Way to much advertising..

[howardbamber]

I was hoping, and expecting, a great site after reading the articles via Flipboard but the sheer mass of advertising ruins it totally. You even have that Internet scurge paid articles, no better than TV infomercials.
While I realise that there are bills to pay you seem to be out to grab as much money as you can, via any means and the articles get lost in it.
The real journalists do a great job but sponsored pieces? Come on? Do you pay for your own phones or are they sponsored too? You are in bed with the pple you write about in an unhealthy way, IMO. Xda has its problems but at least it's an island of neutrality compared with here.
Sorry for this but it's how I see it and it's an unpleasant view.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Phil Nickinson]

Hey, Howard. Thanks for the feedback.

Couple of suggestions here:

1. You have my permission to skip those sponsored pieces. (The good news is they are few and very far between and easily skipped if you don't want to read them.) OTOH, there's sometimes some great stuff in there, worth a few minutes of your time. Your call. But either way, that's less than one-half of 1 percent of the content that hits Android Central, well, ever. So let's be sure to keep that in context.

2. We're absolutely working on the design and performance. Stay tuned on that. But we've also got a number of ways you can read. Flipboard is one, sure. But there's also the mobile site, and I highly recommend using our app if you're looking for a (nearly) ad-free experience. You can download it here.

But, again, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Bond32]

The amount of ads on this site is out of control... I've been a member for a number of years, always keeping track of what's going on. I love your articles but the ads are just too much at this point. Going to have to find a new Android news site now...

 

[James Falconer]

Can you give us some specific examples of pages that are 'out of control' with ads? We value your feedback here, it'll help us improve and serve you better!

 

[FreudSlipped]

I checked AC using Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox and did not find a major problem with advertising. There is the possibility that what people are experiencing is a bit of a browser hijacking. One example of this, and the cure for it is :

How to remove "Ads not by this site" (Virus Removal Guide)

This is not the only example out there. Recently, Lenovo got in hot water for loading "helpful" (their description) software onto new computers at the factory. If you do a search for Lenovo and Superfish, you'll see the mess they created.

 

[cinek]

I don't mind ads on the side however when they start taking the entire screen and start freezing my browser, that's going way too far. It started happening recently when browsing AC!

 

[James Falconer]

@cinek - if you can take a screencap of an ad that takes over your entire screen, it'd be appreciated. Will help us diagnose and fix anything we can.

 

[cinek]

@cinek - if you can take a screencap of an ad that takes over your entire screen, it'd be appreciated. Will help us diagnose and fix anything we can.

@james falconer see attached

 

[Northern.dj]

I thought my browser was hijacked but found it was clean the forum has links to Adchoice who has links to Addware this takes over on a pc or Mac when your posting and on Firefox it jams the browser now I have looked at the code of the forum and found that it's embedded in the forum I use most add blocking add on's so there blocked but as this is part of the forum it's a pain
The main site thankfully is not affected so this defo points to the company running the forum

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[James Falconer]

@cinek - thank you for posting that!

 

[cinek]

no problem

this is very annoying as sometimes it takes 10 seconds for the ad to come up and the website is unresponsive during that time (this is in addition to taking the entire screen over)

 

[Northern.dj]

The adds causing this issue are from addchoice and they have been linked to add ware they need removing clicking a add starts a Hijack do Not click any of them

 

[cinek]

still happening.....

 

[James Falconer]

@cinek - is it one ad in particular? (is it still that Sophos ad?) If you can get me details on an exact ad (who it's for, where it's located, etc) we can take a closer look.

 

[cinek]

@cinek - is it one ad in particular? (is it still that Sophos ad?) If you can get me details on an exact ad (who it's for, where it's located, etc) we can take a closer look.

like @Northern.dj said, it's addchoice

It's happening on the main page and the forums. Mainly sophos adverts but also car adverts

 

[James Falconer]

Paste screenshots if/when you get these ads again!

 

[cinek]

I already did above what else do you guys require? These ads are from addchoice. Super annoying. Looks like it'll be time to find another forum......

 

[cinek]

another topic about the same issue with screenshots!
http://forums.androidcentral.com/androidcentral-com-site-news-feedback-help/506050-adchoice-dhy.html

 

[anon(261916)]

Hello!

I'm a longtime reader, first time caller!

There is currently a Reactine ad located at the top of individual articles that auto-plays audio which can only be stopped by turning down my computer's volume or clicking the ad.

Thats an effective click strategy for the advertiser but that effectiveness comes at the inconvenience of the visitor.

Even if AndroidCentral considers advertisers to be equally important as visitors, then why do advertisers get to disrupt/inconvenience visitors? For the money, obviously. Of course, the visitor isn't powerless in this scenario, obviously; we can chose to avoid Android Central's website altogether, use the ad-supported AC App (as Phil Nickinson suggests further down in the comments) or any other alternate path to your content.

However, Nickinson's response made me see the website as more of a supermarket flyer in our snail-mail box while the AC App and Flipboard are more like courier-based home delivery.

That caused me to wonder if Mobile Nation's decision to allow advertisers to inconvenience users is actually part of a business strategy that they hope will drive revenue by pushing customers to paid apps (IAP to disable ad in AC app or subsidized services (flipboard)). It occurred to me that we are witnessing their willing subjugation of the website as the worst customer experience in their effort to push customers to more pleasant and revenue-friendly experiences - their apps, Flipboard, etc.

I'm all for AC and MN making money with their business but if thats their strategy, then why don't they provide customers with what appears to me to be the missing pieces of that strategy: In-App-Purchase to remove all ads (at least) from the Android/iOS AC Apps? A paywall option for the website which disables advertising might contradict their tiered strategy but logic needn't be an obstacle to making more money.

See attached screen shot for the Reactine ad's location on the article page.

Details:
- Chrome (latest version) on OS X 10.10.2
- screenshot filename: AC-ReactineAd.png

Thanks very much for your time!

(Now I'm going back to refreshing Bell's Twitter account for news of Lollipop on the Galaxy Note 4)

 

[Phil Nickinson]

Hi, folks! Great discussion here. And a few more points from me:

• Our Android app is not "ad-supported." When you do see an ad, it's in one those fancy reviews, which really is just a webview, and so it shows what it shows. Those are the exception, though, and not the rule, and in any case we're trying to do away with that format. (As you can see in our Galaxy S6 review.)
• A non-monetized app probably won't last forever, by the way. I, for one, plan on enjoying it as long as I can. (That said, if and when we do add ads or whatever somehow, I plan on being smart about it.)
• I can't really speak to our "business strategy" or anything other than to say this: Ads are a necessary evil. It'd be great if we could do without them. But the simple fact is content isn't free. And I, for one, rather enjoy employing the folks we employ.
• As a reader, I completely get it. (And usually agree.) Advertisements should look good and perform even better. We absolutely have a long way to go on the latter.
• But when I say "we" in regards to advertisements, you need to understand that a lot of that is out of our control. (Particularly on the editorial side.) We're the vehicle, not the engine.
• If you'd like more information on the advertising side of things, most reputable websites have a link to their ad network somewhere. Perhaps in the lower-right corner of this very page. And once you're on that advertising network's site, there likely is a contact from which you can voice your displeasure with load times and the like.
• But if anyone thinks Android Central or any of the Mobile Nations sites is pushing a bad experience in favor of ... well, anything ... you obviously don't know us. The simple fact is not a day goes by that we don't use this very same website with the very same (more, really) headaches. Overall user experience is extremely important to us. And we're doing what we can.
• And there are folks working behind the scenes to make things as good as we possibly can on our end. To assume or imply otherwise is as ignorant as it is insulting. To all of us.
• And, again, if you see a bad ad, let us know! We don't like ridiculous pop-ups and auto-playing videos, either. Nobody here approves every ad before you see them. That's just not how things work. So if something wonky shows up, please let us know. Sometimes we can help. And we want to help.

Any other questions, fire away and I'll answer what I can. And thanks!