18/04/17 - From nasty to nice: how adblockers are trying to pivot (64)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/12/adblockers-trying-pivot-nasty-nice

This article is about how Adblocking, for a long time used quietly by tech-savvy desktop surfers, exploded into the public consciousness in 2015 when Apple allowed content blocking on the iPhone. The article also uses the terms that "it looked like a war was in the offing: adblocker developers argued that ad-supported media on the net was abusing its readers, while publishers argued that blocking ads was tantamount to theft. Both sides experimented with blocks and counter-blocks, culminating in sites simply blocking all users with an adblocker turned on." Like Adblock Plus, Brave wants to help publishers in other ways. Users can pay a certain monthly fee which is distributed using bitcoin to the sites you visit, in proportion to how much you visit them. In addition, rainbow’s plan is to take advantage of its position near the networks to build up an unassailable amount of data on how users interact with adverts and advertisers, and sell that on. 

• Brave, for instance, doesn’t even tell a site owner that it’s been collecting cash until $100 is in the bank, and is currently only able to actually pay out to those publishers who own the domain name they’re publishing on.
• Its pitch to users is the same as many adblockers, particularly mobile ones: by stripping out some content, loading times can be improved by “up to 60%”, privacy can be protected, and the web becomes a more pleasant experience for all.
• But 18 months on, the landscape has changed. Facebook and Google’s share of digital advertising has continued to rocket, even as every other provider has flatlined. Meanwhile, market penetration of adblockers has plateaued (Britain’s IAB estimates 22% of visitors block ads, the same as this time last year).

Despite all the critism that Eyeo is getting from other major companies, I believe that this is a good idea with the whitelisted ads. This is because this is a way which advertising will work as mainly everyone uses the computer since print is becoming a dying media platform. This way, Eyeo and all the other companies that are using this method, can make their companies more aware to the audience and since it pops up on the audiences screen, they have that option whether or not they want to view it. It is beneficial mainly because of the fact that the companies revenue will then increase.