Why the current web ad model is bad and an idea
.....by rick752
I have an idea to a failing web advertising model that could make both ad serving sites and users happy ... but will serving sites make an effort? I say no.
The advertising model on the web is failing. Hanging syndicated or annoying ads on pages like Christmas tree lights is becoming a total turnoff to the internet population.
Having looked at this for a few years now, I first want to first tell you why advertising is bad for user ... both from an annoyance, a responsibily, and a technology standpoint. And finally offer a model that I think that would actually be good and interesting for advertising ... but you would need to know your sponsors' product (as you should).
First, these are my reasons why the current web ad model is bad:
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FACT! Most
websites have no idea what ads they are serving.
They give an adserving company a space to advertise in on their site and give them full control over that space to serve anything they want in return for $$$. At that point, the site has no control over what its users will see. This is bad! All other media types (newspapers, tv, magazines) have the ability to pre-screen or pre-roll their advertisers. The actual advertiser and the serving media are on a one-to-one basis. Those media types KNOW what they are advertising beforehand. The "Oops, I didn't know that those were x-rated", or "I'm sorry it destroyed your operating sytem", or "Sorry it gave you malware" responses just don't cut it. They won't help the destruction caused to the user's machine. This could be grounds for legal action especially if a site takes action to insist that users see those ads.
- FACT! Almost all malware is cause by exploit scripting, misleading advertising, or adservers just taking 'shoddy' clients or being hacked themselves.
Once again, we are back to ads as the cause of bad things happening to you on the web. Malware and spyware are almost totally non-existent when ads are removed from the equation. Blocking ads not only stops you from seeing them, but because they are blocked at the source, any malicious script served by a 'bad' ad will not come through to the user's computer. "You can't get what you can't get". Adblock Plus is not 100% perfect for that, but it sure helps a lot with the right subscriptions. NO ONE has a perfect system. But you only need one bad ad to screw up your whole computer. There are also strings in the EasyList to stop malicious executions like, "Spyware has been detected on you computer ... click here to get rid of it" ... you know those? A tv or a newspaper never rewrote the info on itself or tried to steal from me because there was a bad ad in it. User's have the legal right to protect themselvesfrom anything they see as even a remote threat to their property or identity if no responsibility is taken by anyone for it happening.
- FACT! Most of the biggest tracking and privacy invasion services are also the biggest search engines (you know who they are).
If you enjoy being tracked and having your privacy invaded, then the web is right for you. Advertising (especially the ones run by major search engines) can gather data on what you search for and follow you where you go. Any sites anywhere that also run ads from these search engine advertisers will track you too. These advertisers have a large number of connections all over the web and can track a majority of you moments (can anyone say "adsense" or "googlesyndication"?). Even when you block the ads, there is usually another code on the site that is unrelated to the ads themself (can you say "google-analytics"?). This is not only use by the very big companies, but also by other large syndicated sites too. With a little bit of digging and by tracking your web browsing movement, some of these large companies can put a name and address to that number that you are assigned. Did you ever google your own name or address ... or wanted to look at your own house on goole maps ... or needed driving directions from your house? See?
I made the "Tracking Filter" subscription to help block tracking and marketing analysis code that regular ad blocking doesn't catch. You be amazed how much there is.
Now on to a web advertising solution:
All ads should be articles written by the serving site telling why "xyz" is a great product.
It would need to be written as a personal recommendation of the serving site telling why he thinks this is a great product. I think of this model like the 'personal' touch that a lot of local early morning radio talk show hosts use. The ad is not simply imported or syndicated ...and there are no graphic-only ads just with a name and a slogin on it. I want a site to actually tell me why he thinks that this sponsor has a great product in an article! And I am not just talking about something that links to another site to listen to THEM talk about how great they are. As long as it is not gigantic, flashy, or placed in an obtrusive manner on the page ... this would be great! It could even be made to be the first story always. Something like, " Products I would personally recommend" or "Why I think you should look at xyz". Then the link carries you off to a separate ad page (still on the same site) when you can sing your advertiser's praise and link to their product. If a site owner can't think of anything good to say about his own sponsor, then I don't want to see it either!
This would be great for the site, great for the advertiser, great for the visitors, and I sure as hell wouldn't block it. Writing a personal article for sponsors would actually be interesting without being annoying or misleading. I actually would think it would gererate as much clicking as the regular links on the site itself.
I don't know about you, but I personally love it. THAT would even interest me. Who's first to try a new, more subjective, personal form of advertising and drop the annoying, flashing, repetitive, canned syndication model? :-)
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