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Bynamite is a beautiful service that tries to help you get more relevant ads
One thing that I can say about Bynamite is that it looks slick. It's a service that purports to let you easily opt out of over 100 ad networks and specify what interests you (and what doesn't) so that you can get better targeted advertising.
It's not an ad blocker. It's a browser add-on for Firefox and Chrome that's coupled with a website. Once you install the add-on, it crunches for a while (you see a progress bar), and then you're presented with whatever fields of interest the tool found for you (i.e., interests that advertisers have mapped out for you without your knowledge). For my Chrome Canary installation, it found nothing, which makes sense (it's my "test" browser). I then tried it with my actual Firefox installation, and it came up with four interests; that's not a lot, but they all are relevant. Maybe it only came up with four because I used Adblock? How many did you guys get?
You can add interests and remove any interests that are inaccurate. According to their FAQ, Bynamite then "manages your opt-out preferences across over a hundred ad networks." What's unclear to me is how they do this. Do they accomplish it by setting a bunch of cookies?
You don't have to open an account, and they don't take your email address or any other identifiable information. So, I suspect that's the way it works.
All in all, the service feels solid. It lets you keep ads on but make them less annoying. This way, everybody wins, and the Internet stays free (as in beer). That's the premise, at least. What do you guys think?
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsginsuAug 9th 2010 7:07PM
Hey thanks for taking a look - I'm one of the Bynamite founders. I can try to answer some of your questions.
If you didn't have many interests, it's probably not due to AdBlock, but some other software or setting that clears cookies. For example, if you clear cookies every time you close your browser, the ad nets will lose your interests. If you have your browser set to block 3rd party cookies, you won't have any interests.
As you pointed out, we're not an ad blocker, but a service that tries to make a more direct bargain with ad networks for you, starting with the bargain that you should be in control. Lots of talk about this on our blog, http://bynamite.com/blog
As for how we opt you out of ad networks that don't give you control: we set the opt out cookie for their service - so yes, it's more cookies, but it's a cookie that tells them they can't use your information. Feel free to send us feedback anytime, info@bynamite.com, or http://feedback.bynamite.com - Thanks!
zahid6120Aug 26th 2010 9:28AM
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teqjackAug 10th 2010 2:50AM
OK for some, but I do not want this or old-school "relevance" advert filtering.
Look, I cannot afford a new car. But I occasionally lok at car sites. That does NOT mean I want adverts for car insurance, dealers, auto parts stores, auto service...
Random, please. I occasionally see adverts for stuff I never heard of before, and find of interest.
This is why I delete cookies and other history.