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A comment on Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering. Parent comment

Re:Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering by ehnto on Thursday May 13, 2021 @03:33AM (#27139399)
Your previous comment doesn't explain a reason why it would be unlikely, just that it isn't. The reason it's currently unlikely is because ad-networks need to validate their views. Because you can ad-block on HTML alone, it isn't worth it to risk webmasters falsifying serverside views in order to try and get around ad-blockers because it wouldn't work. But add the ability to get around ad-blockers entirely and it becomes worth it to solve for server-side view validation.

This is the landscape as I see it:

HTML, ads loaded by user network: Can be blocked at network or in HTML.

Binary blob, ads loaded by user network: Can be blocked at network level

Serverside ads, HTML : Can be blocked by removing the ads in the HTML, and ad-networks don't like it because their views can't be validated and they could be scammed by webmasters.

Serverside ads, binary blob: Can not be blocked by network or by hiding things in the HTML, ad-networks and webmasters would want this because they can get around ad-blockers, but will need to solve view validation, the tradeoff becomes worth it.

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Re:Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering by pdkl95 on Thursday May 13, 2021 @04:33PM (#27147048)
> The reason it's currently unlikely is because ad-networks need to validate their views.

Ad-networks also want to validate views because they don't trust the hosting website. They don't need to trust the hosting website's server when they can receive a direct connection from the client.

However, there is an alternative that fits "serverside ads, binary blob" scenario: the ad-network hosts the website. Obviously the website owner wouldn't want to turn over control to the ad-network, but they don't get a choice when they depend on the ad-network for revenue. Even worse: this isn't a hypothetical concern. Google already tried to implement ad-network hosted websites with "AMP".

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