Not a Fan of Ad Blockers
One of my friends was surprised when I told him that I don’t like ad blockers. For those who don’t know, ad blockers are little programs that block ads on web pages as you browse the web. These programs eliminate those annoying flash ads, pop-up ads, and general display ads that you find on almost every website nowadays. And the question I always get is why don’t I use one of these programs.
It’s a valid question. Considering I consider myself to be a consumer advocate, and these ads annoy the consumer, I should be fine with removing these ads. Well, I’m OK if others do it but I don’t want to do it for my own browsing. Here are my reasons.
1. I don’t want the filtered web
While I use Google News as my homepage, I check CNN many times during the day to get my news. I know I could create a personalized news page that caters to my interests, but I don’t want that. I don’t want my internet filtered. I want the news that is relevant to everyone. I don’t want them to tell me about the tech news and world news and not the entertainment news. Regardless of whether I care or not, if it’s important to make the front page of CNN, I want to hear about it.
This applies to more than news. I don’t like it how when I go to Amazon, my page is filled up with products similar to my previous purchases. Just because I recently bought a Malcolm Gladwell book doesn’t mean I want to buy his other books. I know this customization increases sales, but I don’t like it. I don’t want the customized filtered web. I want the best of the web. Not the best of the web that sites think is right for me.
2. Ads make the web better
Yes. I did just say that ads make the web better. They do so by allowing the free market to dictate what sites have good advertising (and by good I mean advertising that isn’t annoying to the consumer) and what don’t. If I go to a site and it has annoying bright flash ads I’m going to stop going. If enough people feel the same way, that site will fail. If I go to a site that has good ads (like reputable sites like the New York Times) then I’ll go more often (if the content is good) and thereby giving that site good traffic.
3. It’s my job
As a current/future web entrepreneur, I need to see what’s happening on the web and figure out the best business model for my business and my customers. If I block out the current system that is used by most websites, I won’t be able to see what is working and what isn’t. If you work for a web-based business, you shouldn’t be using ad blockers. You’re missing out on important research.
That’s it really. Ad blockers are great for some but I prefer the web unfiltered and choose to be a part of the free market that helps internet businesses succeed.
[polldaddy poll=1161796]
I am a person that surfs the web using ad-blocking and here are my reasons for using it.
1. It is my computer, my internet connection, and my browser. I will control the content that I see on the internet. If want to view your site through an RSS reader, I will. If I want to write a GreaseMonkey script to reorganize your site, I will. I choose how I receive my content. So, if I don’t want to waste my bandwidth in downloading images that I do not want to see, it is my right to do so.
2. There is a matter of trust. Most sites are lazy and do not show their own ads. They rely on a third party to deliver their ad content. I may trust you, or any other first party site that I visit, but I don’t have to trust Doubleclick, or Google, or Yahoo. So, Ely, if your website wants to show me an ad, you are going to have to host it. I trust you to show me content that I may want to see, but I don’t trust Doubleclick enough to allow them to send me content. I especially don’t trust them enough to allow them to set a cookie on my machine. Again I control the content that is displayed on my machine.
3. I want my machine to be secure. The number one way that a machine gets a virus these days is by tricking a user to go to a site that contains a malicious script. I run a program that will whitelist scripting on only sites that I approve. You know what? Your website works fine without wordpress.com, polldaddy.com and google-analytics.com running their scripts. It does not impact my browsing experience at all. Perhaps I am being paranoid, but my machine is too important to me for it to be trashed by some some malicious code.
-Matt
Matt, to your points.
1. It’s your right to do so and I think you should be allowed to change your view of the content to however you please, if you choose to do so.
2. Good point. Google Ads and Doubleclick control many of the ads on the web and I guess I shouldn’t judge a site so quickly if these ad servers serve up some annoying ads. On the other hand, if these servers continue to push annoying ads and the site owner chooses to continue using this ad server, I will take my views elsewhere.
3. I commend you for whitelisting scripts so that you can fully control the security of your machine. What you do, however, is a rarity amongst web users. Regardless, your right about the security aspect even though I think you’re being a bit paranoid. Unless you’re downloading files or randomly clicking on links, you should be ok.
As I said, it’s everyone’s personal choice regarding ad blockers. I just don’t like them for my web browsing.
We had ad blockers running at work. Only problem, we sell ads on our website. The blocking software didn’t last long.
My question is, do you use a DVR to fast forward through TV comercials?
Lonnie, I see the point you’re making but it’s different. TV commercials are totally separate from the TV shows. Ads on web pages are integrated into the web pages. The ads are part of the viewing experience. But I still see what you’re saying and yes, I can definitely see why many people would want to use ad blockers.
To my point though, if you worked for an advertising agency that made TV commercials, you better be watching those commercials. I feel like I’m in the same boat.
Yay – I’m famous!
Just because the provider wants you to see information in a specific way, that does not mean that it is the best way for the individual to see it (and is often not).
Along the lines of what Matt said:
There are malware, privacy and time issues with receiving all web content unfiltered.
Focusing on privacy – there are many tracking services out there such as google-analytics, doubleclick, 2o7, quantserv, etc… that use ads and other web content to uniquely track users across many different sites.
Looking at my ABP-Tracking-Filter stats, I see several thousand blocks for each of the major trackers in the past few months.
Even if you trust (all of) these companies to only use the data properly, which I don’t, information has a tendency to get out or fall into the wrong hands. I think it is my responsibility to myself as a tech-savvy person to shield myself from this as much as possible.
I have been turning off 3rd party cookies for years, and blocking unwanted content is another way to do this.
Incidentally, I do not give real information to supermarkets for value cards etc… for the same reasons. And am a big fan of sites like BugMeNot.