Coming Soon to a Wireless Hotspot Near You: Ads 363
mindless4210 writes "A new generation of spam is born with the launch of FreeFi's new Wi-Fi advertising network. It is the first service of its kind, with intentions of delivering ad content to hotspots around the world starting in mid-Summer. FreeFi's President, Lawrence Laffer, says that the service displays a 'persistent set of ads adjacent to the user's browser without use of invasive advertising software or pop-up ads.' He also claims '[their] market research indicates that, except for pop-ups, people really don't mind ads.'" This seems like the kind of thing that would keep me from using "free" wireless access, but I've a feeling I'm in the minority.
Re:Ads... so what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Go Anti-Spammers (Score:2, Interesting)
Past experience (Score:5, Interesting)
what browser? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yep, the majority of us will just find a way around it. I kinda doubt they'll be putting ads next to my lynx window.
Free with ads? No problem here. (Score:5, Interesting)
CowboyNeil: This seems like the kind of thing that would keep me from using "free" wireless access, but I've a feeling I'm in the minority.
Actually, Mr. Cowboy, you just validated their business plan.
While the idea of free wireless Internet access is fun for the user, there's still the annoying fact that someone's paying for your bandwidth. Ideally, geeks like us would be more than happy to open their broadband connections to the world -- I would, if I could get broadband in rural east Texas.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough altruistic geeks per square mile to sustain that "business model". So someone has to pay the bill. Why not advertisers?
I run Opera [opera.com], but I'm too cheap to pay for it. So I have a banner ad built into my browser. I even click it sometimes -- out of curiosity, or to send Opera some ad clicks. I'm willing to put up with advertising to get the product, and lucky for me, the model is working.
I hope ad-supported wireless access takes off. I wouldn't put my money in the companies, though... anyone remember Bluelight [bluelight.com]?
Re:Past experience, but (Score:5, Interesting)
It's like drung dealing. First you get them addicted then you start charging.
ads: Horizontal or Vertical? (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW, I only ask this and entertain the notion because like it or not, ads are going to be a part of the hotspot experience.... why not do it right from the beginning?
Not enough info (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, it depends on what kind of software they make you install to see the ads / access the network. I'm assuming that they'll have to use something because if it's just a proxy I think it would be to easy too defeat. If they make you install special software, is it going to be Windows only?
I don't have enough details to make judgment yet.
not ads (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd much rather the hotspot be funded by charging an extra $0.10 for coffee, or whatever the business may be. Actually, I just set up a WiFi hotspot for a local coffeehouse and the "free" WiFi has brought him enough extra business that he feels quite justified in not charging extra for the service.
WiFi should be a condiment, like catsup or salt or paper napkins...
Windows Only? (Score:5, Interesting)
Does that mean that there is a 99.99% chance that this software won't install on linux (or Mac) and only windows laptops will be able to access those spots?
Isn't there a better way to do this that doesn't require software installation? like injecting HTML code for banner ads in the pages viewed by users on your network like free hosting companies were doing all the time back in the days?
Does that also mean that there will be no way to tell if there is malicious (or even vulnerable) code bundled with the software?
Not Really Spam... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is not to say that advertising is not often irritating and intrusive, but beggars can not be browsers without being subjected to ads.
Of course, they could very well be monitoring and recording what you are doing online, above and beyond simple browsing information, in the name of 'targeted marketing'. But that is for the tin foil crowd to determine; I do not have a laptop, let alone use wireless access in public locations, so I am not too concerned about the privacy implications, 'First they came for the WiFiers' be damned.
what about other protocols? (Score:1, Interesting)
obviously they're injecting the adds into the http stream.
I'll just ssh to work and tunnel to my proxy server...
Mirror , just in case (Score:1, Interesting)
The mirror of http://www.freefinet.com/ is at http://mirrorit.demonmoo.com/r_304/www.freefinet.
The mirror of http://www.dailywireless.com/modules.php?name=New
The mirror of http://www.freefinet.com/id13.html is at http://mirrorit.demonmoo.com/r_304/www.freefinet.
Let's whine about it (Score:3, Interesting)
And all a significant portion of the Slashdot crowd can think to do is whine about it being "probably closed source" and "probably Windows" and you don't know if it's secure or not
You want to use it, cool. Don't do anything that you wouldn't want published in the NY Times. Do that stuff at home.
If you want your Open Source and your Linux and your guarantees that it's free, well, open up your own business and give away YOUR bandwidth.
And quit whining, dammit. Geesh. Use it or don't.
Recovering the cost MY ASS. (Score:4, Interesting)
Let the customers know that this is a free and open network, and that you're not responsible to what happens to their machines, and thats about it.
Its been my experience that people will go to a place to pay 10 times over cost for a cup of coffee spedifically because they can boot up and be online without having to goof with their settings too much. Like these folks, I will even spend a little more just staying there a little longer because I can sit and read
10 people a week spend an extra $2.50 a visit because of the wireless and you get $25. 4.2 weeks in the average month adds up to $105.
Bingo. WiFi cost recovered.
This doesn't even take into account the Evercrack geeks that will sit there for hours on end mainlining shot after shot of espresso into themselves for that extra twitch speed while playing.
This is just yet another attempt at a useless industry trying to insert themselves into a place where they're not wanted or needed.
Hey Marketers, fuck you. We're not going to buy your shit no matter how many times you put it in front of us.
better than what scumbag hotels are doing (Score:5, Interesting)
Free with a catch isnt ok (Score:5, Interesting)
Look at what happened with TV.. used to be free.. then commercials.. then nothing but commercials...then cable... now you got cable and dish with a fee to watch the commercials.....
Internet or just web? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:ads: Horizontal or Vertical? (Score:3, Interesting)
Stuff on the bottom just fucks with my brain. Anytime I'm on a friend's computer and those huge msn e-mail warnings come up (and those are hella small compared to these ads) or some retard has logged on I always scream out in horror. No one should put anything down there that isn't in a taskbar and cordoned off from doing anything to my sanity!
Left sucks, it would just jar your browsing experience. No one needs that.
On the top? Uhh... Probably again alot of inadvertant clicking trying to minimize or close. I know for me I have all my windows maximized so I can just whip my mouse up to the top right (Requires no brain use) and start mashing mouse buttons.
So if the Victorians taught us anything about logic, the choice is to put it on the right.
Re:Been there done that (Score:2, Interesting)
That fact that only one company retains a version of is proof.
--Richard
To cheap to meter (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Must be closed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Been there done that (Score:1, Interesting)
-Mr. Lizardo
Could it be.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like they may just be using a transparent proxy to add some HTML to the sites you view to show some ads. Could be as simple as a 2 column table with one column for ads and the other for the page you requested.
Time to break out the hosts file. Although this would leave an empty table on one side. There are some proxies available that will actually edit out pages for you, so you could have little proxy wars with the provider.
I know advertising has it's place, but for me personally, they just get in the way, especially when they are flashy and annoying. If the host can't afford to provide without annoying it's visitors, it's time to close up shop, or get a clue.
Re:Must be closed (Score:4, Interesting)
Yup. You got it. But, again, they don't have to allow traffic on non-standard ports. They could decide that P2P clients / games were too bandwidth hungry, and there was no income coming in from them anyways, so just have the firewall drop all outbound connections to any port other then 80. In which case you would need a proxy that used port 80 to play games.
Sounds good to me (Score:2, Interesting)
Heck, it would probably be entertaining for a lot of people for my girlfriend. I think the thing that a lot of slashdotters forget is that not everyone puts all of their worth in their independent activist intelligence. Some people don't feel insulted by things like this, in fact, often times they are blessed in a way that many of us (including myself) could benefit from because they just ignore it.
I mean, really. Think about it. User goes out to favorite public park. Surfs the internet, chats with family back home, has to look at skippy peanut butter ad. I'd say it's a pretty fair trade.
Most likely implementation method... (Score:1, Interesting)
Implementation method: Refreshing authentication page, works like this:
And now, the way to avoid this kind of solutions: Create a (trivial) app to handle the login keepalive stuff. Even if some silly javascript is used this should be really trivial for those who know. Luckily for this business model the chances of Joe Average actually going for such extremes are non-existent as long as the implementation is mostly non-intrusive.
Re:Mod parent up (Score:3, Interesting)
Typically, the ads in PBS talk about something that actually interests me (while I don't like Ford automobiles and wouldn't buy one - I'm a Volkswagen gal - I found their mention of buses powered by propane - I think it was, anyway - interesting and worthy of following up by websearches sometime when I'm in the mood.) They are also not flashy and annoying like ads on regular TV are; they present their information usually with a narrator describing something (and closed captioning reprinting what he/she is saying; I'm hearing-impaired so I have it on all the time) and simple is sometimes better, or at least quite sufficient.
And I do want to hear about what big companies are doing to preserve the environment and at least try to put something other than profit first, even if it's just a miniscule part of what they do. While sometimes I think they're not doing enough, the fact that they're doing SOMEthing is a good thing and hopefully in the future more will follow, and these companies will continue to improve themselves in that regard.
My parents are a member of the local PBS station, too. So we are also supporting these great programs through direct donation.