Advertising Archives | The Digital Reader

Salon.com No Longer Lets You Read Stories for Free – Wants to Use Ad-Blocking Readers’ CPUs to Mine Bitcoin

13 February, 201813 February, 2018Advertising16 Comments

In what is almost an ironic twist on the material cost of online advertising, Salon now wants readers who run security extensions, err, block ads, to lend Salon their...

Why Blocking Ads is About Security, and Always Has Been

5 February, 20185 February, 2018Advertising4 Comments

I have long held the view that blocking ads in a web browser is a basic and standard part of web security. You should be blocking ads for the...

Chrome Will Start Blocking Ads on Noncompliant Sites on 15 February

20 December, 201720 December, 2017Advertising, Google2 Comments

Back in April Google announced its plans to add an ad-blocking component to Chrome, and now they've set a release date. It turns out that this is less about...

AdBlock Plus Relaunches Flattr Micro-Payment Service

25 October, 201711 November, 2017Advertising2 Comments

AdBlock Plus parent Eyeo has relaunched Flattr six months after acquiring the company. Flattr was previously known for enabling users to make one-time payments to reward creators, but its...

Inara to Launch Ad-Funded eBook Service in September

11 August, 201715 August, 2017Advertising, Streaming eBooks3 Comments

In February 2016 I broke the news on Eleven, an ebook service from Breakaway Media that wanted to let users read for free in exchange for being bombarded by adverts....

Google Contributor 2.0 is DOA

17 July, 201718 July, 2017Advertising, GoogleOne Comment

If you didn't notice that a month ago Google launched its second go at developing an alternative funding model for websites, don't be too surprised. I didn't notice either,...

F*** Mobile Usability – Google Now Allows 300×250 Adverts Above the Fold on Mobile Sites

2 May, 20174 May, 2017Advertising, Google19 Comments

Google is a schizoid company. On the one side, we have engineers inventing tech like AMP, a search engine, and self-driving cars and generally making the world a better...

Lessons Learned from “Google Eating a Business Whole”

25 April, 201727 April, 2017Advertising, Google, Self-Pub3 Comments

The Outline published a story last week on CelebrityNetWorth.com and what happened after Google appropriated the site's work for Google's search results. That is the focus of the article,...

Google is Making an Ad-Blocker for Chrome, But You Will Never Be Able to Fully Trust It

20 April, 201720 April, 2017Advertising2 Comments

The WSJ has reported unconfirmed but reasonable sounding claims that Google is working on an ad blocker for Chrome: Google is planning to introduce an ad-blocking feature in the...

Google Contributor Isn’t Dead, it’s Just Pining for the Fjords

26 January, 201726 January, 2017AdvertisingOne Comment

About a week ago Android Police reported that Google Contributor, the service where users can sell adverts to themselves, had shut down. According to a statement from Google, that is...

Disqus Now Requires Either Ads or Paid Subscription for its Commenting Platform

26 January, 201712 June, 2017Advertising12 Comments

When it comes to managing comments on a website, the free options include WordPress (and other native comment systems), Facebook comments, and Livefyre (now owned by Adobe). You also used to...

Why Did Chrome Delete AdBlock Plus During Its Latest Update?

24 January, 201724 January, 2017Advertising, Web Browser13 Comments

Thanks to problems like malvertising and performance-crippling video adverts, security extensions like Adblock Plus are now a basic tool for anyone who goes online. These extensions keep you safe...

Author Tool: Amazon Associates Link Builder Plugin

15 January, 201712 June, 2017Advertising, AmazonOne Comment

Between building websites for authors and running a new blog I try to stay on top of useful WP plugins. Here's one which hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet. At the beginning...

Google Contributor Stops Accepting New Signups, Will Relaunch Next Year

6 December, 20166 December, 2016Advertising, GoogleOne Comment

Google Contributor, a program which turned a website's visitors into its advertisers, is no longer open to new participants. The program's status changed with little fanfare yesterday, and the...

Does Anyone Advertise Their Books on the B&N Website?

17 November, 201617 November, 2016Advertising, Barnes & Noble2 Comments

Amazon got a lot of attention in author circles when I broke the news that they were now letting all authors advertise on their site, but they're not the...

Category: Advertising