I actually wonder if the whole anti-ad movement is moving in the wrong direction. And I’m right there with the author running a pi-hole, but I wonder if it would be better to have an extension that will click all of the ads in a way that is invisible to the user. Make all those companies burn thru their budgets for no gain.

▲

notpushkin 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

You’re in luck: https://adnauseam.io/

▲

gruez 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46188039

	▲	notpushkin 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		It probably is filtered by now, yes. No harm in trying, though, and it puts some pressure on ad networks at least.

▲

twodave 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Oh awesome, thanks for linking.

▲

array_key_first 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You'd have to, like, spawn a background browser or profile or something to capture the click to prevent tracking or even zero-click exploits.

	▲	gruez 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>or even zero-click exploits. You'd need a VM to safely contain any exploits, although you're probably safe from 0days if you're just doing some run of the mill ad clicking. Nobody is burning a 6-7 figure 0day on a public ad network, when they need to save that for targeted attacks like politicians/journalists, so keeping your browser reasonably up to date will be sufficient.
	▲	twodave 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		For sure, it would be technically challenging. Especially if the click requires use of a secure cookie. But it doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective, either, at least at first.

▲

odie5533 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Big players like YouTube can create detection for that behavior. So it would only harm small sites that are trying to run ads to get by.

▲

twodave 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

That assumes two things: 1. That such a tool couldn’t be limited to the big players (it could) and 2. That “small sites trying to run ads to get by,” aren’t part of the problem. I can understand why someone would believe this, but I believe the web would be a better place without them. These sites are all pretty much designed (poorly) around their ads, which limits their usefulness. Have you tried looking up recipes online? A bread recipe with 5 ingredients is 30 pages long!!!

▲

oneeyedpigeon 3 days ago | parent [-]

> A bread recipe with 5 ingredients is 30 pages long!!!

Is that anything to do with ads? I've always read that the padding is to make it copyrightable.

	▲	twodave 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		It’s only 15 pages without the ads ;)

▲

notpushkin 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I don’t think it harms the publishers. If the ad network (well, Google) does detect it, I think they just won’t pay for the “fraudulent”¹ clicks? (And in best case scenario, you’re actually helping small sites!)

Advertisers on the other hand will pay for nothing, yes. Some of them are small businesses. I wonder if there’s a way to click on big corp ads only...

Edit: ¹ – added scare quotes, see https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-does-adnause...