- Do you love browsing the ‘net without adverts?
- Do you enjoy those faster loading pages?
- Does you company benefit from lower bandwidth costs without ads?
Blocking adverts could actually cost you money, or damage the web as we know it is today.
Ok, don’t take my word for it, Nicholas Carr wonders would Jesus block adverts with Adblock Plus?
As always a compelling read
If javascript based adverts get blocked, and possibly images, what are Google going to do?
16 Comments
There’s hardly any escaping adverts on the Web. “Thanks” to them we can use it free. The point is to weaken advert presence without damaging content. Quintura discovery engine sems to offer just it – you’ll see no adverts in SERPs but only relevant logos and favicons next to their tags.
without the adverts, it will be hard to find free services.
A nice article and a difficult question.
I serve ads on my sites, but I also use adblock when surfing. The way I look at it is that people who have gone to the trouble of hunting down a specific add-on, installing it and then using it to block ads wouldn’t have clicked on them anyway.
Before ad-block, I absolutely despised those sites filled with flashing, rotating banners etc. and would leave as soon as possible. Now I don’t see the ads, I stay, read and come back. I can say for a fact that there are some blogs I read, that I wouldn’t do without ad-block, simply because they frequently hang or take ages to load without it.
If ad-blocking software starts being pre-installed into browsers there may be an issue, but while it’s a matter of choice to find and install it, it’s not.
You don’t really have to try to find it – every time Firefox upgrades it is there on the list of recommendations.
Is it wrong to zip past adverts when I record a show on my Tivo or VCR? Of course not, its not my job to worry about the producer of the content. If you can’t find a way to make money off the people blocking your ads then your just a poor marketer.
He makes some good points I’d say.
Personally, I tried blocking ads for a bit, but I went back to normal view quickly.
I always want to know why and how I’m seeing the data on the page. The ads give me information about the site including, perhaps, the author’s motives, why I’m seeing what I’m seeing, how they pay for their time and space, etc.
Also, I get ideas about ad integration, layout, the latest trends and so forth.
I don’t block ads for the same reason that I don’t shoplift. I’m not some great moralist, though I think stealing is wrong, and I think ad-blocking is wrong. It’s an understanding of how the fragile web economics system works. If we all want to keep getting free stuff, being able to find cost-effective solutions, we’ve got to be willing to let the web pay for itself.
If I was still on dial-up that would be one thing. In that case, i understand why someone would want to block ads and/or images to surf at least temporarily. However, with the advancement of broadband’s availability, serving up the web without ads sounds a lot like stealing cable television to me.
Not to be a smart ass, but if you were starving, would shop lifting become okay??
Stealing is never okay no matter what the circumstance. America is the land of opportunity for all who go after it…
I’ve been alternating blocking and not blocking. When blocking, my goal is to find the programs that ABP doesn’t block!
My prediction: ABP won’t work fully in the long run. When ever possible, advertisers will go to some non-javascript method of delivering ads that disguises the ads from ABP. TextLink ads already delivers some with php. Others will do the same.
I’ve never blocked ads and never will, the amount of useful stuff I’ve found via adverts far out weighs the hassle of having to view them. I don’t find they intrude on my surfing.
I suppose it’s a bit like watching a TV program that you know is about a subject you don’t like and then complaining about it. I’d much rather have someone block out my ad than get upset because it was a blight on their existance..
There are many, many ways to monetize ones venture online. Inline ads on websites are only one choice a website owner has in order to try and financially support themselves. All one has to do is look at the phenomenon of businesses like SiteSell.com and all they promote for literally thousands and thousands of site owners to support themselves. In fact, anyone who owns a Site Build It! account knows the mantra of CTPM (Content>>Traffic>>Pre-sell>>Monetize) and that what is most stressed is NOT putting advertisements on your site until you have the traffic (generated by quality content).
The rest of my post here
How could you prevent users blocking the ads? It’s not possibile, it’s the users that form the Internet and they can do anything.
I am not sure about the technical side of it, but there is a high chance that someone will come up with a way of detecting ad blockers being used, allowing a content owner to switch off content.
Alternatively content producers will find other ways to monetise their content such as paid reviews, affiliate links etc, which currently can’t be blocked.
I always see adverts, they are sometimes annoying, but am prepared to put up with them, even click them occasionally when something show is interesting, and have purchased products advertised in adverts, even when I knew which affiliate program they were using.
@ James, no. I’ve actually been starving – not like poverty in America starving, but like kids in Ethopia starving. And I still didn’t shoplift.
I used the point of shop-lifting to say that though I think it’s wrong, that’s not the reason I don’t shop-lift, and to say that I’d show *mercy* to someone who did shoplift for hunger’s sake. IE, my reasons for not doing it aren’t moral, and my reasons for not judging people who do are based in compassion.
And next time, be a smart ass! Much more fun. :)
I don’t usually block ads but I don’t click either. I think I became immune to ads long time ago. The ad should be really interesting and intriguing to me to click it.
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[...] the recent controversy over blocking ads, I’ve been forced to ask myself some tough questions. As a reader, all I want is the content. [...]