zlacker

Thanks, Google. I'd never heard of this extension before now and had often wondered in the past why no one had thought of this strategy to screw with online tracking and data collection. The free PR is great, and now AdNauseam has another new user. :)

>>keldar+(OP)
Because Google is not "the man" in this scenario that you're sticking it to - it's the website owner whose content you're consuming. Google gets paid either way, and AdNauseam is pennies on their dollar. Webmaster however, depend on advertising revenue to keep publishing.

>>colept+A
Google is not the one we're trying to "stick it to". They are far from the worst player in this space. Moreover, AdNauseam is not meant as a surgical strike against some player in particular, but as a carpet bombing of the whole ad scene. Which, IMO, totally deserves it, and the collateral damage dealt to some publishers is totally worth it.

>>TeMPOr+Z2
> collateral damage dealt to some publishers is totally worth it.

Said a clown before the rodeo.

The collateral damage is putting small independent publishers out of business and reinforcing monopolies in publishing. If you think tracking is going to be less pervasive by knocking down the little guys, you are sorely mistaken.

> ‘We know your dark secrets. We know everything.’ - Steve Huffman from Reddit

When all that's left is Reddit, Google, and Facebook - the collateral damage is the same thing you're trying to protect.

>>colept+R3
Monopolies in publishing seem to depend much more on ad revenue than small, independent publishers - who tend to utilize solutions like Parteon, fundraisers, donate buttons, referrals, sponsorship or just plain old self-hosting like in the good old days. There are plenty of alternative strategies available to players big and small, and the only thing I can see dying off is all the crap that the Internet drowned in since people started monetizing eyeballs.

>>colept+R3
It seems this extension could be tweaked to only operate on sites with high Alexa rankings or similar to avoid this problem. That would probably be a good idea, because you make a good point.

Or, it could even have two "modes": a "carpet bombing" mode for high Alexa sites that clicks everything, and as you decrease in popularity, it increasingly begins to simulate real user behavior.

That would simultaneously disrupt the system for the big players and, hopefully, get extra revenue for the little guys.

>>colept+R3
The extension is trivial to customize if you'd like to employ it in a more discriminate fashion. Many people already whitelist sites they care about in their normal adblock extensions, this one is no different.

But more importantly: > If you think tracking is going to be less pervasive by knocking down the little guys, you are sorely mistaken.

I believe the only way tracking is ever going to be less pervasive is when tracking simply doesn't work any more. Nothing short of widespread technical countermeasures will ever convince these people to back off, so I will gladly do anything I can to make their data as worthless as possible.