Google's monopoly in the ad industry lets them profit off allowing scam ads to flourish, with no consequences

peter , 5 months ago

I got a propaganda ad from the IDF on Google recently. No idea how that was allowed, I reported it and so far it’s not been taken down

bl4kers , 5 months ago

Check My Ads has been doing a lot of impactful investigations and reporting recently. They’re a 501c3 non-profit so I encourage people to donate: checkmyads.org/membership/

renard_roux , 5 months ago

Don’t be evil.

chemicalwonka , 5 months ago

In a few decades, people will find Google’s monopoly on the internet as absurd as we find those miraculous elixirs from the 1930s today

AnonTwo , 5 months ago

Meanwhile someone will be eating gummies to cure themselves of some modern disease instead of using actual science-proven medication.

chemicalwonka , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

in a future near us

GammaGames , 5 months ago

YouTube ads are bad now too, blatant scams and conspiracy theories.

Titan , 5 months ago

Yep. Getting tons of AI / deepfake videos of Elon Musk selling get-rich-quick schemes

BCsven , 5 months ago

I had that one twice last night watching a link somebody sent. can’t believe youtube allows that one through

ApexHunter , 5 months ago

Saw one the other day with Jennifer Anniston. Good enough that it took a second to realize it was deep fake audio and video.

30p87 , 5 months ago

uBlock on Firefox based browsers works everywhere btw.

SnotFlickerman , 5 months ago

uBlock Origin on Firefox.

Do not use uBlock. Not the same thing.

30p87 , 5 months ago

What is just uBlock anyway? Kagi only shows uBlock origin for me when I search for “uBlock”

saigot , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

So the creator of ublock found he had taken on more than he could handle and transferred ownership of ublock to someone else. That project stopped getting updated and was eventually acquired by Adblockplus which is a for profit company that lets advertisers pay to be whitelisted.

Ublock origin is from the original creator of ublock and was original intended as his personal version of the extension free of the responsibilities he agreed to with ublock.

tesseract , 5 months ago

I can’t imagine the temptations and harassments he faces over this extension. There’s no way he’s having an easy life being the target of the big bad tech.

Car , 5 months ago

Ironically, there’s no easy way to block ads on a modern Apple device. You know, Google’s competition?

derbis , 5 months ago

? Firefox plus ublock origin works fine on the Mac. Unless you mean ios only?

greenteadrinker , 5 months ago

Probably iOS. I use AdGuard and sideload a YouTube tweak to dodge most of the ads on my browsing experience

Car , 5 months ago

Yeah, I should have clarified IOS. Their phones and tablets are locked down with jailbreaks few and far between.

ApathyTree , 5 months ago

It’s not super easy but a pihole, with a vpn to always have your device on your home network, isn’t that difficult or time consuming to set up, and will block shit network-wide. No ads in apps, browsers, smart tv firmware, etc. unless it’s hosted within the same domain the content is accessed through (like Amazon’s trash).

I’ve used that setup for years and it’s wonderful.

megopie , 5 months ago

Firefox focus on IOS blocks all Google ads in my experience. There are some it doesn’t get but they’re not through AdSense

Catoblepas , 5 months ago

Sort of a non-solution for the wider problem isn’t it?

SnotFlickerman , 5 months ago

I actually think the “solution” is in this article right here.

I think people have been slowly waking up to internet advertising

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1. Not being as good as it used to be in bringing in new/repeat customers
2. That generally the benefits and utility are failing because of the swamps of scam ads.

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Ads are basically the only profitable part of Google, and it’s ripe for a new search-model to undermine its now old-and-busted algorithms that are only surfacing AI-produced garbage and for a new ad-competitor that produces an ad-experience that people won’t turn on adblockers for.

That was the original promise of AdBlock Plus, that they would make deals with advertisers who agreed to standards that made the ads non-intrusive and clear they were an ad.

I’m not against ads, I’m against an ad industry that thinks we owe them viewing their advertising. No, viewing advertising is a choice it’s not a legal requirement for us to use the service, to click on ads and buy things.

If the ad industry could shape up, I wouldn’t need uBlock Origin or a Pi-Hole.

There’s an opportunity, someone just have to have the capital and take the chance.

aniki , 5 months ago

I’d probably still use PiHole but maybe ditch UBO.

tesseract , 5 months ago

Sort of a non-solution for the wider problem isn’t it?

Honestly, I was wondering what people here are talking about. uBO is so effective that you don’t notice either its presence or the ads it blocks. uBO might be a real effective solution for the problems you mention - until enough people use and start hurting Google’s revenue. Even if it does, uBO is a necessary defense since Google ads are obnoxious and potentially harmful.