for sure, but not as drinking from a fire hose this time. Don't know why, unless they change routines based on time of day.

Beats me. But the walls are back up, except for sites that I want to support.

 

[B S Magnet]

Interestingly, I was going to show a friend my experiences with running barefoot for a time. I turned off Ghostery and went back to the sites that had been the most bloated, but this time, while there were ads in plenty, the overwhelming deluge did not occur. I backed up and cleaned out all cookies, and tried again, but still just got the usual stuffing of junk. I cranked up another obscure browser - Seamonkey, used for the first time on this computer - and tried it, but still it just got the normal run of too many ads.

The other sites were the same - ad stuffed for sure, but not as drinking from a fire hose this time. Don't know why, unless they change routines based on time of day.

Beats me. But the walls are back up, except for sites that I want to support.

If for no other reason, I use these add-ons because I do run older Macs regularly.

The sheer volume of page ads and their “mass” — how heavy they are with interactive code and demands on processors — would dramatically slow down my system if I didn’t 86 them at the front gate. Advertisers expect people to be using new processors on their phones, tablets, and computers which can handle that weight (however obnoxiously). This also devours a lot of CPU cycles in the process. In turn, this devours energy as if it’s a cheap, limitless resource in a world where that resource has no impact on the health of said world.

Scale that up to the thousands, even millions of browsers, along with the data centres hosting the rich content. It’s bananas.

 

[ipaqrat]

I use multiple layers of blockers, No-Script, adding Ghostery, uBlock Origin, Leechblock, coin-mining blockers (is that even still a thing?), plus a couple nuggets I cooked up myself to block fingerprinting. I resent ads in my web experience particularly because, as a consumer, I'm essentially Ad-Proof. I am in every advertisers' blind spots.

I know this about ads because, in the years before new-media advertising fully evolved into the anti-social nuisance we know now, I never encountered an ad for ANYTHING in my entire sphere of consumption. No ads for horse feed, wormers, medicines, tack, etc., despite spending tens of thousands on horse stuff every year. No ads for trailer repair parts, machine tools, small engine parts, welding supplies, fence repair, diesel or gas engine supply, PPE, vehicle lifts, air compressor and tools... Not for Porsches. Not for vintage stereo gear or repair parts. Not for firearms or ammo. Not for nuthin' I ever needed.

I don't care if web sites' BS "Terms of Service" ban or discourage ad blockers because "Stealing". No ads placed by stupid aggregators have ever influenced my purchasing decisions; therefore, it's not now, never was, never will be, theft to block ads, Q.E.D.

Matter of fact, my parents' and my tax dollars directly paid for building the ******* internet in the first place, starting with Darpanet during the cold war. Plenty of our tax dollars still go to prop up today's ISPs. I do my part today, professionally, protecting at least certain portions of the internet against adversaries of all stripes. So, nah, I am not obliged to accept the perversion of my "Peace Dividend", and of my current efforts, into a form of punishment.

I pay dollars directly to content providers I enjoy - and there are plenty - whenever I can do so directly. But there remain lots of content publishers that remain all-ads, all-day, and don't offer ad-free buy-in. Sorry, not sorry, but those web sites I will subject to every form of ad and tracker blocking available. And maybe I'll miss some publishers when they close down because they refused to accept my terms, which won't be my fault. Unlike today's whiney kids, I know how to locate printed material in libraries.

Not that I'm bitter. Or grouchy. Or judgy. Or self-righteously regressive. Or anything.

 

[B S Magnet]

Matter of fact, my parents' and my tax dollars directly paid for building the ******* internet in the first place, starting with Darpanet during the cold war. Plenty of our tax dollars still go to prop up today's ISPs. I do my part today, professionally, protecting at least certain portions of the internet against adversaries of all stripes. So, nah, I am not obliged to accept the perversion of my "Peace Dividend", and of my current efforts, into a form of punishment.

A thing I keep thinking about of late: the notion, on a road not taken, of an internet as a public, non-commercial good, in perpetuity, with a multi-national accord to fund and to preserve it in that manner — no selling things, no advertising, no monetization, no user-as-product.

It would yield a smaller internet. It would be an internet with a core mission of knowledge (contrast with: “information”) facilitation, exchange, a teaching aid, an archival commons, a giant public library.

It is an unknown road with consequential implications — one very different from the road we chose.

 

[Rodan52]

@romanoff, I'm curious about what macOS you have (assuming it's the latest; Sonoma 14.4) and what browser you were/are using?
I only aske because it was my impression that Safari had improved somewhat in filtering that sort of content. Do have a look in Safari Privacy Settings, in particular Cross-Site tracking. Having said that I don't use Safari at all except for some specific Apple functions.
I too used to use and pay for Ghostery, uBlock Origin, AdBlock, ect, but that was years ago,I consider them to be fiddly and old hat today.
Today I simply use a VPN combined with a "secure" browser such as Brave or Vivaldi. Even Firefox is better at blocking popups and trackers than Safari, in my opinion.

Below is what I see when opening the Macworld US site on Brave browser (PS. I wouldn't touch Macworld with a bargepole as a rule)

No Popups, no auto starting videos nothing at all out of the ordinary but, if you look below at the Brave Shield results you will see that 9 Trackers & ads have been automatically blocked.

So, I would suggest that rather than spending time and money on tweaking filter sets and adjusting preferences on uBlock Origin and Ghostery which are good products I admit, simply change to a browser that does all the work for you.
Brave is the best I have found with only one downside, it's home page advertises Cryptocurrency a lot but I don't spend much time on the home page and you can replace the native home page with a picture of your own.
What's more impressive are the stats at the top.

 

[B S Magnet]

@romanoff, I'm curious about what macOS you have (assuming it's the latest; Sonoma 14.4) and what browser you were/are using?
I only aske because it was my impression that Safari had improved somewhat in filtering that sort of content. Do have a look in Safari Privacy Settings, in particular Cross-Site tracking. Having said that I don't use Safari at all except for some specific Apple functions.
I too used to use and pay for Ghostery, uBlock Origin, AdBlock, ect, but that was years ago,I consider them to be fiddly and old hat today.
Today I simply use a VPN combined with a "secure" browser such as Brave or Vivaldi. Even Firefox is better at blocking popups and trackers than Safari, in my opinion.

Below is what I see when opening the Macworld US site on Brave browser (PS. I wouldn't touch Macworld with a bargepole as a rule)

View attachment 2361260

No Popups, no auto starting videos nothing at all out of the ordinary but, if you look below at the Brave Shield results you will see that 9 Trackers & ads have been automatically blocked.

View attachment 2361264

So, I would suggest that rather than spending time and money on tweaking filter sets and adjusting preferences on uBlock Origin and Ghostery which are good products I admit, simply change to a browser that does all the work for you.
Brave is the best I have found with only one downside, it's home page advertises Cryptocurrency a lot but I don't spend much time on the home page and you can replace the native home page with a picture of your own.
What's more impressive are the stats at the top.

View attachment 2361267

Ah yes, Brave — the browser founded on Chromium code and which rolled out the cryptocurrency-based “Basic Attention Token” as a killer feature. I’ll pass.

As I say sometimes to others, you do you. This goes for here.

I’ll stick with Mozilla-based browsers for my own stuff (which amazingly, lets you know, via active icon, when trackers are being blocked).

As for uMatrix atop uBlock Origin, I prefer the granular site control, as needed. I also don’t use a tablet or phone to spend time on browsers. As for Safari? I haven’t opened Safari in probably a dozen years.

 

[bollman]

Although I use adblocker myself, I find it quite funny to read this thread and noone sees the connection.
The more people that use AdBlockers, the more ads have to be shown to those that don't use AdBlockers, and that drives more people to use an AdBlocker.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Although I use adblocker myself, I find it quite funny to read this thread and noone sees the connection.
The more people that use AdBlockers, the more ads have to be shown to those that don't use AdBlockers, and that drives more people to use an AdBlocker.

It’s a fend for ourselves situation…

 

[bollman]

Your Honor, I claim self defence

 

[B S Magnet]

Although I use adblocker myself, I find it quite funny to read this thread and noone sees the connection.

No. I’m sure several reading here see this connection. There’s not really a need to bring it up, as it’s sort of a given from the outset.

At this point, the three-decade push toward monetizing and tracking nearly every aspect of user participation online is a mirror on a sunk-cost fallacy where those parties (i.e., advertisers and sites using them zealously) realize this is a just-getting-by patch and are, relatively speaking, fighting for table scraps — that the parties to have done very well on this commercialized internet are now unavoidable, middle-aged household names linked with nine-, ten-, and even twelve-figure personal sums, with some of those captaining corporations worth thirteen figures.

The more people that use AdBlockers, the more ads have to be shown to those that don't use AdBlockers, and that drives more people to use an AdBlocker.

Woe be to them, I guess.

 

[winxmac]

Firefox ESR + uBlock Origin + Kaspersky add-on + Malwarebytes Browser Guard

uBlock Origin with Annoyances filter selected

 

[Rodan52]

Well, you don't have to subscribe to the BAT system, I don't but yes, it is chromium based but there's a world of difference between Google Chrome and Brave. Vivaldi is also chromium based. Obviously if you prefer Mozilla based by all means go for that.👍🏼

 

[TracerAnalog]

Walmart suddenly started advertising M1 Airs at $699 and as an impulse I bought one. The experience was good - showed up in two days in a brand new Apple box. I didn't need it yet because I am still using my favorite 2017 non-retina MBA but it is very old and a little rickety.

Anyway, I set up my first new Mac in years, getting the basic install loaded, then moved to Safari to download some new versions of old apps that I used. Then tried a little surfing...

Criminy!!! I dropped by Macworld to see if anything was new and got gobsmacked by what came up. I have used Ghostery or Disconnect for years and forgot about them, turning them off for sites that I want to support and who have a decent ad presentation format.

But now I was running barefoot, so to speak, and instantly my brand new super sharp screen was inundated with popups, blaring video, moving banners, windows that would move with scrolling to stay in your face, windows with no apparent X to get out of, etc. Did I mention blaring video? And even blaring video with popups in the video? It made the entire site worthless. I could barely view the content.

Then some more investigation. Places like CNN and ABC news were unusable.

Then I remembered why I used ad blockers, but certainly don't remember the situation being this bad. My wonder is if the site owners ever look at their raw feeds to the public and know what is happening.

Anyway, a new load of Ghostery was installed posthaste.

Wow.....

And don’t get me started on the full screen cookie setting nonsense! Without plugins the web indeed has become unbearable.

 

[Rodan52]

Although I use adblocker myself, I find it quite funny to read this thread and noone sees the connection.
The more people that use AdBlockers, the more ads have to be shown to those that don't use AdBlockers, and that drives more people to use an AdBlocker.

The internet is not the only vehicle for advertising, newspapers, billboards, product placement in movies, free to air TV, cable TV, streaming TV, magazines, shopping centres all at a big part.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

Ads have totally gotten out of hand. Publications can whine all they want about lost revenue but they are doing horrible things to their websites and the user experience suffers terribly. I've setup Pihole at my home and just can't stand the internet without it.

 

[bollman]

The internet is not the only vehicle for advertising, newspapers, billboards, product placement in movies, free to air TV, cable TV, streaming TV, magazines, shopping centres all at a big part.

Correct, but it's not like MacRumors has access to any of those other channels. Ads on this site pays for the site, quite simply.
So, the more people who block ads on Macrumors, the more ads they have to cram into every page to pay the bills. The poor sods that haven't found out about adblockers pays for our access to the site.

 

[antiprotest]

A phone can get hot visiting what should be an ordinary news page. And then you can hardly see the text because of the floating header, ad banner, video playing in the corner, cookie permission box, etc.

 

[toobravetosave]

i haven’t seen an internet ad in over 10 years and hopefully never will. thanks ublock origin on desktop and adguard/vpn blocker in ios 🫡

to those saying ad blockers are causing more ads….get an ad blocker

 

[dwaltwhit]

"Did you know that once billboards were only twenty feet long? But cars started rushing by so quickly they had to stretch the advertising out so it would last" -Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

As the internet evolves (devolves?) so will the insidiousness of the ads.

 

[ignatius345]

Criminy!!! I dropped by Macworld to see if anything was new and got gobsmacked by what came up. I have used Ghostery or Disconnect for years and forgot about them, turning them off for sites that I want to support and who have a decent ad presentation format.

I have ad blocking disabled for a few sites I really want to support, and the current state of web advertising is so overwhelmingly disruptive.