Comments on: What If All Web Ads Were Blocked? Ten Speculative Scenarios

By: jarod

jarod — Sun, 16 May 2010 05:30:38 +0000

the problem with online advertising is users just dont want to see it, the most annoying intrusive advertising is created out of america, too many advertisers are in it ro make an easy $ and go to the extremes to earn revenue with this miserable advertising, the internet started ad free website never shut down because they didnt advertise so i do not believe for 1 minute if website did not advertise they would shut down, they will find other ways to make easy $ so this cannot be used as an excuse and thats all it is ..an excuse.. basically because these advertisers would need to real employment instead of infesting a website with pay per click advertising. bottom line is people do hate advertising and they also hate advertisers, that is a common fact no matter what thew argument, ad blockers know that an ad free internet is the only way to browse online. I block all forms of online advertising and i have not come across any ad i cannot block. im now starting to block entire websites that persist with over the top advertising and to tell the truth i do not care if they go broke or shut down, their bad luck. It is Americans that have caused this problem through greed and the thought they can make an easy dollar from it without ever having to do an honest days work and in many cases they infect poeople computers or track what thery do online. millions of users are blocking your ads because they are sick of seeing them infest every website there is not a god damn thing these advertisers can do about it and now they are losing revenue they are starting to cry about it, well thats too bad get used to it because ad blockers are here to stay and id advise any1 online to block all forms of advertising. its your right to view what you want.

By: Nobu

Nobu — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:02:24 +0000

with everyone talking about rights, adverts that use tricky code to put information you didn’t ask for onto your hard drive is what’s wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple cache file or temp images. All undesired content should have the capability to be blocked. Blacklisting ips, turning on add-ons in ff like ad block and flashkiller, disabling dynamic html scripts, and other protection methods are still too much work for basic computer users. Once the annoyance factor gets to critical, most will seek out these basic methods. But a lot of the nets pull in advertising is easy enough to block from your browser or your brain. All anyone ever asks is for ads that don’t suck, don’t eat space and memory and time, and make us laugh and forget what they were selling. Impossible tasks of the consumerist world.

By: tom matrullo

tom matrullo — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:54:41 +0000

@hoqeniahy

I must not have been clear. The research and interrelationships you describe are content. My approach would lessen the need for ads by moving revenue that now goes solely to pipes to support content. If you wish to continue to build content of value and to have others do so, while the guys who own the pipes make all the revenue users can spend without sharing it, this is your choice. I’m trying to suggest there are other non-business models that might be worth looking at. I’ve done a poor job of discussing this here:

http://interimtom.blogspot.com/2009/07/haque-and-doc-on-news-evolution-and.html

and here, among other places:

http://interimtom.blogspot.com/2009/07/fuck-piper.html

By: Hoqenishy

Hoqenishy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:41:48 +0000

@tom matrullo -
Wrong. Don’t know how long YOU’VE been on the web, but I can remember when there wasn’t such a thing as banner ads or popups or spam. That’s right – it was full of people who were interested in research or connecting with other niche groups, and didn’t expect to make huge (or any) return. If 95% of all bloggers and websites dependent on advertising dried up tomorrow, you know what that would be? A good start. The web has become a narcissistic cesspool, filled with self-described “professional bloggers” and pundits who believe that people actually care enough about their opinions alone to put up with ads.

If web content was really all that valuable, then everyone could throw up a pay wall TODAY and not go under… only we know that’s not the case. Singular web content is not all that valuable – it’s the massive indexing, archival, and interconnectedness that makes it valuable, and that’s not delivered enough by any single entity enough to warrant paying for it.

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By: tom matrullo

tom matrullo — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:23:25 +0000

@ferd, I’m not sure content creators are quite desperate enough. If they were, it might begin to interest them that while they are starving, the folks who built the pipes that deliver their content are making billions every quarter. From pipes – nothing much going on there, just bits a flowin’ thru tubes.

Why not look at this schizoid situation – megabucks to pipes, none to creatives – as the improperly split halves of one whole – the ecology of net economics, which cannot work unless the base and superstructure, pipes and content, support each other with the same indivisibility which in fact obtains in reality. Fact is, no one would use the pipes if there were nothing to see.

By: Ferd

Ferd — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:11:30 +0000

@Tom:
We’re talking about a scenario where every ad becomes obsolete because browsers block them.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see desperate measures come from desperate people deprived of their main revenue. After all, it may cost more to serve people that won’t bring you any money than not serving them at all.

By: Ric

Ric — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:53:36 +0000

Pond hit the nail right on the head. I am in final Dev on a social network where we built the ad system from the ground up and it will be incorporated into the site. This not only offers a much more valuable ad product its going to allow us to tailor the system to meet advertisers needs down the road as online advertising changes. We ultimately hope to blaze a new path to a whole range of interactive based marketing. I see the death of the standard CPM-Click through scheme being highly imminent

By: tom matrullo

tom matrullo — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:49:59 +0000

Ferd, I’d be surprised if content producers could ever wield that sort of control. They’re afloat in an infinite sea of incontinent content – more content than any learned librarian of Alexandria or scholastic philosopher could shake a stick at.

In an infinite system, there is no economic leverage.

By: Ferd

Ferd — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:04:20 +0000

Another possibility:

Content producers would deny access to users using browsers which disable ads, potentially forcing users to use something else.
If your browser blocks ads but can’t access content, you’re more likely to stop using it. It’s partially why IE is still used so much in corporations: intranet sites (which can be vital) might break with other browsers.

This, of course, doesn’t take account of browsers like Opera which can spoof their user agent to appear like they are a different browser.