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General discussion

The Rise of Ad Blocking Use With Internet Bowsers

Oct 2, 2013 3:13PM PDT

I was reading through forums on the internet and came across some interesting articles about this subject. There have been some lively debates regarding the effect ad blocking is having on internet based advertisers and how it is supposedly causing great harm to some businesses. Now for my two cents worth, feel free to leave yours as well if you want to discuss this rather than rant.

I see the rise in use of ad blocking technology largely as part of a growing movement that extends beyond the internet, I will explain. It's not so much that people 'hate' advertisements, though I'm sure some do. To me it's because of the sheer volume people face in daily life. There are advertisements on television, signs when you drive down the road, billboards on the freeway, commercials in movie theaters. Everywhere you turn you're bombarded by ads.

The internet is by and large one of the worst culprits in this area. You can hardly click a link to anything without being attacked by a host of blinking, flashing and sometimes even noisy ads. Some expand to take up the whole screen, others prevent you from navigating unless you close them. Because of this my belief is that part of the rise of ad blocking is the result of overly aggressive advertising that's up in your face.

This doesn't make people want to buy things, in fact I've even made it a point of not buying things from some of the most aggressive advertisers because their marketing scheme strategy offends me.

Then we have a whole host of security threats to consider. Drive-by downloads that try to drop .exe files onto your computer, many of which have malware, viruses and trojans designed to collect sensitive information and at times information that is even protected by law. Other companies sell your e-mail address over and over until some people have to start new e-mail accounts because they're receiving hundreds of spam letters a day, to the point it takes hours to sift through them to find anything that might be important.

Advertisement in the information technology world of today has reached a fever pitch and I believe people are getting sick of it. I've also gone onto browser game websites and clicked on ads that seemed like games only to have something download onto my computer and trip the virus guard. This proves to me that some gaming companies don't watchdog the ads they're displaying, shame on them.

Then you have download Russian Roulette. You click on a page to download something you're interested in and six different ads pop up with a download button. Again many with nasty surprises packaged into them, and people wonder why their sites are being ad blocked.

Other discussion groups and articles have also said that ad blockers are hurting legitimate business because their seeing a large decline in revenue due to ad blockers. Here are my views on how to avoid being excessive ad blocked.

1. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, diversify your income sources so that if one dries up your business doesn't go bust.

2. Watch what you advertise, don't just sign an agreement to advertise something and then splash it all over the page. If someone downloads malware/trojans/viruses from one of your ads expect them to come back with ad blockers, if at all.

3. Don't annoy people. You can't tailors ads not to annoy anyone, it's like the old saying goes. 'You can please some of them all of the time or all of them some of the time. But you can't please all of them all of the time'. Basically use common sense, if an ad has bright blinking lights and fast moving images it will probably be a pest to the majority of people. Most internet users are not idiots that need bright flashing signs to tell them something, don't treat them as such.

4. Don't use auto-play ads with audio/video on part of the page. This is distracting and highly aggravating. I've run into this at times and it annoys me to the point I avoid these products for this reason, take note.

5. Offer ad-free subscriptions. If more websites with large user bases offered this I think they would not only avoid a lot of ad blocking, they could open another revenue stream through paid memberships from people who simply want to avoid the ads on their favorite websites.

This is how I handle advertising and yes I use ad blockers. Normally I ad block most sites for security reasons, not that I'm out to hurt companies. Now I realize a lot of websites rely on advertising to keep the lights on and with sites I know to be safe and not filled with aggressive advertising, I turn my ad blocker off. This is so that even if I ignore the ads, as I often do, those that make money simply from the ad displaying on the page don't lose out.

I think that in large part if advertising companies weren't so aggressive, and some vendors didn't fill 90% of their page with annoying ads they never bothered to screen for malware, there wouldn't be a rise in ad blocking technology.

Discussion is locked

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And then there's the AdTrap.
Oct 2, 2013 3:40PM PDT
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(NT) Huh? What does that mean?
Oct 19, 2013 3:04AM PDT
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It can be confusing for new members so read more
Oct 20, 2013 2:31AM PDT

Or try the software like AdBlock+ or similar.

I got the idea the poster had tried such and wanted to share something different.
Bob

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I use the Hosts file
Oct 5, 2013 6:55AM PDT

nothing more needed really. Keep link to it on my desktop. I also doubt they know if an ad displayed or not when a page is accessed, although maybe third party ads would if they checked bandwidth against hits on ads. If a lot of hits but not enough bandwidth on the ad, then it would mean someone isn't seeing the ad. I doubt they have it that well defined.

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I believe it is that well defined
Oct 5, 2013 7:13AM PDT

I was recently with a friend that uses "those" sites to watch movies that others have downloaded. When she accessed certain providers, a popup stated " This site is maintained through paid advertisements. Please Allow Ad Block to see these ads. You're download time will be slower due to blocked ads" or something similar to that effect...Digger

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good to know
Oct 5, 2013 11:03PM PDT

I have had some pages keep trying to load something and come in slower due to that, so must be why. Hosts file doesn't really block anything so much as it misdirects the request, so I don't know if that would be the same as Blocking.

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Another reason
Oct 19, 2013 2:49AM PDT

Another reason I block ads, and don't buy from companies with excessive advertising is that *their* cost for those ads makes the price of whatever it is they're advertising go up *for me.*

Also, ever since I started blocking I have experienced *fewer* migraines. Yes, some were triggered by incessantly flashing and blinking ads! Too bad if I end up hurting some small company in the process. At least I'm helping *me.*

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I am using adguard - adblock to help myself!
Mar 24, 2014 8:13AM PDT

Like you, I am also helping myself with the help of adguard - adblock (http://adguard.com/en/extension.html) to kick-off all the unwanted ads I don't want to see on my screen. Since I am using it currently, I noticed that it's pretty light and does the job well than others around. Did you also try it?