The ad giant Google is developing an Ad blocker? That sounds kinda nuts for a company that makes so much of it's income from ads, until you think about it.
In recent years Google has been shifting it's focus into becoming a technology company. With the birth of Alphabet.
Source
In a recent 'independent survey'. Conducted by betterads
The shock news was that in 2015-2016 there had been a rise of 30% of people installing ad blockers on their Chrome Browser. That mean a huge loss of income for Google and for anyone using their platform for content curation purposes. What a truly weird and interesting world we inhabit on the web.
Google's solution is to deploy their own ad blocker in Chrome and then ask people if they would like to pay $5 to see the next 500 pages ad free? If not then they will only be able to watch the content with ads on. Otherwise the pages will be blocked. Not at first but eventually they will stop your access to the web pages they host.
You will keep getting notifications saying something like this “You liked this web-page as you keep visiting it, so why not jump on-board and pay something” or continue with ads that we have selected just for you.
So do the math.
That means that your blog content is now going to be worth just 1 penny per page to Google? So what does this mean for content creators? If Google stay with the same adsense arrangements then you will be getting +-$0.4 per page view or considerable less if they retain the per mille ratio. (1,000 page-views to earn $0.4 c) Things are going to get interesting.
Is this an own goal on Google's part? The twist is that they will not only block Google ads. They will also block every other ad platform as well, thereby creating chaos for non Google advertisers.
What's to stop people switching to Internet explorer? Microsoft may start restricting usage unless you sign up for their deal. Whatever that may be?
So what to do? Switch to Safari. In many ways a far superior browser to the other two and it's open source so we could see a whole new bunch of users adopting this technology and making a small one off donation to the platform.(Optional)
But what about search? What will we do? Say the masses! The same as we did before Google. Yes there was a time before Google. There are many open source, search engines out there. Do a Google search for search engines!
This is great news for the steemit community. Why because we don't have ads and we may see content creators migrating here. As @lydon.sipe mentioned.
"I have been mighty curious about this since a bunch of youtubers have been joining Steemit. Nice to know my suspicions are true."
Unlike Lydon. There is a tiny group in the steemit community that get a bit bent out of shape when they see YouTubers turning up in droves. Why do they get bent is a good question?
Some Youtubers have great reach and penetration into the social networks and they have the potential to spread the word about steemit faster than any other medium.
As a newbie and a YouTuber myself. I can see why some people would like to keep this place quiet. It's a nice little club and some people are making a huge income from this website. This is a very narrow and short sighted view of the platform's potential.
The bigger the steemit community gets the bigger the pool of talent with useful content. And the faster it can grow and become a real alternative to those other places who's name shall not be repeated here. And we will be able to do the things that many want here. i.e. To make a real difference to the lives of people.
Is this the beginning of the end of Google and YouTube? What do you think? And do you even care?
If your feeling brave you can get a sneak peak at the Beta
Thanks for reading @molometer
I well remember the days of Lycos, Netscape, AOL. I used to use Yahoo a lot when it first came out as well.
For the life of me I don't know why we don't see more YTers. I have personally invited at least a dozen. They try anything and everything to get views, but seem to refuse to try Steemit!
I recall those old search engines as well. I seem to remember that Google search was basically built on top of Netscape Navigator?
On the second point.
Yep It's a weird one? Some of my blogger friends seem really freaked out?
It's almost as if they can't believe that it actually pays out more than what they've been slaving over for years.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised by my results.
I wasn't expecting to earn anything but I really like the steemit platform and the people I've met.
Maybe they've met a few spammers here?
I did see one known spammer. Bilal Hader rep-1 followed one of them?
Yeah I have had two people come over that both had made over one hundred dollars on a post, and seemingly quit thinking it was a scam LOL. What kind of scam pays you lol. I feel like asking them if they don't want the money in their account, to send it to mine!
Haha I know, it's nuts. I really don't get it. Where are they getting these ideas? I did that video to counter the other nonsense that's on the web but you know. People like to think the worst. They're comfortable with that I guess?
Haha ask for the donations, that might wake em up?
Just so you know. My vote power is struggling to get above 50%. I can't stop myself voting good stuff up. But I'm trying really hard to not upvote anything until my voting power goes up.
I'm trying to do this without 'buying in' so I can fully state that all earnings were made from interactions and posts.
What are your thoughts? Good idea or plain dumb? I'm conflicted lol Nice problems.
People don't realize that they score a lot of money thanks to ads. Many stuff would have been unaffordable if it were not for ads. The only reason for my absence is a shortage of time :(
Ads for sure made me a lot of cash but the game is changing...again. This time next year the whole Ads model is dead.
Unless you have millions of subscribers who you can upsell other products too. There will be virtually no earnings from ads.
This is just my opinion based on my research and Google's plans. I'd rather be building the future than hanging on to a dead tech duck. lol
My time is far to short and valuable to just 'wait and see.' I do wish you all the luck in the world @martiecoetser in whatever route you pursue.
Have you bought anything with your earnings yet?
Yep. Yesterday I bought a security feature that notifies me if someone tries to take money out of my account. It takes 3 days to take money. So you have time to block any transactions you haven't authorized. Cheap too.
I see you've made $0.62 already?
I thought it was just for blocking harmful ads that might contain malware which is sort of like antivirus and malware protection built-in to the browser.
Nope it's primary purpose is to get people to pay for the content they consume. The issue is. Who is going to make any content for such paltry rewards?
Some people are trying to make a living from their content. They are doomed unless they have millions of followers or some other products to upsell.