<story><title>Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5</title><url>http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/25/google-now-automatically-converts-flash-ads-to-html5/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>akersten</author><text>Shame that I automatically convert all ads to nonexistance.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s too little, too late for rich media&amp;#x2F;content-heavy ads. Especially in the mobile sector:&lt;p&gt;* Ads are a performance burden on low-power devices&lt;p&gt;* They consume extra battery; power is wasted on superfluous cruft&lt;p&gt;* Bandwidth wasted; especially a concern given draconian data caps&lt;p&gt;* Tracking and privacy concerns&lt;p&gt;Not to mention the fact that ads are a primary attack vector (think of all the advertising CDNs that have been compromised and used to deliver malware). The real improvement here is moving away from a proprietary plugin.&lt;p&gt;Pointing out the problems of rich media ads isn&amp;#x27;t very useful here though, since most of us are probably aware already. My proposal would be simple, inline text, along the lines of &amp;quot;this page load sponsored by _&amp;quot;. Doubt that will gain traction, though.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>s_q_b</author><text>Like you, I don&amp;#x27;t mind ads per se. I even feel badly blocking them, knowing that I&amp;#x27;m depriving a content creator of revenue. But the issues you point out are the very reason I can&amp;#x27;t have them in my browser.&lt;p&gt;I used a computer without AdBlock the other day, and it was like stepping back into 1999 with every page saturated with the 21st century equivalent of animated GIFs and auto-play MIDIs.&lt;p&gt;An alternative ad network isn&amp;#x27;t as far fetched as it might seem. Clearly delineated simple ads were a key differentiator in early iterations of Google Search.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps what we need is a &amp;quot;ethical ads&amp;quot; network, with strict requirements on what could and could not be done:&lt;p&gt;1. Plain text and link only, with clear separation of content and advertising.&lt;p&gt;2. No user tracking (Maybe with explicit opt-in? And even then with as-good-as-possible anonymization of the stored data.)&lt;p&gt;3. A deal with AdBlock and competitors to share a cut of the revenue, in exchange for allowing Ethical Ads through.&lt;p&gt;If advertisers and ad networks keep following the current trajectory, there will come a day when ads are simply too intrusive, and ad blocking will go (even more) completely mainstream.&lt;p&gt;Rich media doesn&amp;#x27;t do advertisers any good if no one ever sees their ads.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google now automatically converts Flash ads to HTML5</title><url>http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/25/google-now-automatically-converts-flash-ads-to-html5/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>akersten</author><text>Shame that I automatically convert all ads to nonexistance.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s too little, too late for rich media&amp;#x2F;content-heavy ads. Especially in the mobile sector:&lt;p&gt;* Ads are a performance burden on low-power devices&lt;p&gt;* They consume extra battery; power is wasted on superfluous cruft&lt;p&gt;* Bandwidth wasted; especially a concern given draconian data caps&lt;p&gt;* Tracking and privacy concerns&lt;p&gt;Not to mention the fact that ads are a primary attack vector (think of all the advertising CDNs that have been compromised and used to deliver malware). The real improvement here is moving away from a proprietary plugin.&lt;p&gt;Pointing out the problems of rich media ads isn&amp;#x27;t very useful here though, since most of us are probably aware already. My proposal would be simple, inline text, along the lines of &amp;quot;this page load sponsored by _&amp;quot;. Doubt that will gain traction, though.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>drzaiusapelord</author><text>&amp;gt;They consume extra battery;&lt;p&gt;I find it fascinating that Google is always hurting their own mobile experience. Between all the issues android has with wake locks and memory leaks and the massive infrastructure of location and &amp;#x27;lifestyle&amp;#x27; tracking for ad delivery, its a miracle Android devices get any battery life at all. Even without this html5 conversion, Android battery life often pales compared to iOS or Windows Phone.&lt;p&gt;The more I think about it, an OS from whats essentially an ad delivery company is probably a liability. Monetization will trump user experience. Get ready for some pretty invasive html5 ads.</text></comment>