Ad blocking has grown 41% in the past year and it's costing publishers tens of billions of dollars

The number of consumers using ad blocking software worldwide has increased 41% year-on-year to 198 million monthly active users, according to a report published Monday by PageFair and Adobe. While that figure may only represent 6% of the global web population, ad blocking is expected to cost publishers more than $21.8 billion in 2015 in lost revenue. That represents 14% of global ad spend. By 2016, PageFair and Adobe predict the global cost of ad blocking to rise to $41.4 billion. This chart, which chronicles ad blocking growth from 2009 shows how ad blocker use really started to accelerate from 2013. And while the 41% increase this year was down on the near 70% growth PageFair and Adobe reported between 2013 and 2014, it's nevertheless a worrying trend for publishers. Dr Johnny Ryan, PageFair's head of ecosystem, told Business Insider: "Ad blocking has grown virally along a classic s-curve to 50+ million ad blocking users at the end of 2012, and onward to 198 million at the end of Q2 2015. This viral growth, and the climb up the curve you describe, is explained by our findings in last year's 2014 report (page nine) that the majority of ad block users find out about ad blocking by word of mouth and through their own online research. Ad blocking is a viral phenomenon that will continue." The rate of ad blocking varies country by country. The US has an estimate 45 million monthly active ad block users, up 48% year-on-year. Across Europe, 35% of the internet population (77 million users) used an ad blocker at least once a month. Greece has the highest rate of ad block usage in Europe, with 36.7% of internet users in the country using ad block software. As per previous research in this area, PageFair and Adobe found that ad block users are typically, young, technically savvy, and more likely to be male. Here are the types of websites affected most by ad blocking. Right now, ad blocking almost always happens via desktop computers, even though 38% of web browsing happens n mobile. Just 1.6% of ad block traffic on the PageFair network was from mobile devices But ad blocking on mobile could soon become a mainstream phenomena. Apple's developer documents for its new mobile operating system iOS9, revealed it will for the first time allow app makers to develop ad blocking software for iPhones and iPads.  PageFair and Adobe say this could be a "game changer." Apple's Safari mobile browser represents 52% of mobile browsing and 14% of total web browsing. By making it easier to download ad blocking software, ad block usage could soar when iOS9 becomes available in the fall. However, as ad tech company Criteo's president and COO Eric Eichmann pointed out last week, users will still need to manually download the "obscure" software themselves, meaning the iOS9 update might not be as big and immediate a catalyst as feared. As part of their report, PageFair and Adobe surveyed 400 people in the US about the reasons they might start or have started using ad blockers. Of those who are currently not using ad blocking extensions, the misuse of personal information by advertisers and publishers was the primary reason that would convince them to change their mind. Surprisingly, using an ad blocker to improve the speed and performance of web pages was not listed as one of the responses in the report. In a survey of British internet users conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau UK earlier this year, 54% of respondents said they block ads because they slow down web browsing. But PageFair's Ryan said performance is not as much of a key motivator as some people might think. Just 8% of respondents in PageFair and Adobe's report last year cited performance as their main reason for installing an ad blocker. PageFair has been tracking the growth of ad blocking for three years, and measures more than a billion ad blocking hits each month across its 3,000+ clients' websites. The company provides publishers with analytics to measure how many of their visitors are blocking ads and a system that displays "adblock-friendly" ads to ad block users.adSEE ALSO: Apple seems ready to let iPhone users block all ads they see on the web — which will really hurt publishers Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Meet the real people who want Donald Trump to be president

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New Tablet and Smartphone Apps for Greek Museums

The Greek Culture Ministry in cooperation with the Simon Fraser University’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies in Canada are launching new apps for smartphones and tablets that can be used by demanding audiences during their visit to museums and other cultural venues in Greece. According to the Greek Ministry, the launch of these new apps, that will be available

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Google spearheads an industry group to help developers build web apps the Google way

Today, Google announced that it's turned over one of its key technologies to a new industry consortium — the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, an industry association dedicated to helping developers build web apps the way the big companies do.  The Cloud Native Computing Foundation, or CNCF, is housed under the Linux Foundation, with a membership roster that includes companies like Twitter, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and Goldman Sachs, among others. The basic idea is that, over the years, big companies like Google have gotten really good at "achieving very efficient deployment, development, and scalability" of applications running on the modern web, says Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. The industry term "cloud native" itself speaks to the mission of the foundation: It's the current favored buzzword for applications that are designed to run on a cloud computing infrastructure, like Amazon's giant cloud, or Google's own. The benefit is that these apps are intended to be reliably run at the huge scales demanded by a mobile-dominated, data-driven world. "This has happened inside tech giants, I think it'll happen inside enterprises," says Google Product Manager Craig McLuckie. This discussion all comes back to what we call "containers," a super-hot technology that Google's been using for the better part of a decade. Containers make it super-easy to package up a bunch of code into a metaphorical box (a container, get it?) so that it can run on any computing infrastructure, anywhere.  Google put these containers to good use early on in its corporate lifetime, and figured out all kinds of tricks and built all kinds of tools to use them as the "plumbing" behind its search advertising empire.  More recently, a startup called Docker (also a member of the CNCF), rumored to be valued at $1 billion, released its own container technology, making that kind of technological wizardry more accessible to the masses. Suddenly, everybody in enterprise technology was talking about doing things the Google way with containers, working towards getting their applications up to Google's size and Google's speed. To meet the growing demand, Google released a piece of free software called Kubernetes (from Greek, meaning "pilot" or "helmsman"), based on its own internal container management code, to help people solve the same problems that Google had done years before. And as an "open source" software project, Kubernetes was free for anybody around the world to contribute code. Kubernetes was a hit with web companies like Box and Zulill, which use it to run their apps more efficiently. Meanwhile, back in June, Google and Docker, among many others, joined the Open Container Foundation, a group to define a container standard. As part of its OSCON announcements today, Google announced that Kubernetes hit the Version 1.0 milestone, with 400 contributors adding code, meaning that it's ready for enterprises to use it for their production applications. CoreOS, a Google-backed startup that joined the CNCF as well, also announced a paid preview of its Tectonic service, which takes Kubernetes and makes it easier for businesses to use. To get the new foundation off the ground, Google is actually handing over the Kubernetes code to the CNAF for them to manage and maintain. Using Kubernetes as a "seed," the CNAF has a mandate to build more technologies that make it easier to build and manage web-scale applications.   "Efforts designed to simplify and improve the overall developer experience, such as the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, are a great step forward," says Cisco CTO and Chief Architect Dave Ward. Google's turning over Kubernetes is a "subtle" but "important" move, notes CoreOS CEO Alex Polvi: It's a show of good faith that the Internet search giant doesn't want to exert an unfair amount of influence over the standards it's working to define. Still, it's notable that Amazon and Microsoft are not members of this new CNCF -- so the announcement could be interpreted as Google trying to make its own Google Cloud Platform the cloud of choice for the discerning developer by enlisting the help and expertise of a who's who of tech players.SEE ALSO: The 'ugly' truth about what Microsoft has to do to sway Wall Street Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Scientists are astonished by these Goby fish that can climb 300-foot waterfalls

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Greek App Shows Which ATMs Have Cash During Capital Controls

A new mobile app was released on Thursday, informing Greeks which ATMs are convenient to them, if they have available cash at the moment and if they dispense 50 or the now scarce 20 euro bills. Dimitris Chatzieleftheriou, who developed the application along with Haris Spentzas and Christos Kritikos, explained: “Our idea had come from the very first days of capital controls. It was not technically difficult and took us one or two days to develop. The most demanding part was to find all ATMs in Greece and register them.” The application is relatively simple and is based on the feedback of users themselves. “With two clicks you can update all application users that there is money in the machine and if it has 20 euro banknotes or just 50 euro banknotes,” said Chatzileftheriou. The user can find out information such as “the specific ATM had 20 euro notes 15 minutes ago.” The application is available on the Android platform only. “Apple’s App Store requires a few more days to get approval and uploading,” Chatzieleftheriou added.

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Google is years ahead when it comes to the cloud, but it's happy the world is catching up

At this week's DockerCon in San Francisco, about 2,500 developers and engineers gathered to discuss software containers — a much-beloved technology made popular by hot, billion-dollar startup Docker.  Developers love software containers becuase they let you write an application once and run it anywhere, from your laptop all the way up to a big public cloud like Google's, without needing to change a single line of code. It's simple and powerful, and makes it easy for coders to be productive without worrying about the servers they're running on. In fact, software containers are such a good idea that Google has put them to use for the better part of a decade behind the scenes to run literally every piece of its own websites. As of last year, Google makes two billion new containers a week, as reported by The Register. That's because, while Docker may have made the idea of containers easy for average developers to use, a more basic version has been a feature of the Linux operating system for servers for many years. Google developed containers out to suit its own needs early on in its corporate lifespan, and has been building on the concept ever since.  Playing the movie "We often say 'we're playing the movie,'" says Google Senior Staff Software Engineer Brendan Burns. In other words, everything going on with Docker and software containers right now is something Google has dealt with itself, one way or another.  Almost exactly a year ago, Google released Kubernetes (Greek for "Pilot" or "Helmsman"), a piece of free software for managing containers of which Burns led the development. It was designed to take a lot (but not all) of the stuff that Google uses to wrangle its own container usage and package it up in a way that developers could take advantage of with Docker.  Kubernetes has made Google kind of a rockstar in the Docker world — one of the world's largest technology companies is offering tools and expertise to help developers crest a growing wave. That love has encouraged Google developers on to keep engaged with the Docker community, Burns says. "So many people at Google never get to talk about what they do," Burns says, but Kubernetes has thrust a lot of the back-end stuff that never gets any glory straight into the spotlight.  In fact, right before our conversation started, a random DockerCon attendee wanted to take a selfie with Burns (he acknowledged it was weird, but guessed that there was a scavenger hunt going on for DockerCon on-stage speakers). From a more mercenary standpoint, Burns says his job is "to sell data centers." Kubernetes and the Google Container Engine service, which takes Kubernetes and automates a lot of it for heavy-duty business users, launched into beta at DockerCon this week. Those are big features to draw users to the Google Cloud Platform, where customers can swipe a credit card and get access to huge amounts of computing power hosted from Google's big old data centers.  Down from the mountain At the same time, Burns says that the last thing he wants to do is come to conferences like DockerCon and tell developers the best way to take advantage of containers. After all, most Docker users are approaching a completely different set of problems, and Google is willing to learn.  "We don't have all the answers," Burns says. "We did it one way, but that doesn't mean it's the right way."  At Google, Burns says, building software is an internal affair. If, on the backend, a Google developer is having an issue with a database or web server not running quite right, you have to call the person in the company who developed that service in the first place and get them to fix it. It's all Google stuff talking to other Google stuff behind the scenes, Burns says. Outside of Google, though, apps are built from a lot of moving parts that can come from many different vendors. One part of the app might use a MySQL database, and another might use a Redis database, and the way they "talk" to the main app can be totally different from each other. "The way the world builds applications is different from how Google builds applications," Burns says.  Burns describes this as a very classic Google sort of problem: The mismatch between how Google likes to do things and how the rest of the world likes to do things. He cites an anecdote of how internally, Google loves long, drawn out Gmail conversation threads that can go into the "hundreds." But according to Burns, the Gmail team found that the average thread length outside of Google is just over one single, solitary message. In short, Google has a lot to learn from watching how people use technology in production.   Google thinks you'll pick its cloud Docker and other software containers have this huge potential to upend the cloud market. Since your code can run anywhere, there's nothing stopping you from picking it up from one cloud vendor and dropping it elsewhere. Even Google's Kubernetes, which again is free software, can be run in competing clouds at the developer's whim. That's not really a problem for Google, though. Burns says that with its container know-how, and everything it's learned by being a part of the community, Google Cloud Platform will be the best place to run these Docker containers — even as competitors like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure look to include container support on their own platforms.  "Running those things on the Google Cloud just makes more sense," Burns says.  Still, Docker is a fast-growing startup and a fast-growing technology, and Burns says that even if he's seen this movie before, there are still plenty of twists and turns to come.  "I don't know the ending this time," Burns says. SEE ALSO: Two simple reasons IBM loves free software Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here are all of Google's awesome science projects — that we know about

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Patras University Student Develops Eye-Typing Technology App

The University of Patras in Greece has once again been put under the spotlight, thanks to Evangelos Skodras’ double distinction for the development of EyeType. Skodras is a PhD student at the Wire Communications Laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras. Skodras developed an Android app called EyeType that gives the user the possibility to control what is typed on the device’s keyboard with his eyes, by recording the person’s eye movement. This is a real innovation in the field that will enable people suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), LIS syndrome (Locked-In Syndrome) or quadriplegia – who are only able to move their eyes – to communicate by using a smartphone or tablet. The PhD student has received two international awards in 2015 for the app, from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the European Association of Students of Electrical Engineering (EESTEC). At the EESTEC competition, EyeType took home the innovation award. The category included a total of 51 Android apps submitted by 717 researchers from 54 countries.

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Corfu School Students Create Innovative App to Help Other Children

Fifty secondary school students from Corfu, Greece, motivated by the idea of helping children with special needs, worked hard to create an innovative mobile phone application. The app allows children in trouble or panic to contact their family with just two moves. The application, called Never Lost, was created as a useful tool for all children and answers some questions that a child may have when lost, or found in an emergency situation, such as “Who am I? I’m lost. How can I get help? How can I let my parents know where I am? How can I find out where I am?” The idea was born at the Amfipagiton middle school, in northern Corfu. However, the students had to work with older students from the high school in Kato Korakiana and the 2nd and 4th high schools of Corfu, since their programming knowledge was limited. Amfipagiton computer science teacher Sotiris Fotiou explained how easily a child gets help immediately using the innovative application. “When you open the application, you can see 6 large buttons. The first is ‘Call,’ while the others are ‘Send message,’ ‘see your position,’ ‘send your position,’ ‘send a map of your position.’ When the user presses the call button, the phone automatically calls the person’s parents. If the user presses the send message button, it will automatically send a pre-written message that reads: ‘I am lost.’ When in trouble, the user can press the position button and a map will automatically appear at the child’s parents’ phones,” said Fotiou. Furthermore, the teacher added that the students were excited to work on the project. They collaborated via Skype and they also visited the other schools along with their teachers. When the application was completed, it was uploaded on the internet and it can be downloaded for free. The application is useful for all children, given that they are using a mobile phone, but even for the elderly. Three weeks ago, it was presented at a computer conference in Kastoria, northern Greece, where it attracted much interest both from within the country and abroad.

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Quizdom: A Greek Smartphone Knowledge Game App

Quizdom is a new Greek smartphone app game that has managed to get more than 800,000 downloads in less than nine months. The popular knowledge game is quite simple to operate. First Android and IOS users need to download the free app on their smartphone and create an account. After the first steps are complete, the app users can choose an opponent either from their friends list (through e-mail, Viber or Facebook), or from the thousands of other Quizdom users. After choosing an opponent, the player has to choose 2 out of the 16 question categories (Sports, Celebrities, History, Geography, Politics, Cinema, Music, Health, Games, Religion, Business, Arts, 20th Century, Science, Language and Food). To win the player must answer correctly and quickly to 16 questions from 4 different categories (2 selected by each player). In case of a tie, the fastest player wins. The game also gives players the ability to communicate via chat with their opponent, but also submit their own questions, contributing to game’s updates. The app creators, Triantafullos Xylouris, Nikolas Georgoudelis, Panayiotis Vourtsis and Pantelis gave an interview to the Greek newspaper Eleftheros Typos where they explained that some Greeks spend up to 8 hours a day in front of their smartphone screens answering the games 30 million questions. The reason that the game became so popular so fast is because, according to its creators, it combines the elements of competition, socialization and entertainment, since it enables users to expand their knowledge and play with friends, or to make new ones.

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New app tracks Greek life studying

Previously, the process of logging study hours for those in greek life was tedious, but now, there's an app for that. My Greek Study is an application that ...

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30-Year-Old Computer Engineer from Corfu Tackles ‘Fake Facebook’

His aim is to tackle as many of the 81 million fake facebook profiles as possible, that most users have encountered at least once. The 30-year-old computer engineer from Corfu, Giorgos Delaportas, who created the unique program that automatically examines and classifies a profile as ”fake” within less than two seconds, explains to Greek Reporter what led him to the creation of ”FAKE FB – Fake Profile Examiner” and underlines the dangers hidden behind model-like profile photos that are simply… unreal. ”It was a while ago when I got fed up of repeatedly declining friend requests from fake users. Starting from annoying electronic hawkers, people hidden behind made up names and stolen photos can go far beyond that, to stealing personal information or blackmailing. Every time I was clicking ‘ignore’ I was thinking that there does not exist a program that could instantly classify the requests for me, before even accepting them. Two months after I got the last request from such a profile, ‘FAKE FB’ was finally developed,” Μr. Delaportas says. Its installation as well as its use is simple, while the only condition is the use of Google Chrome as a web browser. To download it users can visit the Chrome Web Store where it is available for free, following three simple steps: Click on the blue ”installation” button, press ”OK” to agree with terms and conditions and the shortcut will appear on Chrome, restart the browser and ”FAKE FB” is ready to use. ”The program uses advanced A.I mechanisms and several metrics to examine profiles that look suspicious. It is so simple that it almost feels like magic,” explains Μr. Delaportas, adding that ”according to facebook official stats, there are at least one billion active users. It is impossible to figure out the purpose of each one of the strangers that might interact with you. Underage users are vulnerable out there and can easily become an easy ‘catch.’ One of the main reasons ‘FAKE FB’ was developed is to protect children, while it is impossible for parents to control every cyber step they take. In any case, younger users can now use the program to check if they should accept or decline friend requests from people they do not know.” Being available for almost three months, ”FAKE FB” has managed to attract more than 550 users and Μr. Delaportas remains confident that this gap in users’ personal life protection will lead the program to success. ”I could not believe that there was not a single program for such a usual problem that all facebook users have to deal with from time to time,” he concludes.

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Transport: ride-sharing Uber Taxi app takes off in Greece

(ANSAmed) - ATHENS, DECEMBER 4 - An innovative peer-to-peer application that gives smartphone owners the chance to hire a taxi through their ...

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Greek App ‘Togethera’ In Apple’s Top 10

A Greek software developer’s idea has reached Apple’s top ten list of best applications. The application, named “Togethera,” launched by Sokrates Papafloratos who lives in London, UK, was picked among new applications proposed by developers from ...

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App connects Greek life members

Dentity, an app that essentially redesigns phone contact books, is reinventing and streamlining the process of exchanging contact information.

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Content Analysis App For Pretentiousness: Use The Latin-O-Meter To Test Yourself

Professor Mary DeForest, at first glance, seems to be an unlikely person to have invented a content analysis app. She earned a PhD in Greek and Latin pre-internet,  and is currently a Latin instructor at the University of Colorado in Denver; however, it makes more sense when you find out that [...]

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