[Added] Taboola ads

Inclusion proposals for "acceptable ads" list are discussed here. New topics cannot be created, constructive comments are welcome, flaming will be removed.

Moderators: greiner, ionyshchenko, Till, r.grygorczuk, ptraykova, Helle, j.mathai

ManuelC

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by ManuelC »

leonexis wrote:I was quite happy with showing non-intrusive ads, especially as someone who has a few sites that get ad revenue. Most of the time, the ads are indeed non-intrusive and often related to services that I care about or are at least somewhat related to the sites they are shown on and will even get some engagement on my end. I would like to reward responsible advertising.

Scenarios like, however, this make it no longer worth it and I don't blame anyone else for disabling all ads because of it:

http://imgur.com/i6fVKSe

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlight_all ... rn_matches

And I was really hoping ABP would be responsive and responsible with this instead of whitelisting repeat offenders. There should be a three-strikes rule or similar for cases like this, and Taboola definitely fits the bill for an ad agency that should be blocked.
Hi there, thanks for spotting this up. We checked the issue and looks like the publisher made some changes without notifying us. The ad widget is turned off until it gets redesigned to make it smaller.

Our apologies for the bad experience on this site. Your feedback is highly appreciated -and taken into account.
doomsknight
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2016 1:19 am

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by doomsknight »

I just noticed the "ads by taboola" so quickly googled it, and ended up here.

Signed up just to say that I have also turned off white listed ads.

I find it sad that I thought these links, although seemingly bulls*** articles where part of the websites !
I am so used to fake scamming ads being blocked, that I didnt expect these to be showing unless they werent ads.

And was beginning to question the likes of daily mail etc to why they were trying to link me to rediculous articles... For weeks now!!!


Having seen this thread, i find it also sad, that it is being side stepped for years now.
I dont think the question is where are Taboola providing bad quality ads...

I think the question should be, where are they providing good quality ads.

It seems like ALL their content is spam/fake/scams that has been formatted in such a way to fit guidelines for white listing.

Such content in my opinion shouldnt be white listed no matter how formatted it is.

Thanks for the good ad block software though. and the option to turn off white listed ads completely. At least it is optional. Just feel like im letting genuinely fair ads down.
User avatar
mapx
Posts: 21940
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:01 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by mapx »

As I said here:
forum/viewtopic.php?p=152763#p152763

You can keep ON the acceptable ads and only kill the taboola's.
smike277
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:16 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by smike277 »

mapx wrote:You can keep ON the acceptable ads and only kill the taboola's.
If ABP considers clickbait Taboola (and Outbrain) "acceptable" ads, then who's interested in "acceptable" ads?

I just went the extra mile after disabling "acceptable" ads by adding taboola and outbrain to squid and OpenDNS block rules so nobody on the network has to rely on ABP to block these clickbait ads anymore.
sourcejedi
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:28 am

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by sourcejedi »

What's the ruling on Taboola's fake localisation? Doesn't feel acceptable & unintrusive to me.

Dudley Funeral Directors In An Uproar After Facts Exposed

Noticed on http://www.thelocal.ch/20150113/tons-of ... wiss-sites

Derefs to an article titled UK
ManuelC

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by ManuelC »

sourcejedi wrote:What's the ruling on Taboola's fake localisation? Doesn't feel acceptable & unintrusive to me.

Dudley Funeral Directors In An Uproar After Facts Exposed

Noticed on http://www.thelocal.ch/20150113/tons-of ... wiss-sites

Derefs to an article titled UK
Hi there,

Thanks for spotting this. I was able to reproduce the ad and it seems to comply with the Acceptable Ads guidelines: it's labeled as 'sponsored', it's framed and it doesn't take the maximum space permitted under the fold.
bhsup
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:17 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by bhsup »

Decided to enable acceptable ads rather than just trying to fully whitelist selective websites. The following immediately happened, which prompted me to revert to disabling acceptable ads and go back to selective whitelisting. Did a search for the "Sponsored links by Taboola" and was directed here. Might try acceptable ads again in a few months to see if this is rectified, but I don't really feel like users should need to be manually editing a list that is supposed to already be selectively created to ensure they are acceptable.

Just posting image in case it helps plug a hole.

http://www.bhsmo.net/pub/img/misc/taboo ... _wikia.jpg
AutoDMC
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 8:58 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by AutoDMC »

Posting to alert the team that, for yet another consumer, Taboola's ads have turned of all acceptable ads on all my computer.

Normally I use uBlock, but Edge doesn't support it yet (I've decided to try out Edge as my primary browser for a few weeks). I picked Adblock Plus and left "Acceptable Ads" turned on... for exactly 2 hours.

Image

Above the content, consuming hundreds of pixels, with absurdly unrelated content? I sincerely hope Adblock Plus doesn't consider this "acceptable ads."

As such, I've turned all acceptable ads off. Why? I mean, I could just block Taboola directly, right? It's the principle. Adblock Plus is selling my eyes to publishers if the publishers promise to be gentle with their ads. I don't know if it's Wikia or Taboola abusing the system now, but the abuse is not acceptable. I'm not going to let Adblock Plus sell my screenshare to any publishers if they let the publishers I view do this kind of crap. I'll turn ABP's acceptable ads back on once they actually solve this problem.

The only way to make Taboola ads "acceptable" would be to remove their images and use text. That, unfortunately, would destroy their business model of publishing clickbait that looks like site content. So, I guess, either block it all or keep sold out. Either way, Taboola is specifically responsible for losing another set of eyes for your "acceptable ads." Everyone gets punished because you guys keep letting Taboola get away with their crap.
Lumikai
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:50 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by Lumikai »

I have acceptable ads turned off for this reason too and have moved to alternate adblocking software on my secondary devices as a trial.

Lets be honest, If a small advertising company tried to get on the acceptable ads list with ads like taboola's they'd stand no chance. I can only assume Taboola get an easy ride because they pay large amounts into the ABP coffers. I'm all for ABP making you money but I honestly think for the sake of credibility the likes of Taboola shouldn't be on the list.

Given the length of this discussion I've no doubt they'll remain on the whitelist though, slowly eroding all the hard work that's gone into acceptable ads, rotting the concept from the inside.
sourcejedi
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:28 am

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by sourcejedi »

ManuelC wrote:
sourcejedi wrote:What's the ruling on Taboola's fake localisation? Doesn't feel acceptable & unintrusive to me.

Dudley Funeral Directors In An Uproar After Facts Exposed

Noticed on http://www.thelocal.ch/20150113/tons-of ... wiss-sites

Hi there,

Thanks for spotting this. I was able to reproduce the ad and it seems to comply with the Acceptable Ads guidelines: it's labeled as 'sponsored', it's framed and it doesn't take the maximum space permitted under the fold.
Hi Manuel C. Thanks for the check.

I don't understand how to describe this Ad as framed.

The vertical borders in my screenshot do *not* separate it from page content (cropped out above+below in the screenshot).

Scrolling up from the page content below the Ad, I see there is no horizontal border but a marker "by Taboola". It's in the wrong place & actually looks like it's attached to the page content instead, due to the space above it. I wouldn't understand the marker anyway, where-ever it was.

Nor writing "sponsored links" in size smaller than even than the body text - seriously - un-bolded in an area of large, bolded, colored headings. In fact, hidden to the right of one of these emphasized headings. Headings are followed by subheads below. There is no expectation to find subheads floated to the right margin of the same line! You know this.

I understand you're saying the guidelines generally don't apply to this lack of framing / dark pattern / clickbait etc. Thank you, I shall stop using Acceptable Ads. uBlock is probably a better choice in that case.
sourcejedi
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:28 am

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by sourcejedi »

I mean, those "framing" words might as well be marked up as <aside>.
ManuelC

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by ManuelC »

sourcejedi wrote:
ManuelC wrote:
sourcejedi wrote:What's the ruling on Taboola's fake localisation? Doesn't feel acceptable & unintrusive to me.

Dudley Funeral Directors In An Uproar After Facts Exposed

Noticed on http://www.thelocal.ch/20150113/tons-of ... wiss-sites

Hi there,

Thanks for spotting this. I was able to reproduce the ad and it seems to comply with the Acceptable Ads guidelines: it's labeled as 'sponsored', it's framed and it doesn't take the maximum space permitted under the fold.
Hi Manuel C. Thanks for the check.

I don't understand how to describe this Ad as framed.

The vertical borders in my screenshot do *not* separate it from page content (cropped out above+below in the screenshot).

Scrolling up from the page content below the Ad, I see there is no horizontal border but a marker "by Taboola". It's in the wrong place & actually looks like it's attached to the page content instead, due to the space above it. I wouldn't understand the marker anyway, where-ever it was.

Nor writing "sponsored links" in size smaller than even than the body text - seriously - un-bolded in an area of large, bolded, colored headings. In fact, hidden to the right of one of these emphasized headings. Headings are followed by subheads below. There is no expectation to find subheads floated to the right margin of the same line! You know this.

I understand you're saying the guidelines generally don't apply to this lack of framing / dark pattern / clickbait etc. Thank you, I shall stop using Acceptable Ads. uBlock is probably a better choice in that case.
Hi Sourcejedi,

thanks for the thoughtful response. I can actually see the frame on the upper part but I see your point regarding the lower one. Also, I'd asume that the labeling is splitted in such way [Sponsored links/by Taboola] due to the lack of space in the upper part. We'll look into it, it may be possible to reduce the font and make it fit.
Lolinder
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:16 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by Lolinder »

Joining in to add my vote:

Taboola ads are not, and never have been "Acceptable". I'm not interested in lawyering about the guidelines you've set up. If it's accurate what people say, that Taboola is a paying customer, then what guidelines you've set for the program that they essentially sponsor are irrelevant. What I'm interested in is the idea of acceptable ads.

The spirit of an acceptable ad is, in my mind, that it is an ad that:
  1. Is related to the content provided.
  2. Is honest. Accurately portrays what is being offered.
  3. Is non-intrusive. Images aren't distracting, if they exist.
  4. Is non-offensive.
Google ads meet all these requirements for me, though I understand that because of their use of tracking data they aren't considered acceptable by this program, which is your decision. But let's examine how Taboola holds up.
  1. Explain to me how Miley Cyrus is related to the article I'm reading about PHP design patterns? Or how "This one weird trick" is relevant to the clipboard manager I was downloading off SourceForge? Or how "Outfits Mom should stop wearing" relates to anything that I've ever done in my internet browsing?
    Example: refresh this page as many times as you like. You will never see anything that is remotely related to the page content.
    Unless, that is, you access SourceForge without AdBlock Plus enabled. Interestingly, they don't even have Taboola ads in that case, and the ads are relevant to the content I'm seeing (even if they are larger). I would rather see SourceForge's ads without Adblock Plus installed at all, than what I see with it enabled.
  2. Taboola is terrible at this. It's possible some of their content is accurately represented (I wouldn't know), but you can't expect me to believe that my small town actually has a new DMV rule? My town doesn't even have a DMV! The fake localization is the most blatant, but there's also all the "this one weird trick" ads, among many others. Taboola is anything but honest.
  3. Every Taboola ad I've ever seen is comprised of 1) an attention-calling image, and 2) an unrelated, attention-calling headline. Occasionally, when it's convenient, like the Miley Cyrus ad above, they'll actually combine two that are related. But they are nothing if not designed to call attention away from the content and to themselves.
  4. Most days, even with Adblock Plus enabled, I'll run into at least one Taboola image that just makes me queasy -- Miley Cyrus is a good example. If I ever find myself possessed with an inexplicable desire to see a picture of her in a spaghetti string whatever that is, I'll do a Google Image search, thank you very much.
That last point is one where I'll give you credit. It's been a few years since I browsed enough on the internet to run into Taboola much, and in the last few months since I've gotten back to it, I haven't seen the horribly offensive images that services like them used to provide. Now the worst you see is random, unrelated images of women showing skin (I guess because their theory is the teenage boys browsing the internet just wont be able to resist?)

So, if your partnership with them had some role in that, kudos. But they haven't come nearly far enough to reach an "acceptable ad" level.

All that said, I want to highlight for my fellow discontents the post by mapx above:
mapx wrote: just add

Code: Select all

||taboola.com^
It's far from a perfect solution, since Taboola is still going to have their way with the internet, but it's worked so far for securing my own personal peace while browsing. So, thanks for that! I do appreciate the idea of Acceptable Ads. I hope to see the day where the program itself, without me having to manually blacklist junk, actually works to block all ads that are irrelevant, dishonest, distracting, and offensive.
dsigned
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 7:51 am

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by dsigned »

Also joining to voice my desire to have Taboola removed from the "acceptable ads" list.

For my part, I think my frustration is with the content of the ad itself, as much as it is with the methodology of the ad.

Remembering back to the golden age of spam, the "Englare yoor PENIS NOW!!!!@#@$!@#$" messages were annoying in part because of how they were constructed, but mostly because they were selling garbage. As in, no one who knew what they were selling would want to buy what they were selling from them. And I feel like Taboola falls into this category. No one who's clicked one of those kinds of link wants to ever click another one.

For my part, I don't mind having some ads whitelisted because hey, I actually do buy things online, and sometimes clicking through to an ad version is just the same as clicking through a search engine (or easier).

Heck, Gizmodo's "Daily Deals" is literally sponsored content: they get revenue from linking to Amazon, and I intentionally look at what's on sale, and sometimes intentionally click through, knowing full well that I am clicking through what amounts to an ad.

The point is, I'm not against "targeted advertising" from the standpoint of its obtrusiveness -- because it doesn't have to be obtrusive, and objectively speaking, it can even be useful to me. But I am absolutely against "targeted" advertising that's not offering anything of substance (e.g. just clickbait) and is instead relying on my mistaking it for "real" content to get the one and (hopefully) only click from me it will ever get.

In summary, I agree with the concept behind "acceptable advertising," but I think it's painfully clear that Taboola is merely trying to comply with the letter of the law while having its entire business model revolving around violating the spirit. So, because I don't think they can or will fundamentally change what their company is about (getting bullshit clicks for otherwise worthless content), I don't think it's as simple as "well, they just need to change the wording on some of their ads, and then they will be in compliance." They will ALWAYS be out of compliance because their whole MO is contradictory to the spirit of acceptable advertising.
ChrisABP
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2013 12:09 pm

Re: [Added] Taboola ads

Post by ChrisABP »

@dsigned & Lolinder : Thank you both for your comprehensive and thoughtful comments on Taboola's advertising approach. You can be sure, our partners read the comments here and take constructive feedback seriously.

On a separate note, when approving Acceptable Ads our team must stick to the objective & tangible criteria: Separation, labeling, size etc. It's not feasible to judge Acceptable Ads by their "spirit" on the large scale we have. While you, for good personal reasons, dislike Taboola widgets on some websites, there are many other whitelist users who regard those as acceptable and even useful.

As with many types of internet ads, it's very hard to deliver relevant ads for users in every situation. The technology isn't there yet. But you can be sure: It's in the interest of native ad networks like Taboola and other ad tech firms to deliver the highest possible relevancy of ads as this creates the highest value for their customers. In the long term, annoyance won't pay off. Comments like your's help them to adjust their products in a good way. Thanks.
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