Comment by Aboutplants
11 hours ago
If you’ve visited any of these sites recently it’s obvious that part of the issue is that you’re bombarded with pops, ads everywhere, autoplaying video, etc. It’s nauseating and a horrible user experience. If all I’m looking for is straightforward content/info then I’m naturally using the most efficient way to get that content/information and visiting a website is not the most efficient way anymore
Infinite Jest describes a very similar (fictional) development, albeit with network TV. As viewers leave, content producers are ever-more desperate to monetize remaining traffic, which worsens the experience and drives more viewers away, creating even more desperation to monetize... a vicious cycle.
I used to work as a technology journalist. A guy from the business side always used to say, “there’s no way we are leaving money on the table“ as justification for putting ad modules, video players, lead generation forms and other junk around our articles. We had no say in the matter.
Someone from the financial times did a test about the impact of this garbage on read times and brand loyalty. This was maybe 15 years ago. Of course the more ads shoehorned onto the page, the worse the metrics were.
These news sites run ads that are borderline gore, disturbing images promoting snake oil weight loss or skin care treatments, and wonder why nobody wants to click into their site.
But I love internet chum! Don't forget "new law thing"; that's an important category.
If you live in California, insurance companies don't want you to know this
"internet chum" is a good one, it echoes "slop bowl".
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That's bottom of the barrel advertisers. You're being punished because you likely don't allow them to track you.
That the news sites allow bottom of the barrel advertisers on their site primarily reflects negatively on the news site, for not curating their partnerships. They decided to become a tabloid, and should lose an according amount of respect.
> These news sites run ads that are borderline gore, disturbing images promoting snake oil weight loss or skin care treatments
And that doesn't raise an eye brow, but well worded AI articles based on sources is described as slop
It's a downward spiral. As views start to decline there's more pressure to make money from the views that remain.
If views increased, there'd also be more pressure to make more money from them.
The direction of views is irrelevant. What's relevant is the forward passage of time. As t -> infinity, shitty monetization -> infinity.
My tech tutorials blog never had any ads, still doesnt. Still lost more than half the traffic. That's not the reason, that's an excuse and a distraction from the topic that AI captures everyone's IP and removes a lot of their economic incentive to create it.
Yes, and this has been the case for years. Cnet, ZDnet, PCmag have been user-hostile since long before AI summaries. Pop-ups, “before you go,” back jacking, all the worst.
The Verge is a surprise because it is relatively new and was relatively free of this crap for a long time.
They’re all just empty brands now. They totally caved to advertisers, and now only advertisers care about them.
I dare say AI’s popularity is a symptom of all this more than a cause.
I have a recurring problem where I can't even read one of my favorite recipe websites (seriouseats.com) from my phone because the series of popups completely blocks the page, and can't be dismissed.
But if I ask Claude or Gemini for a nice version of the recipe, it works perfectly. I think there's a lot of own goals out there.
Add to that cookie accept popups and the www has really turned to junk lately
Every time I visit the FT, the experience is reasonable enough.
FT is (largely) subscriber-supported, AFAIU.
Though I don't know their revenue breakdown.
Somewhat famously, the similar (though unrelated) Economist relies on three revenue legs: subscriptions, advertising, and bespoke consulting through the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), roughly evenly distributed. The fact that these have different economic-cycle behaviours also helps stabilise the newspaper's income.
This article is about tech publications. I think of the FT as a financial/general news publication. Do others read them for their tech coverage?
Is anyone here actually browsing the internet without ad-blockers?
As soon as I accidentally turn them off I am disgusted by the consumerist, snake-oil, sexist, shit-storm that's advertisement.
I use adblockers everywhere. I still see some ads, but never sexist ones. What are you seeing?
Technically I run a tracking blocker, it just happens to block 90+% of all ads because they want to track me.
I don't understand why ads aren't targeted towards the content of the page, rather than me as a person, that seems to be more correct in the majority of the cases.
I did accidentally try to play a YouTube video without signing into my premium account. That platforms is completely impossible to watch without premium or an ad blocker. YouTube managers should be forced to watch a few hours of content with ads enabled.
The average viewer probably doesn't know ad blockers exist.
Roughly one third to 40% of people worldwide "report using an ad blocker". I'd suspect that awareness is near, if not comfortably above, a majority.
<https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users> (2024)
<https://cropink.com/ad-blockers-usage-statistics> (2026)
I run adblock, but it's been not very effective lately. Sites either work around it, or just outright refuse to work.
Weren't those ads always there, though? The most obvious change is that a little AI popup appears on Google search providing a brief (even if hallucinated) overview of what the user queried.
Unrelated, but I wouldn't expect this take on HN where I assumed everyone knew what an ad-blocker was.
Yes the ads were always there but that was the most efficient way to get the content/information. That has changed and even with ad blockers, websites are no longer the most efficient way to get to that content/infomation. That is what has changed
Okay, I see what point you were trying to make. I misinterpreted your comment as saying LLMs weren't the catalyst but instead the ads were.
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Mobile users (or other locked down devices where adblockers are forbidden) are still a decent chunk of traffic. It's much easier to just read the overview and not click through to the ad infestation, or even use a chatbot of choice as the search engine instead of going to Google, because "websites is how you get spammed with ads".
> Mobile users (or other locked down devices where adblockers are forbidden)
Just say Apple. They're still allowed on Android, although I don't think you can get them from the Play Store.
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Ublock origin is a Firefox extension that works on mobile. You don't need a dedicated app for blocking adverts.
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I don’t use ad block.
I find that when it messes with the layout or formatting of a website it’s really annoying, and I consider the volume and type of ads an important signal for a website’s trustworthiness.
Oh and plenty of devices don’t have easy access to ad block, like my work computer.
I use reader mode 90% of the time, I’m really not interested in fancy layout or formatting for a website. I just want the text readable and looking exactly the same way for every website. Designers probably hate users like me.
> and I consider the volume and type of ads an important signal for a website’s trustworthiness
You can get the former from the number showing up in the uBlock Origin icon.
So, Google promotes the enshittification you decry by monopolizing the way you make money on the internet. Then also Google cripples everyone’s ad-dependent business by sucking out the info these websites provide and have paid people to research and publish. Nonetheless, Google good, websites bad.