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Ask HN: Will adblockers kill “js widget” products/startups?

5 points by markyc ↗ HN
with the booming growth of adblocker adoption more and more 3rd party js products are getting blocked (mixpanel, qualaroo/webengage, storemapper, etc).

when more than half of the browsers will have adblockers, do you think these type of products will become obsolete?

4 comments

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ubertaco
Probably, but if your business model is selling Javascript widgets (of which anyone can easily view the source), then you're already in bad shape.
rahimnathwani
I don't think OP is talking about products which consist entirely of front-end code, but rather analytics or tracking services which rely on front-end JS to collect user data, which is then used by the main product.

For cases like MixPanel, I don't see why the traffic wouldn't be proxied through the original domain. Unless MixPanel needs to (i) ensure that the property is not faking their stats/events, or (ii) track visitors across sites, the fact that the JS etc. is served from MixPanel directly is more of a convenience than a necessity.

The same would not apply if MixPanel were providing a verification service to third parties, who were advertising on or wanting to buy MixPanel's customer's site.

markyc
with the advent of community driven filtering, how long until the self hosted tracking scripts get blocked also? and who would notice?
pkinsky
If you're talking about widgets that track things like CDN performance and errors, like NewRelic's[1], then... maybe. I love that people are blocking tracking widgets, but there are some companies that provide useful gadgets that don't compromise privacy and I'd hate for them to be blocked as well. That said, I can't wait for Facebook tracking widgets to go away.

1) https://blog.newrelic.com/2014/03/13/javascript-error-report...