ericlaw talks about security, the web, and software in general
The folks @Wired would like to remind you that viewing their website in any browser violates of their terms-of-use.
All web browsers cache content, by-design. And I’m pretty sure that “reading” is one just one of many ways that the material might be “otherwise used.”
For an otherwise forward-looking publication, seeing this garbage on the homepage is a depressing failure.
-E
Last night, I wrote up a quick post on the importance of iOS9’s introduction of a content-filtering API.
Naturally, there have been a variety of reactions to this post, so I’d like to address some of those and provide some additional context.
First, I’d like to point out that while there are many important factors in the evolution of technology, ignore economics at your peril. My first-hand experience with this was watching the “race to the bottom” in the Certificate Authority market; anyone with even a passing examination of the economics behind CAs could have seen it coming many years before it actually happened.
Second, I’ll point out that I wrote a much longer and more popular blog post on ad-blocking almost five years ago. Beyond showing how to block many web ads, I also provided some examples of what happens when ad-blocking becomes prevalent enough for sites to respond; generally, it’s not pretty. Go give it a quick skim, especially starting at the section Evaluation of Blocking Mechanisms. If you didn’t read between the lines, the tl;dr subtext of the post is “Hey, all of y’all evangelizing mass adoption of ad-blockers—knock it off, or you’re going to ruin it for us.”
Third, I maintain a Tracking Protection List for IE9 to IE11 that blocks many web advertisements.
@mattapperson noted that iOS isn’t shipping with an ad-blocker, only a filtering API, and that’s true. As I noted, however, there are significant short- and long-term strategic benefits for Apple if their new API is broadly used to block web ads. Mike and @steve228uk think the new API won’t be a game-changer and only power-users will block ads. That’s a possibility for sure, but again, it’s absolutely in Apple’s interest to ensure the API is broadly used.
@reganwald implies that ad-blocking won’t damage the open web, only its monetization. This is that pesky “ignore the economics” fallacy; the web grew not only because it was super neat, but also because there was plenty of money available. Shut off the money spigot and the attention and investment will move elsewhere.
@thomask77 observes that ads will simply get integrated into the first-party HTML and obfuscated; you could imagine technology like ShapeSecurity getting used for this. That’s certainly a possibility, but it overlooks some technical complexity and other problems (e.g. harder for ad networks to root out fraudulent clicks, which are already a huge problem). But yes, one outcome of widespread adoption of ad blockers will be a further blurring of “content” and “ads”, in the same way that American Idol judges guzzle Coke out of big cups and the singers croon at Fords parked on stage.
Several commenters, including @theodorejb opined that sites just need “to move beyond ads to other forms of revenue.” It’s a fine idea, but the genius of Apple’s position here is that the easiest move is for the publisher to build an iOS app and leave their existing ad investments intact.
On April Fools day in 2011, I proposed a new specification, P5P, the Pretty Please Platform for Participating Publishers. While this was mostly a tongue-in-cheek takedown of the Do Not Track request header, I also took some shots like this one:
NO-ADS-IM-SURE-YOU-WILL-FIGURE-OUT-ANOTHER-BUSINESS-MODEL
This token indicates that the user does not wish to be shown any form of advertising content, and expresses their earnest belief that the web publisher will find some way to remain in business without an income stream.
Note: This preference appears to be far more common than the related NO-ADS-HERE-IS-MY-BILLING-INFO-INSTEAD value.
@joshin4colours points out that some sites may be overlooking obvious revenue opportunities; I’m sure this is true in some cases, but again, the inertia is going to be for the blockee to simply kick the user over to their unconstrained iOS app.
One alternative revenue model is “tipping.” For instance, http://virtualglobetrotting.com/ detects blocked ads and allows users to send support via Bitcoin or Litecoin:
I support Virtual Globetrotting by using the Amazon Affiliates link to shop (and I buy quite a bit on Amazon), but I suspect that ad-blocking is still revenue negative for the developer.
@MaxenceBouret observes that widespread use of Safari’s content blocker could backfire and lead to users being asked to switch out of Safari to Chrome instead of using an iOS app. It’s a possibility, but I think it’s not the likely outcome.
@jdev1977 and others point out that sites can simply block visitors who block ads; that’s true, and it’ll likely be early return fire in an escalating arms race.
Here are a few articles in this area:
Most web users tolerate ads; many web users hate advertising with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. There are many good reasons that users dislike ads (they’re bad for performance, security, and privacy) as well as less universal, more arguable, grievances (e.g. annoyance factor, disagreement about the value exchange for ad-funded services, etc).
Apple, a company that makes ~80%ish of their revenue from iOS-based products, recently announced that iOS 9 will ship with a compelling ad-filtering API for the Safari browser.
In what is surely a huge coincidence, Apple and iOS’s only significant competitor makes ~90%ish of its revenue from advertising.
If you thought that websites’ “Install our app” prompts were annoying before, imagine what’s going to happen when the only way to reliably show ads is via a native app? That “No thanks” link is probably not going to be there, especially when the site detects your ad-blocker (scroll to “Evaluation of Blocking Mechanisms“).
Let’s review:
It’s an utterly brilliant plan.
In the Microsoft anti-trust case, Microsoft was infamously accused of a trying to “cut off Netscape’s air-supply.” This summer, Apple will be quietly putting its hand on Google’s money-spigot.
It’s far from clear how it will end, but collateral damage seems inevitable.
-Eric
Update: My responses to reactions to this post.
In April, Noah (22 months) fell on the playground. It wasn’t an especially bad fall, but he bumped his head pretty hard. He cried, but mostly because he dropped the ball he was carrying– he quickly stopped when it was returned to him. No big deal. He had a nasty bruise and some swelling, but he’s had worse.
Later that night, he threw up after dinner. This was worrisome, since he’s had a pretty strong stomach and has only ever done so a few times in two years. Googling around, the general consensus is you only need to call the doctor after the third instance of vomiting when no other symptoms are present. Whew!
Until he threw up three more times over the next hour.
So, Jane called the nurse’s line and they suggested we go to Dell Children’s Hospital, the best in Austin. We piled in the car and headed over, convinced that we were probably worried about nothing, but still… He threw up in the lobby and we got into see a nurse a few minutes later. She offered an anti-nausea pill (“Zofran”) which we initially declined but went back to get after he threw up yet again. After more waiting, we got in to see a doctor, who probed at his bruise/bump a bit, reiterated his medical history, and had us give Noah some more water to see if he could keep it down. Eventually, he decided that we should do a CAT Scan just to be sure, and we all headed downstairs for the scan. Throughout the process, Noah was happy and wide awake, apparently excited about getting to hang out past his bedtime in a neat new place with lots of gadgets. We assumed this would end when he had to lay down for the CAT Scan machine, but he was the perfect patient, laying down as quietly as he ever had and not moving at all for the scan.
An hour or so later, we got back the results (no problems found, yay!) and we got discharged with a diagnosis of “mild concussion” and a prescription for more of the Zofran just in case he needed it.
A few hours after we got home, I apparently “caught Noah’s concussion” and began throwing up. Oops. Well, at least we ruled out any kind of real problem; there was no fever, just some nausea and difficulty in keeping food down.
We both got better within a few days.
Then we got the bill. The letter the hospital was pretty simple: “Hey, send us $2150. Got any questions? Talk to your insurance company.”
A few days later, the insurance company sent over their explanation of benefits, explaining that they’d covered $2017, we got a $1041 discount, and we owed the remainder of our annual deductible ($2150). They at least offered a slight breakdown of the charges:
Even still, we wondered about the $309 “Pharmacy” charge—Noah had only taken two tiny pills (dissolved) and they seem to have a street price of $2 to $12, depending on where you buy them. What’s up with that?
The lack of detail here made it seem almost as if the insurance company had no interest in preventing fraudulent billing. Weird.
Jane called and nagged the hospital into sending over a detailed bill. That they didn’t send it on the back of the initial letter irritates me to no end, but it immediately becomes clear why they might not want you to know what you were charged:
The Zofran was marked up at least 1000%. The “5GM Cream” was some sort of topical anesthetic that the nurses had applied to his hand just in case he needed an IV if he didn’t keep down the water he drank—my guess it had at least the same level of markup.
Fortunately, my employer provides ridiculously good healthcare benefits (they even pay deductibles!) so the entire trip didn’t directly cost us anything. But I’m terrified of how broken the pricing model is for healthcare is in this country. I’m a big fan of the ACA, but if we as a country don’t find a way to rein in uncontrolled healthcare costs, we’re doomed anyway.
Time Magazine did an awesome story on this topic almost exactly two years ago: http://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
-Eric
There’s a writer living in my head, and he’s a genius.
Or so he tries to convince me, as his prose flows freely day in and out, filling most idle moments– while I’m showering, driving, dining, taking out the trash, or performing any of the other mundane tasks of daily life. His prose is brilliant– his points always well aligned, his recall of long-ago events and facts uncannily perfect, and his agility in seamlessly transitioning from one topic to the next is above reproach. He never needs spell-check or a thesaurus, and he never struggles to find the right way to approach the topic. His efforts are frequently interrupted by periods of basking in the glorious reception he imagines for his easy labors, and is certain that untold rewards are sure to follow.
Unfortunately, this genius is a huge jerk.
As soon as a spare moment is found in which hands can be placed upon a keyboard or a notepad, he’s either nowhere to be found, or not “in the mood” to rehash old topics that were perfectly formed in the ether… to commit such brilliance using a device so banal as a keyboard is an insult, it seems, and he won’t deign to be part of such an endeavor.
Over the years, I’ve found that the only way to write is to just type, painfully, whatever drivel comes to mind, scaffolding up the roughest of approximations of what he might say, providing nary a distraction to amuse him. With false start after false start, rewrite after rewrite, I suffer until he comes out, clucks his tongue at my pathetic efforts, and begins to guide my fingers on the keyboard. He bridles at the annoyance of checking facts (rolling his eyes in disdain each time an inaccuracy is found—“the piece would be better if I was right!” he argues) and groans each time my feeble mind grapples with a word choice.
When a throwaway tweet gets 300 times the pickup of a hard-scribed blog post, he groans and rants at the inanity of the mortal world.
But what alternative is there?
-Eric
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