[jacquesm]

Ads make an enormous amount of money, but ads are also (at least the online ones) undergoing a trend where the same amount of effort by advertiser, creatives and agencies leads to less and less user engagement and $ spent on product over time. More and more people are experiencing a disconnect with advertising and the advertising industry, rather than doing some introspection sees this is a technological thing that needs 'fixing' rather than as a basic problem with their approach. It will be interesting to see how they plan to fix this long term, for now it does not look - to me - as if they are on the right path, another focus group or user panel is not going to magically solve this. Until then the money is good.

[fraserharris]

Part of the explosion in ad-tech companies are alternative ad-formats and methods. The future lies in native ads - TripleLift (among others) is doing interesting things. You'll see more and more "sponsored stories". With Taboola/Outbrain, brands can create their own content (giving new life to agencies). We've experimented with embedding sponsored stories into digital properties (ex: a shoppable gift guide within a digital magazine's website).

[jacquesm]

> You'll see more and more "sponsored stories".

Great. /s

[sangnoir]

This is the industry reaction I expect from wide-spread ad-blocker usage.

There's a certain future-blindness that afflict us techies: in our fervent zeal, we think that the things we don't like (flash, ads, and flash ads) will be "killed soon": instead, they evolve into hardier, more insidious strains (HTML5/canvas ads, native ads).

[jacquesm]

Because advertisers have a god-given right to our attention. I got that long ago. Which is one of the reasons I worked hard to get them out of my life as much as possible. Those ads may not be 'killed soon' but they're 'killed for me' today and if it gets to the point where let's say even HN would be infested with advertising then I would simply move offline and read books again or something like that. My eyeballs are mine, and so is my brain.

[bittercynic]

Though they may not be "killed soon" it still seems worthwhile to take up the fight to help people protect their bandwidth, screen real estate, and mind. Just because it will be an ongoing fight doesn't mean you should just give up.