Internet Advertising and blocking of same
Over the past few weeks there have been many debates on advertising on the internet. Or more accurately blocking internet advertising. Is it ethical or not? Pros and cons, the usual debates. This finally culminated in someone blocking users of the Firefox web browser to his site and redirecting them to another site called whyfirefoxisblocked.com. For me he hasn’t made a convincing argument and on top of it all he has Godwined himself in the process.
His reasoning is that one of the many available plugins for Firefox is the hugely popular AdBlockPlus plugin. By people using the Firefox/AdBlockPlus combination they are denying him revenue because they wont be able to view or click on any advertising on his site. Fine by me. It’s his site and he can do what he wants with it. I’m sure my internet experience won’t suffer as a result of not viewing his site.
I have to admit that I have always blocked adverts in one way or another over the years. There are many ways to do it ranging from the previously mentioned Firefox plugin to content filtering via proxy or even changing your hosts file. Prior to my current setup I used to use a program called WebWasher to do all my filtering for me.
As well having many methods to block ads there are many reasons to do so. There is nothing more annoying than visiting a nicely designed site only to see a flashing, shaking, gaudily coloured banner asking you to punch the monkey. Of course the banner is designed that way because it wants to grab your attention but in doing so it takes your attention away from the article or page you were trying to view. Another of my reasons is that they clutter up the page, especially when created with Macromedia/Adobe Flash. I really hate ads created in flash. This probably stems from the good old days when using a modem to connect to the internet. They would take for ever to load and subsequently cost you money because you are dialled up longer.
Consider the screen shots below (click for bigger in a new window). They are both of an article that is on todays front page of theinquirer.net. The one on the left has advertising and the one on the right none. Which looks better?
Those ads on the left screenshot are annoying animated flash ones too.
So. Is blocking advertising ethically wrong? The guy mentioned at the start of this entry certainly thinks so. Of course money is his primary motivation. However I still believe in the original concept of the internet. That is as a means of sharing information. Sure, hosting a site can be expensive but but so is smoking and drinking. If you wanted to host a site you can manage it for the price of a single packet of cigarettes a month. And that is for well specc’d package by a reputable provider. There are even cheaper alternatives available.
The truth as I see it is that some people consider providing advertising on their site as supplemental income. A “While I’m doing this I may as well try and make some extra cash while I’m at it.” kind of reasoning. In the case of a commercial site like theinquirer.net, it is a source of income. But I would hazard a guess that the inquirer and countless other sites have other possibly more lucrative revenue streams.
As for me I will continue to block advertising because even if I saw an ad I wouldn’t click on it. I will continue to view pages as they were intended but without the distractions.
are they going to try to stop me using the Mute button on my TV remote control too?
:-O
I have never clicked on and advert in a blog. I am there to read the content and not the rubbish.
Flashing screens and lights can contribute to epelisy/seizures.
Cluttered Blogs put me off and distract. I like your clear simple lines.
You need the mute button because as soon as the ads come on television the volume is increased by the provider. Sky are notorious for this. And it can really frighten the sh*t out of you oif you weren’t expecting it. Interestingly, Italy are consider making that practise illegal over there.
Thanks Grannymar! You are exactly right that content is the reason you visit. Sometimes even the normal content can take over from the text. I’m not sure about my own theme though. I think it is a bit too bright in places!
As far as I am aware, it’s illegal here and in the UK too. But the stations all deny they do it. They say the the “average sound level of an advertisement tends to be higher than that of a standard programme”.
As for advertising on websites, I have never clicked an ad either. Having said that, my blog turns a very tidy profit [and not from Google either].
A few of the pages on my main site (www.sweetnam.eu) are quite popular. Well, the definition of popular for me is about 800 views per day between three pages in particular. I confess that I did consider using google ad-sense on them but demurred because they are purely informational and I wanted to keep the site layout clean as such.
Hi! That’s a lovely photograph indeed.
I use the flashblock plugin as well as the regular adblock plus & filterset g. I don’t see any flash animation until I click on it. all the “good” sites have moved on to having resident sponsors, not the old banner/popup/flash ads.
if nobody blocked the ads sites would rely on them more just look at a few korean/japanese sites they are usually plastered with flashing GIF’s, flash and all that other shite and most people over there still use IE6.
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/
I’ve used flashblock before. but adblock seems to remove almost all the flashy bits that I wan’t removed that I never got around to installing it again.
Good article, I agree I hate the absurd overuse of advertising on the internet.
However you mentioned you can get cheap hosting from the price of cigarettes. That’s true and not true. If you have a high demand website your high spec €5.00 a month hosting is gonna probably choke and your hosting provider may even disable your blog if its consuming too many resources.
Also you have to consider that maintaining / upgrading / templating (Designing) a website takes time. All website owners need to supplement their income otherwise a website is a loss and what’s the point in putting in all this effort when it comes to a website if you can’t make some kind of income off it?
You have to deal with constant spammers / hackers trying to exploit your website – I’ve just dealt with a few who managed to get 1 of my websites (de-indexed from Google) by inserted spam links into the footer of the page.
So while I agree too much advertising sucks and I have no problem with people blocking ads. I think that smart advertising and offering targeted products that your users may find useful is not a bad thing.
Funny thing is, most people have no idea they could block advertising. Just like most users use internet explorer ugghhhhhhhh!
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