

Facebook to debut auto-play video ads in 2013 - denniedarko
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/18/facebook_new_video_ads/

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kirinan
These are the most annoying kind ads. Not only do I have to make sure my sound
is off (if they implement it like that), they often times are REALLY loud and
annoying. I make it a habit to ignore any company that has these kinds of ad
offerings and shop a different brand on principle. Depending on how this is
implemented, it could really be the final straw for me with Facebook. When
Yahoo implemented those ads where it covered the entire screen and you
couldn't click anywhere until that ad was exited, I quit using Yahoo. This
would be the same level of annoying for me. There has to be other ways to get
peoples attention than video ads with sound. Regular video can be ignored,
although can still be distracting and annoying. I really hope they avoid
defaulted sound or have a way to shut it off with a setting.

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zaidf
This is a shitty pattern that news sites(huffpo, espn etc.), especially, have
bought into. You open a series of news stories across a half dozen tabs
expecting text stories. You get auto-playing videos across tabs accompanying
each text news story.

Just for this reason I am for a browser-level default block on auto
audio/video playing. Let me unblock it at the domain level(ie. youtube).

~~~
mikegioia
I had to install flashblock after scrambling to find the source of audio/video
on Techcrunch. Ugh.

~~~
Rovanion
The sad thought that we will have to run HTML5-video-and-audio-block soon
enough just hit me.

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nichodges
This is a short term revenue grab from Facebook, but one that will probably
harm their long term position with the media agencies that buy their
inventory.

Autoplay videos have been widely criticised by advertisers and agencies over
the past few years. While the interruption is a bad user experience (yes,
advertisers do care about that), it's the results that are the issue.
Publishers started reporting ridiculously high completion rates, just because
the video auto-played and then the user scrolled down.

The result in a lot of markets is that the major media agency groups have
stated they will not buy autoplay. What will be interesting to see is if the
same groups can say no to Facebook. While I would say most will happily
support the move to not buy autoplay, I would fear that most advertisers are
so frothy on Facebook that they don't care if their ad interrupts and
irritates the user.

The challenge for Facebook (and the leverage the advertisers and agencies will
have) is that they need the major advertisers and agency groups. As opposed to
text-based ads, you can't rely on the long tail for good-quality video
advertising.

(Disclosure: I work for one of the major media agency groups.)

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gtCameron
The lack of imagination coming from Facebook today in terms of the
monetization of their products is disappointing.

Is there really no way that they can make money without pissing of their
users? It seems like at that scale there should be new ways that they can try
to make money other than simply following the tried and true method of shoving
adds down everyone's throat.

~~~
nwh
I'm fairly sure they could make big bucks charging for their developer API.
They'd roll in cash and users wouldn't experience much of an implact.

~~~
tomrod
There would be an impact on users, I assure you. Just not directly
predictable.

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jiggy2011
Well, a lot of people browse facebook at work when they should probably
technically be doing something else.

Auto playing video ads would definitely be a detriment to that.

One of my most memorable "oh shit" moments was being in the office, googling
for something programming related and landing on someones hacked blog. I got
301 redirected to some porn site with autoplaying live jasmin popups.

~~~
sigzero
Maybe not. My firewall at work prevents a lot of video from playing.

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DanBC
> Smartphone users with bandwidth-capped data service are likely to be
> particularly annoyed by this, given that Facebook plans to roll out the
> video ads to both the browser-based version of its service and its mobile
> apps.

I'm one of the most ad-tolerant people I know but this is a terrible idea.

I still use FB, but less and less, and the day they serve an auto-playing ad
with noise is the day I quit.

Unfortunately, most people don't care. That's why we have stupid "punch the
monkey" and "free pointers" etc ads.

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binarycrusader
The day they do this is the day I delete my account; I've already come pretty
close as I've gotten tired of scrolling through the sponsored crap.

~~~
tomrod
Join us on Google+ -- it's like the Python of social networks.

<http://xkcd.com/353/>

~~~
binarycrusader
I'm already on Google+; unfortunately, most of my friends and family are not.
And if I want to stay in contact with them, I need a facebook account.

However, I'm only willing to put up with so much before I just delete my
account and revert to email alone for that group of people. Video ads would
only make my decision to do that immediate as opposed to coming very close to
it everyday.

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lhorie
Now would be a good time to build The Next Facebook(tm)

~~~
kexek
I think you need to try VK.com first

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citricsquid
The way the original article[1] describes them they sound very much like the
adverts[2] Youtube uses. They're at the top of the page playing in the
background and you're given the option to hover over to activate the sound of
the video. They're not wonderful adverts but they're not too inconvenient. All
I wish is that Facebook (and any other company that uses adverts) would allow
me to pay a fee to hide the adverts. Facebook doesn't mean enough to me to put
up with annoying adverts but it means enough that paying $5/m to have a "good"
experience when I do use it is something I would do.

[1] [http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-preps-bring-
video-...](http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-preps-bring-video-ads-
news-feed/238825/)

[2] <http://i.imgur.com/O0SvF.png>

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lewisflude
As long as there's no auto play audio I'm absolutely fine with this.

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kcwebz
Seriously giving thought about moving from Facebook over to Google+... just a
series of shitty updates with Facebook that I cannot be bothered giving time
to think about how they effect me.. it's becoming such a cancer it needs to be
excised from my life. Currently as it stands the only reason I have it is to
stay in touch with family oversea's and my D&D group etc... but I ask myself
now.. is that reason enough..

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jpdoctor
Why O Why do the browsers even allow autoplay of video?

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nuclear_eclipse
Because it's not up to the browser when the video is embedded using Flash?

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drcube
That's up to the browser, too. Doesn't Firefox already block Flash from auto
playing, or is that one of my add ons that I forgot about? Every time I go to
a site with Flash, there's a big gray square with a play button in the middle
of it. Good for Firefox, I say.

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commentzorro
If you're posting here (or even reading this) then I'd guess you have nothing
to worry about. Facebook is targeting the 99% of the population who doesn't
care about ads and wouldn't know what to do about them anyway. You'll likely
be able to block the ads and go about booking faces and whatnot to your
heart's content.

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ruethewhirled
Ah this is going to kill my mobile usage of the site, which is the main way I
use the Facebook, website version not the app. Theres no way I'm going to
incur bandwidth and annoyance of the sound of ad's playing on my phone.
Bandwidth would be the key factor since I have a limited mobile trafic cap.
But any sites that make noise without me interacting with them annoys the hell
outa me.

Other than mobile usage I check the site about 1-2 times a week on my laptop
which doesn't have flash installed (I use Chrome for Youtube/flash content
sites) so hopefully the ad's aren't html5.

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marquis
Is there a Chrome extension that blocks flash/html5 video on certain websites?
That would certainly solve the annoyance.

If browsing facebook is critical to you you can always use perl.
[http://qscripts.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/post-to-your-own-
face...](http://qscripts.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/post-to-your-own-facebook-
account-from.html)

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chris_wot
That's it. I'm killing my Facebook account, the very instant that these
appear.

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phinnaeus
Once again, if you're not paying for it, you're the product being sold.

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grecy
adblock them away.

I logged in to Facebook on a friend's computer the other day and was shocked
how it looks with ads. I don't know how anyone can use it like that.

~~~
encoderer
I know this will probably spark nerd-rage, but adblock? C'mon man. Adblock is
you, unilaterally reneging on the deal you make when you visit a website.

Suppose they, out of the blue, charge your credit card for your access? You'd
be incredulous.

~~~
MartinCron
It's good to know that I'm not the only person out there who has mixed
feelings about adblock.

~~~
awakeasleep
The fact that online advertisements are actually code that runs on my computer
removes the moral qualms, for me. We live in a safe world now, but reading
about how intelligence agencies, communist international, and the like
operated between the end of WW1 and the cold war really drove home the fact
that you do NOT want human beings building a dossier on you, and that fighting
for privacy is not a matter of paranoia.

~~~
encoderer
But you don't care enough to stop visiting the sites themselves? As if the
"dossier" can't be built without ad code?

I can't think of any good reason to forcibly separate a website from its ads.
Any arguments against the ads are just arguments against the website, and I
think attempts to argue otherwise are just trying to have your ad-free cake
and eat it too.

Somebody _paid_ and _is paying_ for your visit. For the website itself. It's
somebody's _labor_. If they didn't want ads, they wouldn't have put them
there. Clearly you've gone to some length to convince yourself that you're
justified in your actions, but you're not. You're taking something for free
that the creator intended to be paid for.

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mrdnk
Meh! Another reason not to use Facebook.

