Monday, October 26, 2015

Look on the Brightcove

There will never be a speck of advertising here, ever!

"Firms help websites evade ad blockers" by Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff  October 26, 2015

Boston Internet video company Brightcove Inc. is among several companies that are helping digital publishers and their advertisers defeat software that hides ads on Internet sites. Programs like Adblock Plus and Purity are popular with millions around the world. But they are a nightmare for Internet sites that depend on advertising revenue to survive.

It's a "nightmare." The blocking is costing online publishers $22 billion worldwide in lost revenue this year, but still, many online publishers fighting back.

For instance, the Washington Post has begun testing a system that locks out visitors who block advertisements.

OMG! Aren't their circulation numbers low enough already?

Meanwhile, Internet video streaming service Hulu and the website of television network CBS both require users to switch off ad blockers and let the commercials play, if they want to watch the shows, but these efforts probably won’t dent the popularity of ad blockers.

Fine, I won't watch. It's not like I'll be missing anything.

“That’s a disaster, and not just for individual publishers who are going to lose money,” said David Mendels, chief executive of Brightcove. “It’s a bad thing for society,” because millions will lose access to vital news and information services if ad-supported sites are driven out of business.

The Globe could go out of business?

So Brightcove’s new service will deliver video ads to consumers, even if they’re running an ad blocker. “We inject the ad into the video before it even gets to the page, so the ad blocker can’t block it,” said Mendels. “We’re not blocking the ad blocker; we’re just avoiding it.”

What’s next, software to block the software that blocks the ad blocking software? 

It's a viciou$ circle.

Whatever the tension between the ad blockers and the anti-blockers, both sides are remarkably unified on one point: They dislike much of the advertising found online....

Then you know where not to go.

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