This won't stop an advertiser driven web. Only an alternative approach that maintain provider profits. Adverts exist because we refuse to pay for every service. This doesn't offer an alternative, but presumes to know better by removing user's choice.
If people listened to the author of the web page, it would stop an ad-driven web. Because the world continues to use Chromium skins, we are inevitably going to get some technology that ad blockers won't work on any more. See FLoC, Web Bundles, or Web Integrity.
How do you all use a browser that comes up with these adversarial technologies?
Because on a daily basis, it doesn't affect me. Personally. I don't care. That's the honest answer.
On days I do care, I have my means to be undetected.
When the ads bother me, I switch on the pihole. Some sites don't work with pihole enabled so sometimes it's either off or I create exceptions. But I like Chrome. The convenience I get from chrome is invaluable to me. No other browser can give me that exactly. But all of the above are based on MY decisions. I chose to use X or to ignore Y. When a site decides that for me, well... I just walk away.
These are bad analogies. I can block ads on the net and still use chrome. I can choose whether ads bother me or not. I can choose if I want/agree to be tracked. My choice doesn't hurt anyone. You want to fight the ads - take on the ad networks. Provide an alternative. Without an alternative it's just a cardboard sign with some text.
If you emit CO2, you are hurting everyone else. If you participate in a web browser monoculture, you allow one company to own the web, therefore hurting everyone else. Please don't absolve yourself of the harm you are causing those of us that don't want to be under Google's thumb.
I exhale co2. Should I stop breathing? Should we stop using cars all together? Stop flying? Stop using computers?
Sorry but I don't operate in that absolutist way. Existence is not always fair, and it's not always without harm. Everyone has a footprint on their environment. Nobody is without one.
Say you stopped an ad driven web - what do you think will remain when nobody can afford to run anything at scale anymore? Would you be ok paying to use the web? I know I wouldn't.
What are you referring to by "at scale"? Can you give some examples?
I would also like to understand why you think web has to change. Why can't the ad networks change by not allowing tracking in ads, or make ads bearable to look at? I don't need an ad moving on a web page. Newspapers have gotten this right for centuries. I can look at a newspaper all day and not get frustrated, but I can't do that on the web because I have to worry about content moving on my screen or privacy.
At scale - Facebook, google, OpenAI, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Regarding ads - Don't get me wrong - I hate obnoxious ads, i dislike moving ads, and noisy ads and colourful ads and ad-sites that farm content from other sites to show ads etc. And I think the more obtrusive they get they just harm themselves in the long run. But, I also appreciate that for most content outlets this is the only way to support themselves (except my last example - that has no excuse).
And regarding tracking - personally if I am to see ads, i rather them be relevant at least, and not random. When asked if I want to be tracked or see random ads, i select the former. purely personal preference.
And also: pihole. Seriously. I turn it on and the ads disappear. The net is clean and faster on all devices in the house.
The internet doesn't have to be commercialized. Content like this would exist just fine without profits.
"Adverts exist because we refuse to pay for every service"
No, adverts exist largely because of poor quality content that ranks high in google and does everything possible to give readers the least amount of information in the slowest way possible. I would gladly pay to visit websites that shared a common ethical framework for cost sharing.
Content like that will exist, and have existed before. But large scale operations will not. Search engines, LLMs, social networks. They need a lot of money to run at scale. LLMs charge a subscription. Kagi is doing search engine which is paid (and not bad). If they all started charging pretty soon we'll be paying through the nose for everything. Ads offset that. I pay Spotify, Amazon, OpenAI, Netflix, Diskey, and I'm considering paying Kagi. But I can't pay every single content provider I use... it will never end. I accept the ads where I can and pay where I cannot. I have a choice sometimes and I exercise it. I. Not some content site that makes the choice for me. That is my only point here.
Google doesn't need to exist. Google exists primarily to serve ads and websites with ads. Google is actively harming the internet by existing, not enhancing anything.
