What if ad blockers are actually good for digital media and advertising?Does it sound so weird, especially considering that people from all digital media walks believe viewability makes the space better? It ensures ads are actually seen and will eventually take revenue away from bad actors as it seeps through…
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The latest wave of advertising is giving me some chilling flashbacks to the age of endless animated MySpace banners, pop-unders and other horrors of the aughts. Instead of learning from that assault of awfulness, digital advertising has somehow grown more intrusive and annoying – in-feed units, auto-play video (with sound?!?!),…
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Quick update: although Flash-based creatives are greyed out on Firefox, they are still registering as impressions. Also, some agencies are asking advertisers to disinclude Firefox browsers from their campaigns. According to NetMarketShare, Firefox has a12% share of desktop browsers. Facebook head of security Alex Stamos grabbed a lot of attention this…
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If 2013 must be a "year of something," we probably should call it the year of mobile. According to estimates from eMarketer, U.S. mobile advertising spend more than doubled in 2013 to hit $9.6 billion compared to $4.36 billion in 2012. eMarketer estimates that near-stagnant desktop spend will actually decrease…
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By Zeus, I declare this holiday Botsgiving!Although bots have long been a menace to digital media (remember click fraud?), bot fever has been spreading like wildfire across the industry this year, probably in response to some dire statistics. The latest, from Integral Ad Science, suggests 14% of all impressions out…
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Some premium publishers are likely reading the latest batch of hysterical articles describing the scourge of botnet traffic on digital advertising and thinking, "Tough cookies."Which isn't a bad way to put it – media buyers' obsession with chasing cookies and buying the cheapest inventory available through RTB-powered exchanges has created…
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At some point in the history of the Internet, someone placed code on their website that called an external third party to help it deliver content or provide functionality for that website. A digital miracle? Well, perhaps that’s taking it too far, but still imagine for a second how liberating…
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“No transparency!” must be the most common complaint around the RTB space. Buyers feel short-shifted in terms their ability to get insight into the inventory they’re purchasing while publishers are concerned with the advertisers grabbing their stock for cheap and the quality of the creative coming through the pipes. Oh,…
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Malvertising, defined as the use of online advertising to spread malicious software (aka “malware”), is a damaging occurrence in online advertising. A malicious advertisement is one that is able to infect a user’s computer with malware. Malvertising tends to be rare in frequency, but its consequences can be destructive; publishers…
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Imagine being head of security at a stadium that holds several hundred events during the year. You are responsible for the safety of each person entering the stadium and for ensuring nothing happens that might lead to a lawsuit. Obviously you can't afford to let any weapons in no matter…
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