Technoglitch
Core Member
Will someone please save the internet? How about the guy who invented the thing that is now mucking it up?
At the centre of the web's crisis is ad-blocking software. You might have it on your phone or browser, perhaps stifling the very sources of revenue that allow this publication to fund me to click-clack on my keyboard. Ad blockers are becoming extremely popular very quickly: Global web Index says that 40 per cent of the world's internet users have installed some sort of ad blocker, up from just 28 per cent in mid-2015. Adoption is expected to spike.
It's hard to blame users for climbing aboard this train. Ads have gone too far and broken the bargain consumers were once willing to make to get free content. Ads pop up and play in the middle of articles, crowd phone screens and suck up computing resources. Meanwhile, in the background, ads track us, collect data on us and steal our privacy.
Most people wouldn't go out of their way to install ad-blocking software unless they were fed up. Clearly, a huge number of us are fed up. This is a problem because a great deal of the internet is built around advertising. It pays for news, videos, social media, search, email, maps, music and a whole lot more. We have got used to free content and services, and have agreed to "pay" for them by enduring ads and exposing our identities. If we all load ad blockers, many of the creators of content and services will see their oxygen cut off and will perish.
If internet ads are the last lifeline for journalism, the underpinnings of an informed democracy will soon wear away. Lately, tactics in the ad-block wars have escalated. Recently, the German Bild newspaper banned anyone running an ad blocker from accessing its site. Some sites are deploying anti-ad-blocker software, which will only entice people to install anti-anti-ad-blocker software. The Interactive Advertising Bureau withdrew invitations to executives from Adblock Plus to its forthcoming leadership summit. It's getting ugly.
Recently, Eich let loose a new invention called Brave. It's a whole browser built to block ads. Use Brave and no ads will get through, and no bits of software from sites will be able to track anything you do or know anything about you. Yet, Eich says, "we're doing something bigger. We're building a solution designed to avert war and give users the fair deal they deserve."
How? Brave collects anonymised user data, untraceable to you but interesting enough so that you can be segmented into a likely audience for certain kinds of ads. Then Brave inserts its ads in a way that won't affect the page's performance or give up your personal data, and Brave will return to publishers 55 per cent of the revenue – perhaps up to 70 per cent.
Ad-blocking software: Could Brendan Eich's Brave browser save the internet? | Tech | Lifestyle | The Independent
At the centre of the web's crisis is ad-blocking software. You might have it on your phone or browser, perhaps stifling the very sources of revenue that allow this publication to fund me to click-clack on my keyboard. Ad blockers are becoming extremely popular very quickly: Global web Index says that 40 per cent of the world's internet users have installed some sort of ad blocker, up from just 28 per cent in mid-2015. Adoption is expected to spike.
It's hard to blame users for climbing aboard this train. Ads have gone too far and broken the bargain consumers were once willing to make to get free content. Ads pop up and play in the middle of articles, crowd phone screens and suck up computing resources. Meanwhile, in the background, ads track us, collect data on us and steal our privacy.
Most people wouldn't go out of their way to install ad-blocking software unless they were fed up. Clearly, a huge number of us are fed up. This is a problem because a great deal of the internet is built around advertising. It pays for news, videos, social media, search, email, maps, music and a whole lot more. We have got used to free content and services, and have agreed to "pay" for them by enduring ads and exposing our identities. If we all load ad blockers, many of the creators of content and services will see their oxygen cut off and will perish.
If internet ads are the last lifeline for journalism, the underpinnings of an informed democracy will soon wear away. Lately, tactics in the ad-block wars have escalated. Recently, the German Bild newspaper banned anyone running an ad blocker from accessing its site. Some sites are deploying anti-ad-blocker software, which will only entice people to install anti-anti-ad-blocker software. The Interactive Advertising Bureau withdrew invitations to executives from Adblock Plus to its forthcoming leadership summit. It's getting ugly.
Recently, Eich let loose a new invention called Brave. It's a whole browser built to block ads. Use Brave and no ads will get through, and no bits of software from sites will be able to track anything you do or know anything about you. Yet, Eich says, "we're doing something bigger. We're building a solution designed to avert war and give users the fair deal they deserve."
How? Brave collects anonymised user data, untraceable to you but interesting enough so that you can be segmented into a likely audience for certain kinds of ads. Then Brave inserts its ads in a way that won't affect the page's performance or give up your personal data, and Brave will return to publishers 55 per cent of the revenue – perhaps up to 70 per cent.
Ad-blocking software: Could Brendan Eich's Brave browser save the internet? | Tech | Lifestyle | The Independent
