Chronotope’s avatarChronotope’s Twitter Archive—№ 60,596

                  1. ffs getting click jacked from a test ad position deployed in a standalone page in a local development environment.
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  People underestimate just how impossible it is for publishers to use ad networks & avoid serving malicious ads. So little control.
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                Even when the ads aren't aggressively black-hat they are so terribly built that they break experiences regardless.
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              The really scary thing is the future is all video preroll which is even worse and less controlled then the terrible state of Display Ads.
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            You get your preroll via a VAST tag. That VAST tag can load other VAST tags and other scripts pretty much unlimitedly.
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          IAB has standardized this terrible methodology. It lets ads document.write into pages, blanking them, and load all the worst tracking code
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        And there is 0 control available for publishers or video players. It just follows the VAST tag all the way down until it finds the video.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      I've seen video pre-roll living as far down as three whole XML documents deep. That's three HTTP requests before you even get to the ad.
  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
    And every one of those docs can themselves specify HTTP requests for tracking purposes. Some of those can pull down their own awful code.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      I've seen plain png image display ads that pull down the entire Foundation library. MBs of code b/c some dev can't figure out float:left.
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        If you're a publisher who, like most, can't spare a person to sit & refresh your page all day looking for awful ads, how do you deal w/that?
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          Worth noting, IAB is supposed to be a group controlling and regulating this stuff with buy in from all sides. It does not. At all.
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            They reversed stance on autoplay videos rather than stand up to ad tech/advertising agencies. They promote viewability which is a BS metric
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              And the IABs solution is ALWAYS to screw with the reader rather than work towards fixing the industry adage.com/article/special-report-advertising-week-2015/iab-escalates-publicity-engineering-war-ad-blockers/300645/
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                Native ads supposed to be way out of endless cycle because it frees pubs from ad tech they can't control. Except ad tech creeps in there too
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  Most observers (& many pubs jumping on bandwagon) don't understand Native ads a technical imperative. A sword for gordian knot of ad tech.
                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                    But of course, it can be the same trade-off. Quality of reader experience vs profitability. And then some implement the ad tech on it anyway
                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                      In the end most publishers don't have the technical expertise to explain why all the ad tech is terrible to their advertisers.
                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                        And many of the ones that do, they don't understand that their firewall is the *Sales* department and they don't explain this stuff to them.
                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                          Years from now we'll see that journalists' fear and loathing of their own sales & business departments probably doomed the entire industry.
                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                            Depressing b/c for all the tears about publishers' dependence on social platforms, pubs sold their independence to the ad servers long ago.
                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                              In the grand scale of maliciousness, being dependent on Facebook may be a far better tradeoff than being dependent on DFP & their ilk.
                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                At least Facebook gives a crap about the user experience. It is pretty clear from their code and actions the ad tech industry can't say same


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