this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

I still whitelist sites with sensible, unobtrusive ads. Axios for instance, which are mostly 1st party. But that’s increasingly the exception.

I had to rip APNews out when Google Ads tried to serve me malware.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago

AdBlocker is the one who should get the Nobel Peace prize.

Only a billion. Need to quintuple that.

[–] xJc13@quokk.au 20 points 6 days ago

Adblockers the heroes we need.

[–] Genius@lemmy.zip 15 points 6 days ago

Psychology has revealed that the ability to direct attention to and process stimulus is limited, and that it's more limited in the most vulnerable members of society, including those with autism and those with too much stress.

Stimulus engineered to capture attention must therefore be treated by the law as a form of violence.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Also, aren’t most folks using apps these days? I have elders and younger relatives that literally don’t know how to use a web browser.

I wouldn’t want to be a web publisher right now…

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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 days ago

GOOD. most people wouldn't care about blocking ads if they werent so keen on shoving them down your throat ever harder.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This is easily solved by not using 3rd parties and tracking data for ads. If the ad was just part of the page (similar to an ad in the newspaper) then ad blockers would not be able to detect them at all. A YouTuber saying "before we get started, this video is sponsored by [relevant related company]" does not get blocked by ad blockers.

However, in order to do that websites would be responsible for the ads they display. If they don't do their due diligence they won't be able to pass it off as "we're not responsible for it, it's our ad company that put it there." They don't want to be responsible for the ads they show, but they want you to be responsible for the ads you don't watch.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A YouTuber saying "before we get started, this video is sponsored by [relevant related company]" does not get blocked by ad blockers.

Well, there's sponsor block which uses crowd sourced timestamps to skip those segments, but yeah you're right.

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[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (7 children)

I'm wondering if Gopher should make a comeback ? Gemini is a thing so, well you know.....

For those who don't know, they're alternative internet protocols similar to HTTP

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[–] m3t00@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

what is with p.i.p video everywhere. hate it. can't figure out how to block it. firefox

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yo bro. Looks like you are looking at some information without 15 things popping up in your face. I see you are into the "dark traffic"

[–] arc99@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Sites are lazy and greedy. They throw dozens and dozens of 3rd party javascripts into their headers, that punish and annoy people for not using an ad blocker - they slow the site down, bloat the memory, consume energy, track the user and festoon the page with garbage. As soon as people hear that an ad blocker is a thing, then of course they leap at the chance of using one.

It would be straightforward for sites to insert ads into their content - make the ad urls, images and links indistinguishable from actual content. i.e. serve them up from the same domain, from non predictable paths and use html structure where ads and content are intermingled. Even if an adblocker wanted to block the ads, there are no patterns that work and every single site would require different rules. But that requires effort. I suppose we should be glad that sites don't do it.

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[–] johncandy1812@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Ads on websites are deals the sitemaker made with themselves. The internet is free.

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