Web-only still bought browser games
environments=['web'] held. app_agg rows were 0. The flight still bought worldofsolitaire.com, wheelofnames.com, and tftcomps.gg.
Published 2026-09-09 · Search job: web vs in-app inventory quality
Web versus in-app is a channel split, not a quality filter. On the Supply Bench flights we set environments=['web'] and it held: app_agg returned zero rows. The same pull still bought worldofsolitaire.com, wheelofnames.com, and tftcomps.gg. Those hosts are browser games and toys. They are web. They are also three of the seven domains that produced 41.3 percent of clicks from 4.7 percent of impressions.
If you are asking whether switching a remnant buy to web-only will clean it up, this flight says no. The environment flag did what it claims. It did not do what buyers hope.
What the flag actually did
environments=['web'] is an eligibility rule. It kept in-app inventory out of the report. Zero app_agg rows is the proof the compiler honored the request. That is a successful targeting check. It is not a quality outcome.
The domain view still contained:
wheelofnames.comat 2.29 percent CTRtftcomps.ggat 2.17 percent CTRworldofsolitaire.comat 1.10 percent CTR
The flight average was about 0.28 percent. Each of those hosts clicked several times the average, on web, inside an authorized-heavy buy. They sit in the same seven-domain table as people.com at 15.97 percent and msn.com at 5.35 percent. The writeup of that table is Seven domains produced two fifths of the clicks.
Why web-only feels like a quality move
In-app remnant has a reputation for accidental taps and rewarded traffic. Restricting to web looks like removing that class. Browser games recreate the same mechanic in a desktop or mobile browser: a toy page, a repeating unit, a click that is cheap to mint. The environment module never promised to exclude toys. It promised to exclude apps.
We will not claim these three hosts are invalid traffic. We had no IVT add-on. We will claim they are web inventory we did not intend to buy, discovered after the flight, and that the environment flag could not have named them in advance. Scan then exclude is the rule that follows.
What we do next
Domain exclusions on this seat still need list objects. Placement and site do not. If a game host is reachable as a placement or site key, that is the grain we can act on today. If it is only a hostname, it is an honest product limit until reference lists exist. See Placement vs site vs domain and Domain waste after we filter exchanges.
Do not add a second environment value and call it a cleanup. The web flag already held. The leftover problem is inside web.