| ▲ | gruez 5 hours ago |
| I'm not sure what this blog is complaining about. >Problem one: Over-rating search, social, and app store ads Isn't this a problem with today's ad attribution system? The author doesn't try to argue how the new system makes it worse. >Problem two: Incentives for extra tracking Same as above. It sounds like he's against attribution in general, which is an okay position to have, but I'd rather he say this upfront and more directly rather than spending 1k+ words on what essentially can be boiled down to "I hate Attribution Level 1 because it's attribution, and attribution is bad in general", and implying the issues he has are issues with Attribution Level 1 specifically. |
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| ▲ | crowcroft 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| The issue is that problem one is real, but not in a way that's beneficial to other advertising products. Search, social and app store ads are over rated in that a lot of brands should probably decrease their investment, but things like programmatic display ads are absolutely not under rated. The correct number of dollars that should be spent on those placements is close to zero. |
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| ▲ | Ajedi32 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Agreed, this can't be worse than what it's replacing. Still, the author has some interesting points I hadn't considered before. I guess from the advertiser's perspective this standard could be a concern, because the loss of cookie-based tracking might make it harder for them to develop alternative attribution tracking methods that don't have the same data quality problems. |
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| ▲ | akersten 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Agreed, this can't be worse than what it's replacing. The mistake is assuming this replaces anything instead of becoming just one more piece of the tracking puzzle. Even if it did "replace" cookies or whatever, it's strictly worse than "before" because it's giving advertising a front seat in the browser. My browser should be doing precisely nothing to help you attribute your ad impressions or whatever. But now Mozilla et al have to waste their time maintaining and augmenting this opaque piece of mathematical faff. | | |
| ▲ | Ajedi32 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | This is a debate I've seen many times now on HN. I sympathize with what you're saying, but the flip side is that many users seem to prefer a free ad-supported funding model over a paid, ad-free model. If a site is going to be serving me ads anyway, then all else being equal I'd rather them make as much money off each impression as possible to incentivize them to keep providing me with free services. The privacy and resource cost of a user's browser sending anonymized attribution statistics is very minimal. | | |
| ▲ | nemomarx 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Do you want to click through and spend money on the ads? If not you aren't really working towards them paying a lot for ads, right? | | |
| ▲ | gruez 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | >Do you want to click through and spend money on the ads? Nobody "wants" ads, but they do want the free content they get today, which are funded by ads. | |
| ▲ | Ajedi32 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Maybe? Depends on what the ads are for. Obviously I'm not going to buy something I don't actually want just to support the site I'm on, but I have no particular objection to buying something I discovered through an ad if it's something I would buy anyway if I discovered it organically. | | |
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| ▲ | troupo 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > many users seem to prefer a free ad-supported funding model over a paid, ad-free model. You don't need pervasive and invasive tracking and wholesale trading of your data to display advertising. |
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| ▲ | devmor 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Agreed, this can't be worse than what it's replacing. Why can't it? | | |
| ▲ | Ajedi32 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Because as GP alluded to, the thing it's replacing (cookies) already does exactly the same thing but isn't anonymized. | | |
| ▲ | troupo 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > the thing it's replacing (cookies) already does exactly the same thing but isn't anonymized. No idea what it's replacing. Cookies is a red herring. Tracking involves more than just cookies. |
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