Adblock - Good or Bad?

Scott · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:58 pm Post subject: Adblock - Good or Bad?

For those who don't know Adblock Plus is an extension for Firefox (and I believe is available for other browsers) which will block advertisements as you browse the web. It saves bandwidth, improves load times and of course gets rid of the advertisements.

Although, this can be somewhat controversial because many sites rely solely on ad revenue, so they don't get that click or view for their ads when someone using this extension views the page. Some site owner's would even go as far as saying they are stealing their bandwidth by just cutting out their ads.

So I am wondering what everyone's opinion is as a normal user and as a site owner. I personally use Adblock Plus, mainly because of the really intrusive ads, but I am starting to wonder if it is really fair.
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mcwkm · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:36 pm Post subject:

I personally find a lot of ads can cause problems viewing the website and can be pretty annoying. I actually don't have adblock installed on this system, I always forget to add it when I do fresh installs and I do a lot of them. I think it is a good piece of software because some web designers don't care how poorly laid out the site is if they can make a little more money but banner ads like the one currently loaded on this page don't bother me. I ignore them most of the time and really only pay attention to them when I am spacing out. When the ads don't actually interfere with the page layout, I can live with them but if they load up like sites like myspace(worst thing ever when it comes to web development) adblock is very much needed because the ads are everywhere.

Jacky · 3.14159265358979323846264 Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 4175

There's no right/wrong or fair/unfair.

Every user has their own rights to filter out whatever he doesn't feel like seeing. They can even programme their own browser and have their own sets of filters.

Some websites also claim that they live on ads revenue and blocking of their ads are wrong. Perhaps they REALLY live on that revenue and they need it. Some online games like RuneScape even have it as a rule that players should not block their ads, but do they care and go and check on each user? No.
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ClickFanatic · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:47 am Post subject:

I use AdBlock Plus because it is more effective at blocking popups than Firefox is by default.
I really hate popups and since AdBlock is the only effective way I know to block them, I use it.

Too bad if this kills possible revenue, but that's actually none of my business.

Besides, there are more ways to advertise or make money from a website than using banners/popups.
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LP-SolidRaven · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:26 pm Post subject:

I pretty much need to use adblock plus. A lot of advertisements simply load so slow that they lag up the entire browser. A couple of people started an anti-adblock crusade but if you check their website you usually see a huge sidebar with more advertisements than you will ever bother to read.
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mcwkm · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:44 pm Post subject:

I just remembered this last night while using a computer with a small resolution (800 x 480) which is the max resolution of the screen. If your trying to actually look at a website with a lot of ads it makes it near impossible to actually view the page due to having very little screen real estate.

ClickFanatic · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:05 pm Post subject:

A lot of websites these days can't even fit their content in such a small viewport, mcwkm. Fortunately, bigger resolutions are pretty much the standard these days.
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mcwkm · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:45 am Post subject:

Jacky · 3.14159265358979323846264 Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 4175

I am on the traditional 1024x768 (standard screen) (close to the Eee PC's default 1024x600) and I have yet to see a website with so many ads that I can't even view the content.

I just hate it when they don't shrink the images in the content and I have to scroll left and right.
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krt · ... Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 4995 Location: Down Under

I drew the line at flashing ads, they are incredibly annoying. Well, that and pages with two huge horizontal and skyscraper ads. I never click ads anyway and rarely see one for more than a second or two unless its creative in which case I still don't want to click it. Might be "robbing" people of a few impressions but that's it.
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man240 · Ardent Poster Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 96

actually i would recommend that you would get AdBlock Plus
i think it's a very effective pop up blocker since almost no pop up's...
pop up anymore, but most webmasters that make money off advertising USUALLY use adsense/adwords/adbrite, so i don't really think you will be hurting their revenue much, or at all Cool

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Scott · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:46 pm Post subject:

Adblock Plus blocks Adsense, although you could argue that the more internet savvy users use Adblock Plus and that the more internet savvy users don't really click on ads, so it's not affecting the Adsense profits anyways but as Adblock Plus (or any ad blocking) gets more popular, how will sites that operate based only on revenue from ads operate unless they start charging a subscription fee or something along those lines.
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spock · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:44 am Post subject:

I used it a few years ago, but I also began to realize that it isn't fair. I use websites that are ad-supported. Free to use for me, but ad-supported. So I decided not to use the adblock extension anymore.

I even care to click on a few ads if I come across an ad-supported site that I really like. I think the creators deserve the income. (And it's not that much work for me)
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LP-Trel · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:31 am Post subject:

This is an interesting topic that has been hashed through a few times before, but it is always something to read everyone's views on the topic.

Both sides have a valid point when you think about it.

Businesses need the revenue from advertising to keep their businesses running without charging a membership fee. They claim that the advertising they use generates the amount needed so users should be grateful for the free content. Beggars can't be choosers after all.

Visitors/consumers claim the advertisements cause problems when visiting websites such as slow loading advertising, cluttered pages, loud animated ads, and other annoyances. This causes them to load software capable of blocking the advertising making their browsing experience more pleasant.

I can see both sides of the arguement and I typically side with the visitors. Many websites have started to push advertising in a way that makes some websites nearly unusable for various reasons. The biggest offender in my opinion would be websites that use Adobe Flash based advertising. I hate that. Smile

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ClickFanatic · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:06 am Post subject:

Well, the problem is: many sites are doing it correctly (using ads in an unobtrusive way), but there are some sites that swamp their visitors with flashing banners and/or popups.
As a visitor, you want to arm yourself effectively against these websites, because they ruin your web experience (quite severely, sometimes). AdBlock Plus is one of the most effective tools, but unfortunately for the 'good' webmasters it blocks all ads.
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