Brad Smallwood’s Post

I'm excited to share some great news. The startup I joined less than 2 years ago, Anonym, has been acquired by Mozilla! I couldn’t be more excited to join Mozilla and work with the amazing teams there. Like Anonym, Mozilla believes that we need a free and open internet supported by digital advertising, and that digital advertising doesn’t need to compromise people’s privacy. You can learn more about the acquisition by reading Mozilla's blog post (https://lnkd.in/eVkbmzkb) and the AdExchanger article (https://lnkd.in/euckaKPR).

New: Firefox users have reported an "artificial" 5-second delay when they try to load YouTube videos that is magically fixed if they use Chrome, which has been going viral in a few different places. I asked Google what is going on. They 1) Didn't deny the artificial wait time is happening 2) Said it's part of its war on ad blockers, not targeted at Firefox Mozilla also told me no indication this is targeted at Firefox This explanation, I think, is actually crazier. Google is introducing quality of life problems to adblock users without telling them why their experience is getting worse. I think this is actually the bigger risk associated with YT's anti adblock campaign. Google is tinkering with things constantly, and rolling out different detection methods and making user experience worse in a haphazard way. People rightly then have no idea what's going on or why this has happened. This throttling story was on top of HackerNews, top of r/technology, top of r/youtube, top of r/firefox. People are very mad, and it's a result of constant tinkering that affects some people but not others. https://lnkd.in/g_KNYcE8

A really good point by Arielle Garcia in this story (read the whole thing) "Privacy-enhancing tech doesn’t make creepy and disruptive ads less creepy or disruptive in the eyes of the average user." Research presented at PrivacyCon says that "perceived privacy violations" for on-device systems that don't identify you individually are about the same as for conventional cookie-based tracking https://lnkd.in/gqA-bb5g That research is consistent with my experience answering end user questions about this stuff. People seem to be just as interested in turning off the new "privacy-preserving" ad features as the old-fashioned cookies—sometimes more. What I think is going on here is that, true, the new features don't identify you as an individual, but they still do some of the problem parts of "creepy" ads. A "privacy-preserving" ad system can still: * match scammers to likely victims * classify people into groups to enable price discrimination and other forms of discrimination

Nice callout to Advanced Contextual from Kendra at The Drum here: https://lnkd.in/e7U7mQEK I've been around long enough to remember when Netscape, then Internet Explorer, and lately Chrome became the most used browser. I can't imagine betting on a solution based on one browser.

Hot off the press! 🔥 Mozilla has expanded its partnership with adMarketplace, naming us their preferred monetization platform. Together, we're enhancing the new tab experience on Firefox with a focus on privacy and value for advertisers. "We’re happy to partner with adMarketplace in order to bring these privacy-preserving ad solutions to more advertisers,” said Katherine Rudolph Bose, Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Mozilla. Check out the full press release below. https://lnkd.in/ecJjAVQV #ConsumerPrivacy #SearchAdvertising #PrivacyBrowsers #ConsumerJourney #Publishers

I'm old enough to remember the days when Silicon Valley tech companies were exciting and innovative, and not just sad and dumb. Ad-supported business models just suck and are inherently user-hostile, how pathetic is it that a company with the size and influence of Google is reduced to this: "We've covered this already. But we haven't talked about the other side of the equation: Ad block rules can't be updated quickly anymore. Today, ad blockers and privacy apps can ship filter list updates themselves, often using giant open-source community lists. Manifest V3 will stop this by limiting what Google describes "remotely hosted code." All updates, even to benign things like a filtering list, will need to happen through full extension updates through the Chrome Web Store. They will all be subject to Chrome Web Store reviews process, and that comes with a significant time delay."

OTHER SIDE OF THE EQUATION: Google is escalating its war on ad blockers. The coming "Manifest V3" update to Chrome is already planned to cripple adblock extensions. What Google has done now is to change the rules further so that updates to adblock filter rules have to go through the Chrome Web Store - and be approved by Google every time - instead of downloading directly from the adblock developer or a public repository. We recommend Brave and Vivaldi for the win.

Google Chrome is finally transitioning to Manifest V3, introducing new rules for ad blockers

Six months after Google began phasing out third-party cookies in #Chrome, the verdict on its alternatives is unchanged: they’re a financial wrecking ball for publishers and another lever for Google’s advertising dominance. The difference? There’s now even more proof to back it up. Ad execs might be tempted to throw in the towel. Yet, many aren’t giving up. They’ve invested too much time, money, and effort in building tech for Google’s alternatives to let cynicism turn into apathy. Besides, it seems #Google is at least extending them an olive branch — or rather a twig. #thirdpartycookies In this piece by Seb Joseph, we speak to Todd Parsons of Criteo, Mark McEachran of Yieldmo, James Rosewell of Movement for an Open Web, and Drew Stein of Audigent. 

📢 YouTube intensifies its battle against ad-blockers, and this time, Firefox has taken a major hit. Recently, many Firefox users have reported significant slowdowns when loading YouTube. According to various sources, including a Reddit thread, the extended loading time of the Google-owned platform could be attributed to ad-blocking. In an attempt to investigate this issue, frustrated users created a special thread on Reddit. One Firefox user conducted an experiment by applying a patch to their browser, tricking it into "pretending" to be Google Chrome. The result? YouTube loaded normally and much faster. Further investigation revealed code on the YouTube website causing a five-second delay in loading the page. Some users speculate that this could be Google's response to ad-blocking. Google has responded to numerous inquiries by stating that users with ad-blockers may experience lower video quality, regardless of the browser they use. The company emphasized its efforts to encourage users to disable ad-blockers or try YouTube Premium. Interestingly, this situation arises as Google intensifies its measures against ad-blockers and Chrome removes Manifest V2 extensions that could interfere with certain ad-blockers. Surprisingly, Google has not officially acknowledged this issue or proposed a solution. If you're tired of YouTube's predicament, streaming services might catch your interest. However, before diving in, you may want to consider one crucial question: how much does HBO Max cost? Read the full article here: [Link to blog post](https://ift.tt/EftYgvK) Source: 9to5Google (Note: Some links in the article may be affiliate or sponsored links. Clicking on them allows you to explore the price and availability of the recommended products, at no cost to you, while supporting our editorial independence.) #YouTube #Firefox #adblockers #Google #technology Promoting a blog post about YouTube's battle against ad-blockers and the impact on Firefox. Check out the full article [here](https://lnkd.in/d_h9rBk8 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ . #socialmediamarketing #digitalmarketing #contentmarketing #linkedinupdate