April Fool (and Thoughts About Ads)

So did anyone find any nice April Fools jokes over the weekend? Did anyone get suckered?

I liked Thom Hogan's nice list of the additional products Nikon is un-announcing—I'm still chuckling over the name "Takehiko Go." Go-san must have been the same fellow who made the decision not to advertise the D3 on TOP in 2007, a mini-disaster of this site's rocky early years*. Thanks to Pete for pointing out Thom's article.

Oh, and another question, about your experience of TOP—regarding the post below this one, did those of you who read TOP through feed readers see the break to the second half of the post? The post listed seven things that were supposedly not true, and then, in the second half, itemized them again noting that all seven were true. But I got quite a few responses helpfully informing me that one item or another was true, which seems to indicate that those people might have missed the second part of the post, the part past the break. Just wondering if maybe people don't see page breaks in feed readers.

On the site, a page break link looks like this:

There are so many feed readers out there, I can't possibly optimize the appearance of the posts for all of them. So I'm wondering how you saw this. (At the very least, though, the phrase "click past the break" should have alerted even people on feed readers that there was more to come.)

Mike

*Nikon's ad agency contacted me in 2007 wanting to run a big D3 ad, which would have been a godsend for me at the time. Unfortunately, they wanted it to be one of those flashing GIFs that were popular at the time, and I had already set the policy that I wasn't going to annoy readers with ads that flashed or moved or otherwise intruded on your visual peace and quiet. So I turned them down, which was rather excruciatingly difficult because I badly needed the dough. This evidently disqualified me from any future consideration as an advertising venue, as I've heard nary another peep from them down to this very day. It was probably Takehiko Go who told me to go take a hike, don't you think?

Speaking of ads, which I wasn't until now, does anyone agree with me that those new ads that pop up in your face right in the middle of a page you're trying to access might be counter-productive? They're so intrinsically annoying that I can't see how they could possibly convey a positive impression of the company or product they're supposedly trying to advertise.

Okay, another thought about online ads...because I write this site, I have peculiar browsing habits. When I research a post, the algorithms that control Internet advertising seem to "read" a suddenly flurry of interest on my part in products related to the research I've done. Of course it doesn't actually mean I want to buy that thing...I was just researching it. But, inevitably, for the next week or two, ads for that particular item will pop up in all sorts of places as I wend my way about the Web. Now, granted, I'm short-circuiting the way that's supposed to work—customized ads aren't actually showing me things I want to buy. But does anyone agree with me that customized ads are not always exactly what we want to see? I don't really want to see ads for things I'm already interested in. I'd rather see ads for things I don't know about yet that someone is trying to inform me about. I'd rather see the ads everyone else is seeing, not ones customized to me.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Alex: "The trouble with targeted ads is that frequently they're for products that I recently bought. Just above this comment window ere are ads for digital projectors because I bought one yesterday."

Don Craig: "For days when I want to feel like a master of the Universe, I browse equipment online that I cannot afford. Shortly thereafter targeted advertising offers me a 100-megapixel IQ1 back, an M 679CS body, lenses with names like Kreuznach, APO-Sironar, and Super Angulon XL, and the always out-of-stock RRS Versa 3 sticks. Oh yes, and an Arca Swiss Cube. I decline these offers, but they are an improvement on the medical opportunities I might otherwise receive. Breakfast at Tiffany's in the Internet era."

Michael Perini: "The ads that pop up in the middle of a story you are reading (often shifting the paragraph you were reading off the screen are true abominations. Aggressive , intrusive, and obnoxious. I place any such products on my active do not buy list. I also visit the sites that allow them far less. Re the spooky 'we're tracking your every move' ads that show you anything you may have looked for weeks , those are nearly as bad. I will never click through on one of those.

"On the other hand, Amazon's' we thought you might like' emails are thoughtful and often get me to purchase something, especially books that I hadn't seen but are related to topics of previous interest."

John Krill: "It's not just the pop-up ads but the way pages get loaded. You'll be reading an article and suddenly some ads gets loaded onto the page and now you've lost your place. They do this as you're reading so you never know when it will happen. As far as pop-ups go I generally close out the whole damn thing."

Mike replies: Yes. I find "page disrupter" ads really irritating.

Duncan: "I bought my wife a camisole she wanted for Christmas, and I'm still getting ads for intimate apparel."

Mike replies: A few years ago I bought some dolls and doll toys for my then-nine-year-old niece. For months thereafter I got catalogs in the mail for things targeted at little girls. One was so persistent I had to contact them and ask them to call it off. Now I can't turn off the decorator and furniture catalogs, after buying a few things online for the new-to-me house. One nice thing about buying through Amazon: your address isn't sold to catalog companies.

Comments

[Chris Norris]

I use Feedly and saw the entire post.

[Dennis]

Sometimes after I research a product, I'll pay attention to ads that claim to offer good prices on similar things, so they can be well targeted. Worse is two weeks of ads for the thing I shopped for AFTER I already bought it ! Talk about counterproductive - now they're squandering ad space on stuff guaranteed not to interest me.

[Brian V.]

"I had already set the policy that I wasn't going to annoy readers with ads that flashed or moved or otherwise intruded on your visual peace and quiet. So I turned them down"

And for that I thank you!

I got taken in by this April fools article. I thought there is some truth in the concept regarding night photography but the article takes it to an extreme.

https://petapixel.com/2017/04/01/expose-left-really-maximize-image-quality-night/

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Yes, ads that pop up obscuring the site are the worst. If those become common it would push me to running ad-blocking software, which I so far have been avoiding (ads are often useful, rarely really bothersome).

I have the same browsing patterns you do for different reasons. I research disk controllers and 6T drives when we're planning to get the backup disk server up to snuff (the additional three drives arrived last week, we need to get the server built now). I research luxury soap when planning a birthday gift. Etc. Generally I do the research, make the purchase, and move on -- and the ads are always at least one step behind.

[Edd Fuller]

Customized ads--funny how that works. As soon as I buy something, I start being pestered to buy the product I just bought.

[Richard Parkin]

Safari on iPad. I don't see the break though the mysterious phrase "click past the break" appears followed by the rest of the post which was entirely clear.
Though I use RSS I don't read TOP in a reader because only featured comments are available there. I do use RSS and IFTTT to alert me to new posts but sadly neither recognise updated comments as "new". I feel there must be some technique that will pick outchanges to a web page but so far I have not found it.

[Dave Jenkins]

This is interesting. On my computer, your text ends with "I'd rather see the ads everyone else is seeing, not ones customized to me." and then three ads are displayed for things I recently viewed on Amazon.

But on my iPad, I don't see the ads. Instead, I see your text going on to ask that we report what we see. That part of your text doesn't show up on my computer at all.

[Chuck Albertson]

I regularly trawl the Northern Territory News for man-vs.-croc stories, so this one had the ring of plausibility to it (and even a supporting photograph): http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/only-in-the-territory/man-v-croc-in-swimming-race-for-the-ages/news-story/2e84754d5c84bf0a4993faca5c2e59c3

[Andy Munro]

Mike,

Re your question - I did see the link to the second part of the article. So that worked for me.

I agree with your comment on seeing ads for things that I've looked at. Even if I've bought that thing, the ads still appear.

I would love to see ads for new gadgety things that I haven't found in my normal internet browsing.

[mike plews]

Bordering on OT but I recently browsed a big box store site looking at pricing out some hearing aids (I'm old). The next day I started getting calls from hearing aid companies trying to sell me a pair.
Did you know that you can keep a hearing aid marketer on the phone for about a half hour just by repeating "HUH? SPEAK UP. I THINK THIS THING'S BROKEN!"?. Find your entertainment where you can.

[Peter Wright]

Probably because I grew up in 1950's in the UK, where the ad-free BBC TV and radio ruled the airwaves, I find ads of all types very irritating, and now especially those internet pop up types to which you refer, closely followed by those that follow me around after I have researched something. I wonder if someone knows of an 'ad-buster' app that I can download to destroy them? And why does THAT never get advertised?

[Yonatan K]

"I don't really want to see ads for things I'm already interested in"

I think that many people start looking at things long before they are ready to cough up the money for them... The ads we see subsequent to that first indication of interest is just a way to keep the itch itchy.

[Bob Johnston]

I couldn't agree more. Targeted advertising is totally pointless. Even worse I find is that after I actually buy something I am bombarded with adverts for exactly the same thing or alternatives for days afterwards.

[Bill Pearce]

You could write a book on how stupid advertising people have been on and off over the years, the most recent of which is the pop up ads that pop up in the middle of what is being read, and now with extremely loud audio to add insult to injury. The dolts that do these dont understand that their attempts to attract our attention may be counterproductive, just like the guys that came up with over compressed audio for TV ads.

[AlanH]

I enjoyed this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyuCnnMQ6nY

[brad]

Hi Mike;

I don't like pop-up or moving ads. In general, I'll navigate away from a page using them. And, avoid the products they advertise.

As for Nikon, I'm an NPS member, have been for a long time. Nikon's current advertising is targeting mostly women who post their images to social media. Note the Bluetooth, WiFi, Near Field radio gear in mid range offerings.

I think Nikon would be wise to find another ad group to hawk their products. Maybe their sales / demographics say differently, but I find the current campaign annoying.
If I was new to photography and looking for a camera (and just had adds to guide my purchase) Nikon wouldn't be high on the list.

You've been in the "photo biz" long enough to remember (film days) Nikon and Canon trading the #1 position every few years. Some joked it was the Japanese Govt. deciding who would be on top and for how long. Then in the 90s - 2000s, the Auto-Focus wars determined the placement. Now it seems "ease of content upload" to social media has Nikon's engineers occupied, while some more serious photographers look to Canon and Fuji for their gear.

It will be interesting to see how Nikon climes out of the hole they've dug themselves into....

[Mike R]

Those pop-up-in-front-of-content ads bug me so much, I just close the tab and go someplace else. I'm hoping for a short life-span for those things.

I've considered https://duckduckgo.com/ as an alternate to Google. Supposedly, it doesn't track you, or "tailor" your search results. Nearly twenty years of using Google is a hard habit to break, though.

[Keith B]

Remember when Googling was fun? Before Google censored the search results based on your previous searches? It was analogous to the old library card catalog: You went to search for a specific author or subject, but you found unrelated things of interest along the way.
Mike, How often do you delete your cookies? Safari>Preferences-Privacy>Manage Website Data>Remove All. This doesn't necessarily eliminate the 'We're watching what you do' ads, but it cuts into what they can know about you.

[tex andrews]

About targeted ads: I don't mind them in principal, which is why I'm not flipping out about the new internet privacy Takehiko Go style un-do of the Obama era law (Sorry, non-U.S. readers...). But what I really want is better targeting. I'm a consumer, I'm interested in stuff, and I'd love to hear about a product that might be interesting to me.

That's why if we're going to give up some privacy to internet providers, at least bring me in as a partner on that and let me tell you more about the ads I'd actually like to see for products I might actually buy. Seems like a win-win to me.

[Jim Meeks]

The really scary, creepy thing about ad tracking is that I see the same ads on my home computer, work computer and phone. Maybe I need to sign out of everything, block more cookies or something.

[Les Myers]

Re: the ads. Last week or so, I clicked on one of your TOP links to B&H to get information about wide-angle lenses for digital cameras. My search was only for information. The bank account prohibits such expenditures right now. For two days after my visit to B&H, their ads popped up either on the top border or on the right side of my screen promoting, guess what, lenses. I solved the situation by doing what I do always- delete all my cookies and cache so B&H doesn't know I'm on-line until I visit their website again.

[John]

Those ads based on my browsing history drive me nuts. They either advertise stuff I've already bought (or something like it) or stuff I've decided not to buy and want to forget about. On the positive side, the fact that they're often misdirected at me gives me some hope that AI is still pretty far off and makes me question the arrogance of Silicon Valley as the place where they seem to think they have the answers for everything.

[RobR]

Best one I found:

https://petapixel.com/2017/04/01/expose-left-really-maximize-image-quality-night/

[Thomas Rink]

Re ads on the web: Some months ago, I lost yet another lens cap. After some searching on the web, I decided to order a replacement from Amazon (Nikon LC-52). What followed was an instructive experience of targeted advertising - I was haunted by Nikon LC-52 ads for a couple of weeks. For example, on visiting my favourite weather site - between "date attractive single women" and "scientists dumbfounded by this simple diet" - bingo: "buy Nikon LC-52 cheap".

Best, Thomas

[Alex]

The trouble with targeted ads is that frequently they're for products that I recently bought. Just above this comment window ere are ads for digital projectors because I bought one yesterday.

[cfw]

I use an application called "Ad Blocker" and it works wonderfully.

[Mark Kinsman]

Completely agree regarding targeted ads. They are annoying and consequently ignored by me. Most are for items I've researched and have or will purchase when I'm good and ready, Ads be damned.

[Dave Polaschek]

Ads that pop up over the content I'm trying to read cause me to reach for the "close window" button. If the content is important enough to me, I'll find it elsewhere at a later time.

[Don]

I use 'Feedly' to read your wonderful blog and the items after the page break show up just fine.

As for pop-up ads, I hate them. Almost as much as I hate pop-ups asking me to subscribe to a blogger's feed, when I'm already subscribed! Obviously this doesn't include your blog!

[Tim]

I disliked targeted ads as much as everybody - so I disabled them on Facebook. Now every once in a while I get facebook-ads and page-suggestions for neo-nazi groups and African dictator's facebook pages... Pretty sickening.
Guess I prefer the bubble of targeted ads.
The takeaway should probably be though to abandon Facebook entirely.

[Matt]

Re: feed readers, I didn't see the break in Feedly, but that's pretty standard. I find it really annoying to have to click through, kind of defeats the purpose of a reader.

Re: Ads, I use a really zealous ad-blocker and anti-tracking extension in one, called uBlock Origin. Highly recommended-- it improves the experience of the web, since pages load much faster, and prevents a host of attacks and privacy invasions, like the ads you refer to.

[MarkB]

I don't see targeted ads anymore because I use Blur: https://dnt.abine.com/#feature/tracking
It denies the trackers that feed the targeted ads. I wonder if I can "gift" you a subscription, Mike..?

[Omer]

I get that Hogan was joking but "Takehiko Go" borders on cultural stereotyping, or worse.

[Geoffrey Heard]

Right on, Alex. I bought a ThinkTank mirrorless mover camera bag a week ago (for my new G85 and redefined lens collection which is all pleasing me greatly) so I am seeing an ad for (wait for it) camera bags including the Thinktank. Silly.

eBay is outstanding. I looked at hearing aid batteries there a year or more ago, but didn't buy any, and every day I now get an email notification for hearing aid batteries. You would think these things would have a life.

But then, as a guy who does a bit in advertising… (throws his coat over his had and runs off in embarrassment).

Cheers, Geoff

[Merle]

No page break in my Liferea feed reader. Just scrolls through the whole article, so didn't miss a thing.

[Peter]

Mike did see the page break for your further explanations, clearly some people thought otherwise! Do MAC's not have Ad blocker apps for Safari, that is the way to go.

[David Bateman]

On the issue of Ads. I will also look things up. I find I will use B&H as the have a useful specs section that can tell me quickly how many elements a lens has or something. Recently I was looking up a bunch of things for the stats and then got an email from Adorama saying "Did you forget about us?". Well I didn't like getting an email like this, so have excluded them specifically in recent purchases.
Ads can hurt you, when they are too intrusive. And I know they monitor my words.

[fk]

The 'read'ing on the part of the internet is just a tracking cookie I suspect. Next time open up a New Private Window on Safari and then browse or research.

[Lorenzo C.]

A colleague of mine at work who used to work for a major online media brand/property says that so many people miss the little "x" to close the window that the attempt to avoid the ad in fact results in a click-through. Which as you know results in data "proving" the ad worked. Site charges more, advertiser has data proving they're getting their money's worth, and no-one's the wiser.

Close enough to reality in my experience with technology–I'll buy that story.

[Richard Tugwell]

Alex is spot-on. Another type of repeated ad I get is for services and websites that I already subscribe to. Because presumably I visit them a lot.