Spending on web advertising topped $100bn for the first time last year. Digital now commands nearly one in five advertising dollars, and forecasts suggest we can expect double digit increases for at least the next couple of years.
Unlike with traditional TV campaigns, advertisers online can increasingly target commercials at precisely the right sort of people, using sophisticated data mining and tracking technology.
But what do the people at whom this is aimed – you, the consumer – actually think about being tracked online so that companies can predict your spending habits?
Well, obviously, I don’t like the idea of being tracked so that people can shove their stuff in my face in the belief that I want to buy it. However, as I never actually see any advertising on the web, I’m probably not best placed to make a judgment about how effective this data mining is. Adblock. You know you want to.
They don’t let you watch whatever you want without previously watching the ads.
Is that right? Well, I never knew that. Adblock, you know you want to…
From a watching a train wreck type of perspective, the interviews with people who don’t like to be targeted is interesting, but have none of these people heard of Adblock? Clearly not.
Advertising on the net; is there advertising on the net? I wouldn’t have known if people hadn’t told me…
XX so that companies can predict your spending habits?XX
Aye. Thats why I keep getting adverts for top class Mercedes, which I will never in my life have a cats chance in Hel of affording.
JUST because I once Googled it for a “project”.
Any way, I call it SPAM!
Install Adblock. You know you want to.
It is bizarre that they would spend so much on something that is so easy to block… 😕
It beats me, too.
I see what you did there…… *Fry face*
Heh.
I’ve been using Adblock for ages and it’s bloody brilliant. Theres even a website we use to watch stuff that runs an ad before continuing to the main program. Those have also disappeared.
Not only is it great that it targets and removes ads so effectively, it also helps speed up page loading
Yup, can’t even remember that last time I saw an advert on a web page.
Seen one advert recently. Quite a good one, too, it seems. For something called “Adblock”.
/Muttley snigger.
And don’t forget Flashblock.
At the present time, the algorhythms that are used to target ads are too crude to distinguish between pro and anti. Hence those militantly atheist blogs are targetted with ads for Bible college and stuff about getting to know Jesus. The editor of the Freethinker, the oldest atheist journal in the UK, has been targetted with ads for low cost pilgrimages to Mecca and for a full immersion baptismal pool for his church.
My approach to advertisements is to ignore them. There is a slim possibility that I might be influenced by an ad that informs me about a new product that I was previously unaware of. Otherwise, they are wasting their money on me.
XX My approach to advertisements is to ignore them.XX
Aye, good.
But when you come back from three days in court, or a weekend firing cannons, and you have 300 plus “messages”, every one of which could be REAL, then it really IS a pain in the arse worse than the seat of a Yammy 535.
Try Mailwasher.