Stop seeing ads in your Google results!

[Clinton]

I just posted in this thread about an add-on I use that strips all ads out of Google results.

With Google's real-estate increasingly over-run with ads I'm finding myself less amenable to scrolling past paid-for links to reach the type of results I'm usually looking for. I'm in a "buying" mood less than 5% of the time I use Google.

So I use Search Engine Ad Remover. It works like magic to strip all the ads out of my SE results and is an ideal accompaniment to my usual ad-blocker. I occasionally turn it off when I want to see ads, but the default position on my screen is no ads. It saves me a lot of scrolling, it saves me a lot of time.

Are those of you who're using ad-blocker still viewing ads in search engine results? Out of curiosity, may I ask why?

 

[Ian J]

Are those of you who're using ad-blocker still viewing ads in search engine results? Out of curiosity, may I ask why?

I'm primarily interested in seeing what the average searcher sees

 

[estwig]

Are those of you who're using ad-blocker still viewing ads in search engine results? Out of curiosity, may I ask why?

The ads google shows are relevant to my search query, why would I not want to see them?

 

[Ashley_Price]

The ads google shows are relevant to my search query, why would I not want to see them?

I guess it depends on what you're searching for. If you're looking for general information on a topic would you be interested in ads for firms selling that information? So, for an example, you want to fix a tap washer yourself, so you're not interested in having a plumber come and fix it for you, or buying a new tap, etc.

 

[bharris]

The ads google shows are relevant to my search query, why would I not want to see them?

Because it clutters up the screen. My normal add blocker in chrome removes the google adds. It also removed all of the facebook adds as well but no-longer. Many sites i can not use due to the amount of adds (including this one) old pc with a slow internet connection makes browsing very hard work due to the endless adds.
I hate seeing adds forced upon me.

 

[estwig]

I guess it depends on what you're searching for. If you're looking for general information on a topic would you be interested in ads for firms selling that information? So, for an example, you want to fix a tap washer yourself, so you're not interested in having a plumber come and fix it for you, or buying a new tap, etc.

That's bonkers, of course I'd want to see about buying a new tap or contacting plumbers. I want as much information as possible in front of me, to exclude information based on some bias towards adverts is crazy. Most websites at the top of google for their chosen search terms, pay to be there.

You're excluding a massive chunk of relevant information because of an unfounded bias.

 

[bharris]

You're excluding a massive chunk of relevant information because of an unfounded bias.

The problem with adds is that the companies paying for the add want to sell you the item and all i want to do is find out information about the item. Google did this very well a few years ago however i now find it really hard to find detailed information. Probably due to SEO and the ads all i find now is pointless sales information which is almost identical on every site being offered up by Google. They sometimes seem to think the only existence of the internet is to sell stuff rather than just research. so i completely agree with Ashley_Price so that makes me bonkers and crazy too.

 

[fisicx]

I don't mind Google adverts. They are often very relevant and I click on quite a few. Sometimes the organic listings are useless.

 

[Mr A P Davies]

I run the chrome ad blocker. I still get ads with a google search.
The chrome ad blocker doesn't seem to stop them. In fact, it seems to be getting quite leaky, and letting more through lately. Maybe I need to have a play with it.

I tend to agree with some others, in that the way I look at it, I don't really use Google if I'm looking for something to purchase. I'm usually googling for research purposes. Also, I very rarely buy something because I've seen it in an advert. (I don't actually recall doing this, ever.) Most stuff I buy is repeat custom from me, I tend to go back to the same places
Stuff I buy is either because I need it, vehicle parts, tools and so on, or because it's my interests, and I've gone looking for it.
.
Being inundated with adverts tenuously related to my last purchase is irritating, and slows down my already slow connection.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Are those of you who're using ad-blocker still viewing ads in search engine results? Out of curiosity, may I ask why?

Because I want to see adverts relating to things I have searched for.

Just because a website is top of the organic listings, it doesn't mean that it provides the best solution for what I need. I much prefer to have a wider range of options to choose from so I can consider each one.

There may be a situation where I choose something from an organic listing, and whilst there is a much better offer in an advert, I can't see it because I've blocked it.

I'd be surprised if many business owners are sympathetic to your approach regarding this, as a lot of small businesses rely heavily on Adwords to generate their sales. I manage a number of Adwords accounts for clients, and Adwords alone puts food on their tables.

It's a key tool for small-to-medium businesses as they often can't compete against companies with high organic listings which invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in SEO.

Plus, the ads don't really bother me at all. If I'm not trying to buy something, I can hone in on the organic listings in an instant. Considering that there are usually no more than 2-4 adverts above the organic results, I think the task of "scrolling past" is a little exaggerated.

This war against online adverts does worry me. Websites which provide useful content are not truly free. They are providing you with something of value in exchange for directing your attention to some advertisements. This is what makes profit, pays bills and pays salaries. Kill off that ad revenue and businesses will simply stop offering valuable content without charge.

It's the same as trying to take any product or service from any business without paying for it. No moral person would ever do that, but when it comes to adverts, which can be the sole source of income for many small businesses, they appear to be fair game.

 

[fisicx]

Being inundated with adverts tenuously related to my last purchase is irritating, and slows down my already slow connection.

Block third party cookies and the problem goes away.

 

[Clinton]

I'd be surprised if many business owners are sympathetic to your approach regarding this, as a lot of small businesses rely heavily on Adwords to generate their sales.

And I'd be surprised if they were keen to pay for accidental clicks when I'm researching information and have zero buying intent.

As per my OP, I turn the ads on when I'm looking to buy. But you'd prefer me to have ads all the time and for your clients to pay for accidental clicks?

This war against online adverts does worry me. Websites which provide useful content are not truly free. They are providing you with something of value in exchange for directing your attention to some advertisements. This is what makes profit, pays bills and pays salaries.

And that was me. Over the years I've made a seven figure sum from content sites. But I saw the writing on the wall and bailed from that model. Ad blocking isn't the only problem, copy theft is even worse. (Incidentally, the biggest thief was Google - nicking snippets from my site and posting it in the SERPs, just like they now do, big time, with Wikipedia. Apparently if I want to stop such theft the onus is on me to post a notice on my site via htaccess or meta to say, "Stop Thief"! But that's a discussion for a different thread.)

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

And I'd be surprised if they were keen to pay for accidental clicks when I'm researching information and have zero buying intent.

As per my OP, I turn the ads on when I'm looking to buy. But you'd prefer me to have ads all the time and for your clients to pay for accidental clicks?

I have never once accidentally clicked an advert when I was intending to click an organic listing. They are labelled as "ad", after all.

The question here is whether you do, without fail, turn the blocker off prior to every search for a product or service. Many people won't, and many people will keep it turned on permanently. That is the concern.

That being said, the onus is on the people who have Adwords campaigns to ensure that their ads are not appearing for irrelevant search terms. That is what accurate keyword targeting and negative keywords are for. Accidental clicks are not a concern if campaigns are set up in a way to avoid impressions from people with zero buying intent.

 

[alistairm]

I don't much like the ads either, especially now there's 4 at the top instead of 3. But that's only because of my organic position in the results being pushed lower, thanks also to the answer box (sometimes I'm in it), and maps and anything else Google can stick above me. Otherwise they wouldn't bother me so I won't bother blocking them. Have to say also though that I never click on the ads, I even go as far as to copy and paste the url if an ad does interest me rather than click on it and add to googles coffers.

 

[justinaldridge]

I really don't agree with blocking ads. We are all using a completely free service that most of us can barely live without whenever we need to know anything.

If the ads bother you so much then use another search engine. I never think "oh my god I need to scroll passed these 4 ads to get to the real results, how will my finger cope".

The ads pay the bills to give us a search engine and a multitude of other services (email, online document facilities, maps, etc) that we use on a daily basis and so blocking the ads is rather hypocritical.

 

[Cromulent]

I block all ads without question no matter if I would be interested in them or not. I don't want some advertising company using tracking cookies to track my online browsing habits and that includes Google. I also block Google Analytics as well and most of the other stat tracking services. I also block all social media widgets on a website as well. I don't want Facebook or Twitter tracking my browsing habits either.

In fact if it isn't directly related to the website in question I block it.

So I use:
Adblock Plus (block ads)
Disconnect (block social media, advertising and analytics)
Privacy Badger (block all trackers)
Web of Trust (make sure a URL is trust worthy before you click on it)
HTTPS Everywhere (make all known SSL websites only work with SSL)
Personal Blocklist (hide certain domains from Google search results completely)

Edit: Oh to those who claim that ads pay the bills. That may be true but if you want to provide adverts do it without tracking my online browsing habits and I'll happily allow them. Unfortunately most people use advertising networks for ads which are completely untrustworthy.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Edit: Oh to those who claim that ads pay the bills. That may be true but if you want to provide adverts do it without tracking my online browsing habits and I'll happily allow them. Unfortunately most people use advertising networks for ads which are completely untrustworthy.

Just disable cookies. They are what companies use to track your browsing habits, but they can be turned off quite easily in your browser.

It's probably worth checking which cookies you have stored on your browser, as these blockers and privacy tools may not block all of them.

 

[Clinton]

Just disable cookies..

Even better. There's a plugin called Selective Cookie Delete. Keep the cookies you want - like UKBF - and delete the others automatically or on demand.

But that only prevents the re-targeting. To reclaim your screen real estate and bandwidth you still need ad-blockers.

We are all using a completely free service ....
blocking the ads is rather hypocritical.

Completely free service?! Hypocritical?

I'll have you know that Google ain't completely free. Even if you aren't clicking ads Google is making money out of you from the data it's collecting. Money that it's not paying tax on.

Besides, I've paid Google enough. It was techies and webmasters like me who spread the word about Google when it first started. I bought "karma equity" at the startup stage and got it at startup prices. Later I paid for the Google bot's hamfisted approaches, its toddler tantrums, its teenager strops. I've paid with probably millions of pages of content I've provided Google's engine, content that Google needs to do its job. Google has earned millions on the back of my content and data (plus their efforts, of course).

But more than all of that, I've paid for it, like everybody else has, in the way Google has ruined the web with its citation based algo. It's costed me thousands to keep spammers from dropping links in my forums and blogs. It's costed me sleepless nights with hackers trying to break security so they could add links. The whole mess of online "spam" link drops is because of Google's stance on the importance of links. Read early posts from GoogleGuy (Cutts) in Webmasterworld when Google first started engaging with webmasters. Google didn't give a cr*p about the trouble they were causing us with links.

If Google wasn't getting paid adequately from the data it is still getting when I conduct a search, they'd stop me viewing SERPs. You seriously think they haven't got the technology?

 

[justinaldridge]

Do you not remember the spam results with Yahoo, AltaVista, etc, before Google came along? It was horrendous. Google changed the industry with a far superior algo based on links. There will always be spam, no matter what search engine is popular or what makes it tick. Just look at all the email spam we get...should we stop using email?

Let's see, what do I directly pay Google for....erm, nothing.

I get free email, I get free photo storage, I have all my docs in the cloud thanks for them, I get a fantastic free sat nav on my phone, I get free translations when I'm abroad...oh and every month they send me a check from the revenue I've made from people clicking their ads on my sites.

Advertising makes the world go round. We need it.

Do ads bother me? Not at all.

 

[Clinton]

I get free email, I get free photo storage...I get a fantastic free sat nav ... I get free translations when I'm abroad...

Er, remember that old saying? When you're not paying for something you are the product being sold

Do ads bother me? Not at all.

Great! Fantastic. Good for you. But I'm afraid I don't buy your moral case for why everyone should view ads. I'll take it your reply to my OP question is that you feel you owe Google. Fair enough.

 

[justinaldridge]

I'll take it your reply to my OP question is that you feel you owe Google. Fair enough.

I suppose so. Seeing as the money I have made because of their ads has enabled me to buy several houses, exotic cars, take amazing holidays and live a gloriously independent lifestyle...yes, thank the lord for Google ads!

 

[Nighthawk Software]

I've never understood this aversion to targeted ads on the web.

Personally, I embrace targeted ads. Websites need to make money, and I'm not prepared to pay to access a site (especially sites I only ever visit once), so ads are inevitable. And I'd rather see something I might be interested in, rather than a generic ad that has no relevance.

I like new things, and if there is a new tool that can double my productivity, then I want to know about it. Without ads, how would we find out about new products?

 

[Cromulent]

I've never understood this aversion to targeted ads on the web.

Personally, I embrace targeted ads. Websites need to make money, and I'm not prepared to pay to access a site (especially sites I only ever visit once), so ads are inevitable. And I'd rather see something I might be interested in, rather than a generic ad that has no relevance.

I like new things, and if there is a new tool that can double my productivity, then I want to know about it. Without ads, how would we find out about new products?

By doing research like any other sensible normal human being. I don't see an ad on TV and think "ah that looks cool I must buy it". I think "hmm that product category is interesting lets see what else is available". The same is true for internet adverts.

I've never understood people who make rash purchasing decisions. They either have more money than me (very likely) or they don't understand the value of their own money. Also I NEVER buy anything from a website I don't trust and adverts do not make me trust a website so generally if your product is not available on Amazon I don't buy it and I don't need ads to find cool products on Amazon.

I can't remember the last time I bought something from a website I found whilst doing a Google search. Probably 5 or 6 years ago. Maybe more. I know how easy it is to set up a website and I know that some unscrupulous individuals do it to make an easy buck. So I basically blanket ban myself from buying products from sites like that. I also encourage my friends and family not to buy from dodgy sites as well.

 

[fisicx]

I think you find you are in the minority. Like many others I buy loads of stuff from all sorts of websites and never had a problem with any of them. I do my research like any other but I see no issue with clicking on an advert as part of that research.

 

[Clinton]

I think you find you are in the minority.

This Guardian article leads with "Everybody hates mobile ads". OK, that's The Guardian. But as they point out in the headline, Apple has made ad blocking mainstream. Apple has a way of spotting the future if not influencing it.

In another article an author says, "I am not alone in my love for ad blocking. Every friend I tell about it thanks me with extreme enthusiasm, as if I’d just changed their flat tire." He goes on to provide some stats - ad blocking grew by 48% last year.

Have a look at what Google Trends has to say about the popularity of the term.

For those here relying on Google ads to drive traffic, don't be complacent. Be smart, don't miss the writing on the wall.

 

[justinaldridge]

So if everyone decided to follow your lead and completely block all adverts on Google and they stopped generating any money, and that was the end of Google...what then?

Can't believe a few small ads in search results can cause people to suffer such anxiety!

 

[Clinton]

Er, I'm not "leading" anything. You're getting too excited about this

I'm simply stating the facts as they are. And the facts are that consumers are increasingly using ad blocking technology. Among tech savvy types there are more who are using ad blocks than not using ad blocks.

My intent in starting the thread wasn't to polarise ad evangelists against ad haters but simply to find the reasons behind why those tech savvy people who are using ad blockers elsewhere are not blocking ads in SERPs.

 

[bharris]

I've never understood people who make rash purchasing decisions. They either have more money than me (very likely) or they don't understand the value of their own money. Also I NEVER buy anything from a website I don't trust and adverts do not make me trust a website so generally if your product is not available on Amazon I don't buy it and I don't need ads to find cool products on Amazon.

I can't remember the last time I bought something from a website I found whilst doing a Google search. Probably 5 or 6 years ago. Maybe more. I know how easy it is to set up a website and I know that some unscrupulous individuals do it to make an easy buck. So I basically blanket ban myself from buying products from sites like that. I also encourage my friends and family not to buy from dodgy sites as well.

I can never understand why anyone would buy from Amazon. You can buy the items cheaper direct from the sellers and they also keep the money rather than paying Amazon. Any one can sell on Amazon Sweaty Jim in his pants in his bedroom to large companies. Do not assume your buying from a trustworthy source. Do yourself a favour and search for the item you want to buy from Amazon, you will be surprised how much you can save. Amazon isn't cheap any more.

So if everyone decided to follow your lead and completely block all adverts on Google and they stopped generating any money, and that was the end of Google...what then?

Can't believe a few small ads in search results can cause people to suffer such anxiety!

The problem is that they have got greedy devoting more space to ads, making the top ads look like organic search results etc. But the big problem comes with the amount of adverts on other sites that quite frankly stop my pc from working so i have no option other than use adblockers. So its a bit of out with the bath water.

 

[Cromulent]

So if everyone decided to follow your lead and completely block all adverts on Google and they stopped generating any money, and that was the end of Google...what then?

Can't believe a few small ads in search results can cause people to suffer such anxiety!

There was an article on Slashdot a little while ago about Forbes who checked to see if you were blocking ads and if you were they wouldn't let you read the article. Fair enough I hear you cry! Well when people turned off their ad blocker to read the article the ad network that Forbes used infected their computers with pop-under malware. Still think blocking ads is a bad idea?

Here is a link to the article:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/01...ers-to-disable-adblock-serves-up-malvertising

and here is a direct link to the article linked by Slashdot

http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/08/you-say-advertising-i-say-block-that-malware/

Edit: People don't realise that some advertising networks have the power to infect your computer with malware and there is no way of knowing ahead of times which are trustworthy and which are safe. So the only acceptable course of action is to block all of them.

 

[simon field]

It's pretty stupid how they show you the ads after you've already bought the thing from somewhere else at a better price!

 

[Clinton]

To all those not blocking ads - here's another good reason to start blocking now.

I read a good post on LinkedIn about this earlier today.

 

[mm88]

Ads shouldn't bother you, it's not like your just buying the space you still have to make your advert worthy and properly use all the keywords you have bought. PPC is just as important as other parts of marketing.

Why remove them just because it's paid for?

 

[Cromulent]

Ads shouldn't bother you, it's not like your just buying the space you still have to make your advert worthy and properly use all the keywords you have bought. PPC is just as important as other parts of marketing.

Why remove them just because it's paid for?

Ads bother me because they are an avenue of virus and malware attack. Thus they all get blocked regardless of their content or whether I would be interested in them or not.

 

[Carl "Excel-Expert" Nixon]

I tend to block adverts on mobile devices and on Facebook and that is it. On the mobile because it is a waste of data on a limited data plan and on Facebook because they are really annoying.

We are just starting to see the kick back from blocking adverts and that kick back is only going to get stronger. Several newspapers went down the subscription route because of the lack of advertising revenue. Other websites now block access if you have ad blocker on or they limit you to a couple of articles a month. YouTube is planning to change its adverts so they are embedded in the video where AdBlocker can't block them. If Google starts to see any impact on its advertising because of AdBlocker or similar apps, one of two things will happen. Firstly they could bring out tech that circumnavigates Adblocker and show you adverts anyway (as they are planning with YouTube). Secondly they could just buy AdBlocker and the other apps and shut them down.

So it could be argued that shutting down adverts already reduces access to content and it will only get worse. It could also be argued that this tech is going to be very short lived once it starts hitting Googles bottom line.