Started by Dmitri Kuznetsov (@dmitri_k) ·
the 'one weird trick' ad grid has a name: the chumbox
The 'Around the Web' boxes with a weird skin close-up, an old celebrity, and a doctor who hates this one trick. Turns out there's a name and a whole taxonomy for them.
6 sources · 27 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- What's that grid of weird ads at the bottom of every news article?
- Ended at
- Native advertising
The Trail
- “what are those ad grids at the bottom of news sites called” (google.com)
- Chumbox (en.wikipedia.org)
from 'chum', fish bait thrown in the water
- Clickbait (en.wikipedia.org)
- Taboola (en.wikipedia.org)
- Outbrain (en.wikipedia.org)
- Native advertising (en.wikipedia.org)
What I came away with
The term was popularized by a 2015 article in The Awl that sorted the recurring images into categories. In the early 2010s Outbrain and Taboola became the main providers, and news sites keep running them because they're a reliable source of revenue.
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