I think there might be some misunderstanding here so I'll try to be more specific:
I did mention network level blocking in the article but just didn't have enough space to cover all the details regarding how it works in apps. This is why I used the word "mostly" for those apps. Even network blocks can be overcome though when using closed platform apps like Apple News which runs it's own iAds over the same secure backend. However, thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely strive to make things clearer in future content.
As far as network blocking, my comments were regarding 2 issues: how widespread this type of blocking is and how in-depth the blocking will occur.
I do agree that it will increase in usage but as soon as it gets to any major sized organization, the issues of net neutrality/censorship might come up which is why I think it will remain used by individuals with home networks and small businesses rather than large enterprises and network carriers. Considering the use of adblockers is almost perfectly correlated to the ease of installation, I just don't see widespread adoption here of router/network level blocking given the expertise and effort required. Even if the entire HN audience uses it, that's negligible part of the entire online audience.
In regards to the blocking depth, network blocking still works the same as most blocking does now, by using domain/dns block lists. This opens up the possibility for embedded advertising content to come through and while I understand that HTML can be parsed and edited, it's a far more challenging to implement and maintain that kind of filtering reliably. Domain block lists also remove the vast majority of ads so going further in page processing is what I meant as very diminishing returns for the amount of effort involved.
I did mention network level blocking in the article but just didn't have enough space to cover all the details regarding how it works in apps. This is why I used the word "mostly" for those apps. Even network blocks can be overcome though when using closed platform apps like Apple News which runs it's own iAds over the same secure backend. However, thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely strive to make things clearer in future content.
As far as network blocking, my comments were regarding 2 issues: how widespread this type of blocking is and how in-depth the blocking will occur.
I do agree that it will increase in usage but as soon as it gets to any major sized organization, the issues of net neutrality/censorship might come up which is why I think it will remain used by individuals with home networks and small businesses rather than large enterprises and network carriers. Considering the use of adblockers is almost perfectly correlated to the ease of installation, I just don't see widespread adoption here of router/network level blocking given the expertise and effort required. Even if the entire HN audience uses it, that's negligible part of the entire online audience.
In regards to the blocking depth, network blocking still works the same as most blocking does now, by using domain/dns block lists. This opens up the possibility for embedded advertising content to come through and while I understand that HTML can be parsed and edited, it's a far more challenging to implement and maintain that kind of filtering reliably. Domain block lists also remove the vast majority of ads so going further in page processing is what I meant as very diminishing returns for the amount of effort involved.