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Comment by stevenh | Hacker News Reader

The only reason Apple didn't bake an ad blocker into iOS themselves is because they didn't want to get into legal trouble for what is obviously anticompetitive behavior toward Google (AdSense). They instead encouraged devs to be the patsies for the damage this will do, and they boosted these devs' blockers to #1 in their app store so everyone would see them and download them.

Spare me any preposterous claims of corporate altruism; this wasn't enabled and encouraged by Apple to reduce page load times on the web. If Apple had their way, the web wouldn't even exist anymore.

It's been transparently obvious for years that Apple would like to replace the web with their own walled garden app ecosystem. Apple would also like to replace web ad networks such as AdSense with their iAd network. This is what we are seeing unfold currently. Their News app with its unblockable iAds is another tentacle of this plan.

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> If Apple had their way, the web wouldn't even exist anymore.

Apple certainly doesn't run any web technology—they don't have skin in the web-app game like Google and Microsoft and Amazon do. (They have a web store, but on iOS it heavily suggests its native-app equivalent.)

But that doesn't mean they want their users to not use the web. Web-browsing is a feature; Apple invested a lot of energy into WebKit for a reason.

Apple just don't give a damn about the supply side of the web; they don't care if they kill every web business in the process of giving users the best web-browsing experience possible.

I have high confidence that if Apple could integrate something like e.g. Tor into Mobile Safari without a latency hit, they'd jump at the chance. Better privacy for their users! Breaks analytics and ad targeting? Who cares?

>giving users the best web-browsing experience possible

Do you really believe this is Apples paramount motivation? The only reason this is acceptable is exactly because they have nothing to lose, only everything to gain by hurting competitors that rely on advertising revenue. Ask yourself this -- if apple iAds was wildly successful would they be taking the same action? To ensure the "best web-browsing experience possible"?

> Better privacy for their users! Breaks analytics and ad targeting? Who cares?

Maybe companies that generate revenue using these tactics? Again if this was Apples bread and butter they wouldn't be implementing any security measures might interfere with their bottom line, user experience would surely be taking a back seat to profit.

> Ask yourself this -- if apple iAds was wildly successful would they be taking the same action?

iAds was only ever an offensive against Google. "Success" to Apple is Google losing ad revenue, so you might say that the content blocking extensions will do the job iAds was meant to.

Exactly. Apple isn't just promoting ad blocking for purely benevolent reasons i.e "for the best web-browsing experience possible" - they obviously have other motivations.

Why would a publically-traded company do anything for purely benevolent reasons? Their investors would sue them.

"Providing the best web-browsing experience possible" isn't a benevolent act, anyway. Another way to say it is "making the most appealing-to-use software so your customers will buy your device instead of someone else's." Providing a better web-browsing experience makes Apple money.

> Maybe companies that generate revenue using these tactics?

Well, yeah, that's what I meant. The thing saying "Who cares?" is Apple, because they have nothing to lose by doing so.

I don't disagree that Apple is a profit-driven company; I'm saying that the way they approach the web in particular is solely as a manufacturer of hardware that ships with software including a web browser, which puts them in a unique position to offer software that does what customers want even where doing so "hurts the web."

> Ask yourself this -- if apple iAds was wildly successful would they be taking the same action?

News.ipa effectively replaces web ads with iAds. And, of course, they won't let you block them. Like I said, it's just the web.

> Maybe companies that generate revenue using these tactics? Again if this was Apples bread and butter they wouldn't be implementing any security measures might interfere with their bottom line, user experience would surely be taking a back seat to profit.

Well, OK, but this is a counterfactual that isn't very illuminating.

> Maybe companies that generate revenue using these tactics?

Those companies have had roughly two decades to get their shit together and enforce non-invasive ads. If they can't manage basic quality standards, fuck 'em.

It's just as easy to think of a non-sinister explanation for adding it.

In iOS 8, Apple added sandboxed extensions support. So, they go around to each team and ask "What extensions would people using your part of the OS want?" Core OS said "custom keyboards". Photos said "editing right from the photos app/other apps". Safari looked at what extensions are popular on the desktop - #1 is Ad blockers. Easy choice.

> Apple certainly doesn't run any web technology—they don't have skin in the web-app game like Google and Microsoft and Amazon do

What about Apple's web versions of its iCloud services: Mail, Notes, Find my iPhone; plus Pages, Numbers and Keynote which are full featured web applications.

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