Dave Anderson left a comment in the forums yesterday letting me know that the forum sponsors are being blocked by AdBlock Plus, a firefox extension which lets users block website advertisements.
Ad blockers have been around for years and I have participated in many discussions regarding the issue in the past. Dave’s comment got me thinking about the whole thing once again so I thought it would be good to open up the discussion to you guys and see what you all think about it.
Why does this concern bloggers?
Ad blockers allow users to block the majority of flash and banner advertisements on a website. From the users perspective this is a good thing as bandwidth is reduced and the content is not squeezed between several banner ads. From a webmasters point of view, ad blockers remove all advertisements from your website therefore your monthly revenue is decreased. Advertisers which purchase ad space at a fixed rate will also lose out because their banner is displayed less often.
This is why many webmasters are very unhappy about the increase in popularity of ad blockers. For example, AdBlock Plus is the 3rd most popular FireFox add on with close to 300,000 downloads per week. Clearly there are a lot of ads being blocked.
My Opinion
I’m in two minds about this whole issue. As an internet user, I can see why people use these scripts. Some websites have a ridiculous amount of banner advertisments including pop unders, pop ups, interstitials etc, and because of this the general browsing experience is poor. Wladimir Palant, creator of Adblock Plus, said last year :
Why does everybody who puts up a site on the Internet assume that making users watch as many ads as possible is the best business strategy?” Palant wrote. “It isn’t Mozilla who is pushing Adblock Plus into mainstream — you [Web-site operators] are.
Also, if your ISP has set a bandwidth limit on your internet connection, blocking banner ads would mean that your bandwidth is greatly reduced.
Although I can understand why users use ad blocking scripts, as a webmaster whose livelihood depends on the advertisements on my websites, I am unhappy that some users can bypass my banners and reduce my income. Many webmasters agree. Last year Jack Lewis made the decision to redirect all FireFox users to a website called Why FireFox is Banned (site no longer explains why users were banned from viewing his site). The owner, Danny Carlton, explained that because he can’t block only the Firefox users that have the extension installed, he’s blocking all Firefox users since it’s “the only alternative”. Most webmasters probably do not feel as strongly as Danny as does about ad blockers however I know many don’t like the idea of losing money because their users are accessing their content without banner ads.
I do think that if a browser in the future comes with an advert blocking option this whole debate will come to the forefront. We would see many top websites lean towards a subscription model and many websites with less traffic would simply stop being updated. Or perhaps not. If the last 10 years has shown us anything it’s that when many users stop websites from displaying their advertisements, developers find a way round it (ie. think about the new ad methods which arose in response to pop up blocking scripts).
I’m sure that if ad blocking does become more and more common, we will see some newer methods of displaying ads. Think about it, do you think the top content websites on the internet would be happy if ad blocking users increased to say 10% of internet users?
What do you think of Advertisement Blockers?
I’d love to hear what you all think about ad blockers. Do any of you use an ad blocking script yourself? Are you concerned about the increase of popularity of these scripts?
I’m sure this is something in which opinion will be divided so it will be good to hear what everyone thinks about them 
I use Adblock and only selectively block adverts that are past the limit of annoying, usually the animated ones that really distract you from what you're reading.
As you say, if the use of adblockers becomes too great and it does cause too big an impact on site owners, another way will probably be found to put the advertising out. However, I think that unless something comes along for Internet Explorer, the bulk of site visitors will not be blocking adverts for a while to come.
i use the noscript extension to protect myself from malicious scripts and browser exploits (such as the infamous internetisseriousbusiness or whatever it was). As a result i am blocking a lot of ads and being on a plan with a small quota, this suits me just fine.
i'm guessing webmasters will be rooting for google chrome – the browser made for ads imo.
I used to use Adblock for selective blocking of adverts from intrusive networks that frequently forced popovers and such like onto users. I switched to Adblock Plus when Adblock became too aggressive and prevented me from being able to view any Flash movie. With AB+ you can subscribe to block lists which have lists of aggressive advertising channels as well as common strings found in aggressive ad campaigns, and AB+ will automatically block ads based on those.
For what it's worth, until I spotted the issue with one of your sponsor links being caught up by one of the block lists, due to the structure of the link to the associated image, none of your ads had ever been blocked by AB+ when I've visited. Most likely this is because you're not using any of those aggressive ad networks.
My personal view on advertising is that it's necessary for the web to survive, and I'm okay with seeing it, occasionally clicking through ads when I see something that interests me, and making the odd purchase or two when I find something that I want – so long as those ads don't get in my way. I get annoyed by ads that overlay the browser, popunders that I maybe don't initially see and affect my browsing by slowing things down, and so on. If advertisers learn that consumers won't be won over by using techniques like that then perhaps those techniques will die out, and those of us who feel the need to block some networks won't need to any more.
I have never used an ad-blocker so far, only because the effort of installing one > putting up with the ads.
If people choose to block ads that's fine with me, its just like skipping the adverts on TV.
The general concesus seems to be that most people don't mind advertisements in moderation. I do agree with this though I think some webmasters are losing out because of some idiots who go overboard with ads ie. although users use ad blockers to stop obtrusive websites they inevitably block websites with just a few ads.
I have to agree that I don't like those flash pop ups which slide across your screen whilst your reading content. Many top content sites are using these ads now and they are a pain in the ass.
Ad blockers come built-in with browsers or you can alternatively use softwares for the same. I have tried a few but i use Ad Blockers that are suspicious and intruding the work. I am pretty ok with text ads but definitely NOT with Pop – ups. These days famous e-mail providers allow pop ads which is very irritating when checking mails.
I use AdBlock plus. However, I have no problem with ads. I think that a person should be allowed to put ads on his/her page. However, I do have problems with pop ups and pop unders. Several years ago (before I started blocking), it was not uncommon for me to get 5-10 pop ups after surfing for a half an hour.
I started using pop up blockers to just block the pop ups. However, due to the rude web sites out there that still force pop ups in spite of the blocker, I have no choice but to use AdBlock plus. I admit, it is a bit of a scorched earth policy but I am a case where the few are ruining it for the many.
As far as I am concerned, the screen real estate that a site gets is the main page. You can put up a big flash ad that covers the page until the ad completes; I am fine with that. However, the web site does not have a right to open yet another window on my desktop. My task bar is cluttered enough as it is.
If web site just keeps the adverts to the main window, I'll be more than happy to drop the AdBlock plus.
Ad blockers come built-in with browsers as said above or you can alternatively use Ad / Pop up Blockers for the same. I have tried several Ad / Pop Up Blockers to block Ads that are malicious and intruding the work. I don't mind ads on my mail page or when I browse as long its not disturbing or offensive.Even e-mail providers allow pop ads which is very distrubing when checking mails.
My opinion has definitely changed now that I'm trying to grow my online presence. Since I've found so much useful content through ads, I'm inclined now not to disdain them so much. As long as they're not obnoxious (trying going to any site offering free clip art), I'm okay with them–as long as they have something useful to say.
I've used ad blocker for a long time until my connection reached current 3Mbit/s. It was pure issue of browsing comfort.
It wasn't choice of seeing or not seeing ads. It was about me not seeing ads or not visiting site ever again if it required lots of time to load.
It's very funny that now I have to enable ad blocking for some sites because they are so script-filled that can't even load properly without ads being blocked.
Blocking all FireFox users is a bit extreme and I believe that it would cause a lot of mayhem. However, if that particular site is "GODLY"…I'm sure the viewers would abide with the requirements.
Ads are getting out of hand for some site owners, so that's probably why more ad blockers are being used.
-Mike
I personally make use of them even though I put a few adsense ads on my site. Reason being is that so often sites are overwhelmed by the ads and content is easily missed. I'd rather spend 5 minutes reading someone's content than looking at ads. I think most people feel this way as well.
i don't use ad blockers ive got used to seeing ads everywhere and in some cases they can be quite useful. one thing i wanted to point out though was that i am pretty sure that Norton comes with an ad blocker as default which runs in ie.
You should read my article on this subject Anti-Ad Blocking
I happen to think ad-blocking is out of line. It costs the publishers thousands of dollars a year to accommodate for people who want to skim the content and refuse to provide the publishers with any value in return. Consuming content is part of modern living, you cant get a news paper or magazine without ads, nor can you get you TV shows without them, despite the use of DVRs which is made for replay, not for skipping ads.
I liken the ad blocking to stealing. I dont think anyone would want to be on the other side, trying to eek a living from our creativity. Why are actors and musicians entitled to make money from people consuming their artistic works and web masters are not?
I have collected a whole lot of information on this subject and have recently release a technology that bypasses ad-blocking software. Of course it is up to the web master to use this Anti-Ad blocking technology with caution. With the power to deliver ads at their whim it must be critical for the publisher to recognize what is a good mix of ads and content. If people come to your site and are bombarded with ads every time the visit they will soon quit visiting your website.
I enable the publisher to deliver ads, if they abuse the tool its not my fault. People will vote with their clicks in the end.
Thats how it should be. I think that people will figure that in order to consume good content they will have to deal with the ads. Thats a fact of life and it will remain that way if I have anything to say about it.
Ciao.
Dylan Rosario
adUup – President and Inventor
>It costs the publishers thousands of dollars a year to accommodate for people who want to skim the content and refuse to provide the publishers with any value in return.
You are assuming that people that use adblockers would be happy to click those ads but evil blocks prevent them from doing that. That assumption is wrong. People who use ad-blockers install those exactly because they are NOT interested in ads.
There is also pretty valid theory that excluding users not interested in ads from cycle improves stats.
>have recently release a technology that bypasses ad-blocking software
Any webmaster with a clue knows how to bypass ad-blocking. Disable slow and bugged 3rd party scripts, sell ads directly, host them on own server, don't use abusive techniques and heavy formats.
In human language – get rid of bloat.
>I think that people will figure that in order to consume good content they will have to deal with the ads. Thats a fact of life and it will remain that way if I have anything to say about it.
Ad blockers didn't appear in vacuum. They appeared from excessive and abusive advertisement. Fact of life is that some people are not willing to put up with that and they have effective means to opt out.
Hosting ads on your own server means selling those ads as well. Many publishers and small bloggers do not have the sales team to do this on their own. And what about relevancy of the ads? How is someone capable of selling thousands of pay per click ads on their own?
Hosting ads on your own server is not a good solution to deal with ad blocking. Dismissive technologies like ad blocking create a significant problem for publishers like the owner of this blog. If you are not able to place third party scripts to deliver ads than the whole ad supported model goes out the window.
http://www.XadBlock.com deals with this problem head on. Their technology makes the publisher accountable for his use of third party ads, while enabling those who use ads with discretion more likely to keep the revenue they demand.
@Dylan Rosario
I know numerous bloggers who are perfectly fine with self-hosted systems such as oiopublisher. I had seen a lot of excellent feedback about it.
By the way I've checked with one of the adblockers and it removes banners from that xadblocks site. So why should I buy a product that obviously doesn't work?
The XadBlock technology is still in beta. You should email for a private demo. The banner on the home page shows a standard ad delivery. Banners and ads using AAB are not linked via 3rd party. The system is fool proof.
I see the XadBlock banner ads getting through the ad blocker just fine. Looks like standard 3rd party ads are getting blocked though.
As for using oiopublisher, I haven't seen a website using the software yet?. How is that different than OpenX or other banner management scripts?
OpenX and oiopublisher are still blockable. You just add their local ad server location to your filter list and bingo no more ads from the bloggers website.
This XadBlock technology can't be detected. Plain and simple.
OIOPublisher is so full of bugs I wouldn't even bother.
See their own forum : http://forum.oiopublisher.com/discussions/
OIOPUBLISHER FULL OF WAY TOO MANY BUGS!
now thats a product that barely works.
I would like to see a better demo of this xadblock, looks like it works on my browser, I have AdBlocker Plus in my firefox and i see the banner ads come through.
if i were Rarst i wouldn't be so dismissive of this xadblock, but it looks like some people are always too cynical of a good idea. i hope these xadblock guys get the industry support that a product like theirs needs.
Wonder when their Google Ad Sense support will be ready?
Arnold – Great Lakes
@Arnold
I am cynical not of ideas but of sales pitches that claim to make you tons of money out of nowhere.
It will improve our efficiency.But i think it is not so easy.