Why Verizon Wireless' Mobile Ads Are A Non-Story
from the mountains-out-of-molehills dept
Late Sunday night, the New York Times put out an article announcing that Verizon is going to "allow" ads on its mobile phones. From a headline standpoint, that sounds interesting -- but it's got a lot of problems (and we won't even bother getting into the difference between Verizon and Verizon Wireless). The details suggest a really, really, really minor change in policy for Verizon Wireless -- not the big significant deal the NYTimes (and others) have made it out to be. Like most mobile operators who offer data services on their phones, they have their own exceptionally limited portal (which acts more like a walled garden than a portal). All that Verizon Wireless is doing is starting to sell some ad slots within that mobile portal that doesn't get all that much usage anyway (and will get less and less usage once users finally make Verizon Wireless realize that it needs to tear down its walls and let people just surf the web on their phones). Yet, because the headline sounds so interesting, it's become a hot topic in the blogworld, with lots of commentary about how Verizon is going to start pumping intrusive advertising your way. So, for those of you getting worried based on the headline and some of the commentary: no, Verizon Wireless is not about to pump intrusive ads into your life. They're just putting ads on their mobile portal, which you probably don't use anyway, and if you do, you'll probably barely notice them.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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VZW ads
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Mobile Ads on VZW's Network
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Fortunately, unlike Cable, Wireless isn't a natural monopoly. Time to revolt as customers, viva la revolution!
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Service Provider..?
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Most of the blog commentary is confused
Of course the user can make this substitution (or just block ads) in his or her browser so what's to say that by signing up for their transport service you aren't asking them to change the ads for you? In fact they could claim that they discount (har har) the transport fees in exchange for showing you their ads!
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RE: Most of the blog commentary is confused
Uh, you must not be a Verizon Wireless customer. Their shitty, featureless, Openwave browser doesn't allow you to block ad's, let alone even disable images.
In addition, Verizon's phones only run signed "BREW" code as well, therefore you can only install (subscribe) to applications that Verizon offers you through their get-assraped-now service, which doesn't include alternative browsers like Opera.
What I don't get is:
• The screen is already too damn small for useful browsing, LET'S CRAM ADS ON IT!!!
• Last I heard, you either paid out of your minutes, or per-kb for mobile web. I hope they find a way to keep ads from counting against you (riiight).
I'd be all for it if it benefited the consumer in some way; like maybe giving me free access to news + adverts in their little "walled garden". I seriously doubt that'll happen.
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Cell Phone Advertising - Big Story
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Separation Between Pipe & Content
But the big problem here is separating the pipe and the content. Between those two there ought to be a huge wall. Otherwise the Telco's will only look at their cell phone services as ways to jam their own crap content down your throats.
Imagine how this would have played out in the old days of POTS.
The biggest problem with the Times article was that it included NO voice from a consumer protection or privacy perspective. Imagine that...
The only thing it mentioned as holding things back were the qualms of the Verizon Wireless COO ("we listen to our customers" -- yeah right, typical corporate crap). If that's all there is holding things back, we're really in trouble.
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