I think as a child I got viruses from one of the ads, you know, the ones would put on the side of the site. We had to call in a guy, to clean parents’ computer. I felt really guilty and never touched those ads again.
So Google’s and Meta’s main business are ads. And recently I felt confused. Do people click on ads? Don’t these ads feel phishy to them?
On the rare occasion, I find myself on a mobile website or an app, and I know what I want to tap, what I need to tap, so I move to tap it, and the damn ad loads slower (I swear as intended) which shifts everything on my screen causing me to inadvertently tap it.
Years. Hell, it’s months since I’ve even seen one … and that was just because sometimes when you start your browser a page will load before the adblocker is loaded.
Oh yeah, all the time. Not for anything I need though. Just for private jets, million dollar pieces of industrial mining equipment, and centrifuges.
Ubiquitous surveillance means constant opportunities to provide wrong data.
The first and last time I clicked an ad was roughly 20 years ago. I was a child, playing RuneScape and orgazing a clan, and I wanted to post our clan events on a website.
An ad for one.com (a web host, called b-one back then) was shown above the RuneScape client. I thought about it and decided to click it. I landed on the website and made an account, played around a bit, and asked my mom if she’d pay for it. In that moment, not only did I become a paying customer, I became a web developer. The latter of which I still am to this day.
Being exposed to such life-altering artifacts on the daily seems like a terrible idea, so I’ve blocked ads ever since.
There was a warez site that politely asked to click their ads to support them, which I did. This was around the year 2000, adblocking nor user tracking were really a thing.
Can’t even remember the last time I’ve even seen an ad lol
This is the way
I was there in the late 90s, when hitting the wrong website (or a good one on a bad day) would spawn oodles of pop-ups and pop-unders. And any attempt to close even one of these windows would spawn 10 more. Rinse and repeat until these ads brought not only your browser to a grinding halt, but also your entire operating system, forcing a hard restart of your entire computer.
The moment an adblocking add-in was made for Phoenix (later Firefox), I installed it and never looked back.
I feel for those websites who rely on ad revenue to exist, but that well was thoroughly poisoned for me long before you (likely) ever existed. I will never permit a browser to exist on any of my systems without an ad-blocker of some kind, and I will configure all of my clients to have the same protections in place.
Every time my parents used the computer, even if it was only for a few minutes, it ended up looking like this
The moment an adblocking add-in was made for Phoenix (later Firefox), I installed it and never looked back.
Oh wow, I had totally forgotten that it started as phoenix. I only remember that name because the first time I downloaded the browser, the homepage read “Phoenix is now Firebird”.
For the Samsung galaxy s3. What a disappointment that became! Never again.
I have ads unblocked on a site that I like to support, and that serves relevant ads that are generally clean.
Generally, they’re ads for equipment from manufacturers I’m actually interested in, so I will occasionally click on them.Every time I search a company website on Google and I don’t like the company and want them loose money. If I like the company I click the normal search result.
I thought I was the only one that did that lol
On my devices I don’t see ads because PiHole and uBlock… But this week while using someone else’s device, and I saw an Ad, I tried to click the ‘x’ button, but accidentally clicked the ad because they make the button tiny.
Screw ads.
I just don’t like if I forget to go incognito VPN and shop to buy something, then buy something, so I’m done shopping for it, but then see it non stop in adds for the next 2 months.
I ALREADY BOUGHT A DAMNED PAIR OF WORK BOOTS!
Been a really long time I have actually clicked on an actual ad, unless we’re including closing the pop up thing every time you boot up Steam. I couldn’t remember the last ad I actually clicked on if we’re not including the Steam thing.
Bought a sweater I saw in an ad. Like a 70s style one, like it was the sweater that inspired both Tron and the Twister board game. Hasn’t arrived yet but I’m hopeful it isn’t complete trash.
I actually bought a cheap laser mouse off a banner ad once back when you could still find mice with balls in them. I think it was like 15 bucks, arrived no problem, and my credit card didn’t get stolen, so it was a win I guess?
Might’ve been the last time I clicked an ad, and it was 20+ years ago. Oh wait no my news app a few years ago had a top made out of gold being sold for about $150 as an executive desk toy. I checked it out because I was sure it would link to a new satire site like the onion. Turns out it was real and my news app thought I was really into gold tops for a few weeks.
