U ovom ćemo postu vidjeti kako korisnici koriste blokatore oglasa za blokiranje oglasa, vlasnici web-mjesta koriste alate za otkrivanje skripti Adblock koristeći Anti-AdBlockers , a neki web surferi koriste drugi softver za blokiranje otkrivanja Adblock -a pomoću onemogućavanja ^(Adblock)skripte^(Script) . Kamo vodi ovaj sukob? Je li model besplatnog interneta^(Internet) kakav poznajemo danas spreman za promjenu, na novi model? Prijetnja AdBlock - a vrlo je stvarna i mogla bi promijeniti besplatni internet , kakav danas poznajemo.

Cijena besplatnog interneta

Ništa na ovoj planeti nije besplatno. Mnogi od nas pretpostavljaju da je internet besplatan izvor informacija. Je li stvarno besplatno? Može li doista postojati u utopijskoj slobodnoj državi? U današnjem životu ne možete se riješiti reklama – bilo da su u novinama, na televiziji, na otvorenom ili na webu. Možete zanemariti novinske oglase, otići na grickanje kad se TV reklame bljeskaju ili se zaslijepiti za velike jumbo plakate koji pune Urbaniju^(Urbania) . Oglasi su tu i možete ih zanemariti – ali oni su još uvijek tu, bez greške!

Prijetnja od AdBlockera

U online svijetu, kako bi podržale svoje postojanje, web stranice postavljaju oglase. Sviđalo se to vama ili ne, online oglašavanje^{(Online Advertising)} neizravno je financiralo rast interneta^(Internet) potičući webmastere, blogere i pisce da stvaraju sadržaj. Što je njegov sadržaj bio bolji, to je bio veći promet, a time i prihod.

Neki su dobro postavljeni oglasi, a neki su nametljivi. Nenametljivi oglasi^{(nonintrusive ads)} obično su statični i prikazuju se sa strane, na početku ili na kraju članaka.

A postoje i drugi poput skočnih prozora ili oglasa na cijeloj stranici koji vas blokiraju kada dođete na web-stranice nekih popularnih web-mjesta s velikim prometom. Možda ćete morati ručno zatvoriti ove oglase, a neki od njih su programirani da ponovno otvore povezani prozor čak i kada kliknete na gumb Zatvori^(Close) . Takvi oglasi su nametljivi oglasi^{(intrusive ads)} . Morate ostaviti ono što ste radili, da biste zatvorili ove oglase. Ovi oglasi, koji se puno plaćaju, mogu biti vrlo iritantni i koriste ih web stranice koje se fokusiraju na zaradu više novca, umjesto da vam pružaju kvalitetan sadržaj. Cijena takvih nametljivih i dosadnih oglasa može biti vrlo visoka, kaže Microsoft Research .

Surferi protiv internetskih oglašivača^{(Online Advertisers)} protiv blokatora oglasa protiv rata izdavača^{(Publishers War)}

Argument za izdavače web stranica^{(The argument for Website Publishers)}

Za održavanje web stranica potreban je novac. Iako je ponekad glavni cilj web stranice zaraditi novac, postoje mnogi blogeri koji to rade samo zbog strasti i širenja informacija. U oba slučaja, nakon što web-mjesta postanu popularna i promet se poveća, postoje troškovi održavanja – ako ne i ništa, za početak trošak naziva domene i hostinga. Zatim dolaze autorske naknade , SEO, troškovi softvera, naknade za razvoj besplatnog softvera , troškovi CDN -a, troškovi web vatrozida i antivirusnih programa i tako dalje. Popis bi mogao biti beskonačan. Naravno, mnogi od njih dostupni su besplatno na internetu, poput WordPressa^(WordPress)platforma za bloganje, ali drugi zahtijevaju novac. Prihodi web stranice tako pomažu u podršci web stranici, vlasniku kao i njegovoj obitelji. Ako korisnik posjeti web stranicu i besplatno čita sadržaj, neki kažu da bi se to moglo usporediti s gledanjem filma u kinu bez kupnje ulaznice^{(seeing a movie in a theater without buying a ticket)} !

Argument za internet surfere^{(The argument for Internet Surfers)}

Web surfer ne mari za te stvari. He/she samo želi informacije besplatno i bez ikakvog nereda. Njegov argument je obično ono što se pojavljuje na mojoj radnoj površini moja je stvar, a ja nisam ovdje da bih gledao vaše užasne oglase ^{(What appears on my desktop is my business, and I am not here to see your crappy ads )} – ne shvaćajući da su informacije koje čita nekome koštale generiranje i prikazivanje. Postoje ljudi koji žele informacije i koriste internet u svrhu. Od studenata preko učitelja, istraživača do ljudi koji žele pronaći rješenja za različite probleme uključujući Windows – svi traže informacije na različitim blogovima i web-mjestima.

Zajednica za blokiranje oglasa^{(The Ad Blocking community)}

Prastara metoda blokiranja oglasa izmjenom datoteke Hosts nije bila nešto što bi svatko mogao učiniti. Stvari su se promijenile kada su razni softveri za blokiranje oglasa, dodaci i dodaci pušteni kao besplatna preuzimanja. Počeli su postajati popularni. Na primjer , Adblock za preglednike, s više od 200 milijuna preuzimanja, preuzima se 170.000 puta dnevno, kažu njegovi programeri Eyeo.com .

Nedavno izvješće stranice PageFair.com^{(PageFair.com)} kaže da blokiranje oglasa raste po stopi od 43% svake godine i da bi 100% surfera moglo imati instaliran neku vrstu softvera za blokiranje oglasa do 2018. Ova brojka izgleda preteška probaviti, pogotovo jer  je PageFair.com tvrtka koja pomaže web stranicama da identificiraju koliko novca gube zbog blokiranja oglasa, pa je razumljivo da mogu pretjerivati, ali to je znak koji pokazuje smjer u kojem bi web mogao biti krećući se. Postoji i besplatni dodatak za korisnike WordPressa^{(plugin for WordPress users)}  koji im može reći koliko posto njihovih korisnika^{(how many percent of their users)} koristi neku vrstu blokade oglasa.

Više od 20% posjetitelja web-mjesta općeg interesa blokira oglase. Najgore pogođene web-lokacije su one koje ciljaju na tehnički razumniju publiku, kao što su web-lokacije za igre i tehnologije poput ove. Više od 30% posjetitelja ovih stranica blokira oglašavanje.

But ad blocking is expected to cross 50% soon.

Online oglašivači^{(Online Advertisers)}

Google je sa svojim proizvodima AdWords i AdSense daleko najmoćnija tvrtka za online oglašavanje. Google s tržišnom kapitalizacijom od oko 300 milijardi dolara je treći nakon Exxona^(Exxon) i Applea^(Apple) . Godine 2012. zaradio je oko 44 milijarde dolara od internetskog oglašavanja, od čega je 68% došlo s Googleovih^(Google) vlastitih web-mjesta, 27% iz oglasne mreže i 5% iz drugih izvora. Stoga su ulozi za Google visoki . Ne može vidjeti da se posao oglašavanja na mreži smanjuje ili umire – nema šanse! Ovdje spominjem Google jer je to najveća mreža za oglašavanje na mreži.

Počinje rat^{(The war begins)}

AdBlockers, Anti-AdBlockers i Anti-AdBlocker skripti za onemogućavanje

Kako bi se suprotstavili  blokatorima oglasa^{(Ad Blockers)} , neke su web-stranice došle na ideju blokiranja sadržaja posjetiteljima koji koriste blokatore oglasa^{(blocking content to visitors who use ad blockers)} . Odnosno, ako web-mjesto otkrije da preglednik koristi blokator oglasa bilo koje vrste, dat će poruku u kojoj se od korisnika traži da onemoguće blokator oglasa kako bi mogli vidjeti sadržaj. Mnoge takve Anti-Adblock skripte^{(Anti-Adblock scripts)} su besplatno dostupne na mreži, uključujući besplatni WordPress dodatak za blokiranje korisnika Adblock^{(free WordPress plugin to block Adblock users)} -a . Postoji nekoliko tehnika za blokiranje korisnika Adblock na vašoj web stranici.

Arstechnica je prije nekog vremena eksperimentirala 12 sati blokirajući korisnike koji su imali instalirane blokatore oglasa. Stranica za upoznavanje OKCupid je tražila od korisnika koji blokiraju oglase da doniraju 5 dolara za podršku stranici. Ne znam rade li to još uvijek, ali ovo je samo nekoliko primjera. Vjerujem da i Reddit svojim korisnicima nudi iskustvo bez oglasa za malu mjesečnu naknadu.^(Reddit)

Može li to onda utrti put za model pretplate^{(subscription model)} ? Već postoje neke novinske stranice i blogovi koji traže da platite, da biste mogli čitati dalje od prvog ili dva odlomka.

Facebook je sada proaktivno poduzeo korake da zaobiđe blokatore oglasa i prikaže oglase, unatoč tome što ih korisnici koriste.

The game continues!

Kako bi se suprotstavili tome, onemogućavači skripti Anti-AdBlocker^{(Anti-AdBlocker script disablers)} sada su dostupni kao besplatna preuzimanja za preglednike Firefox^(Firefox) i Chrome . Ovi dodaci preglednika onemogućuju skripte protiv blokiranja oglasa koje takve web stranice koriste i omogućuju im pregled sadržaja.

Bivši Googleov radnik pokrenuo je SourcePoint.com koji obećava borbu protiv AdBlockera.

Google je u ožujku 2013. uklonio Adblock iz Android Storea. Ovo je imalo značajan utjecaj na rast korisnika, kažu programeri AdBlock-a.^{(Google, in March 2013, removed Adblock from the Android Store. This has had a significant impact on user growth says the developers of AdBlock.)}

The bombshell!

Korisnici vjeruju blokatorima oglasa da blokiraju sva reklama i druga nebitna zvona i zviždaljke kao što su trake za dijeljenje na društvenim mrežama, kodovi za praćenje itd. Ali ono što je malo poznato da su neke softverske tvrtke za blokiranje oglasa počele prihvaćati naknade za oglase na bijeloj listi^{(ad blocker software companies have started accepting fees for white-listing ads)} od odabranih tvrtke?

Slučaj u fokusu je vrlo popularni Adblock Plus . Uvođenjem koncepta „ Prihvatljivi oglasi^{(Acceptable Ads)} “, sada će biti u poziciji da odlučuje tko će vidjeti oglase, kakve i čije oglase! U provedenoj anketi pokazalo se da je samo 25% korisnika Adblock Plusa^{(Adblock Plus)} strogo protiv bilo kakvog oglašavanja. Čini se da se tako rodila ideja o prihvatljivim oglasima^(Ads) . Iskreno rečeno, Adblock je postavio neke stroge uvjete za stavljanje oglasa na popis dopuštenih. ^{(In all fairness, Adblock has laid down some strict conditions for getting the ads whitelisted.)}Štoviše, treba shvatiti, i blokatori oglasa imaju svoje troškove, jeste li razmišljali o tome? Pa odakle oni zarađuju? Od korištenja jedinog alata koji imaju! Adblock Plus kaže da se ova naknada odnosi na pomoć u održavanju popisa filtera.

Postoje izvješća da Google , Amazon , Microsoft , Taboola plaćaju da bi oglase prošli dalje od Adblock Plus -a .

Google i neke druge tvrtke počele su^{(have started funding)} djelomično financirati AdBlock Plus. Plaćanjem naknade Adblock -u , oni mogu dobiti dopuštenje za svoje oglase na popisu prihvatljivih oglasa^(Ads) . To je izazvalo intenzivnu raspravu na Hacker News- u . Neki, ali ne svi, oglasi nekih tvrtki dopušteni su prema bijeloj listi. To uključuje one s Googlea^(Google) , Amazona^(Amazon) , SmartSearcha^{(SmartSearch)} , gmx.fr, livestrong.com, fusionads.com, banner.t-online.de, gutefrage.net, itd.

Two problems here as I see!

Povjerenje web surfera koji koriste ovaj softver za blokiranje oglasa je ugroženo. Neki mogu smatrati da ih je AdBlock počeo prodavati^{(Some may feel that AdBlock has started selling)} , unovčavajući njihovo povjerenje. Takvi će blokatori oglasa sada odlučivati ​​koje će reklame vidjeti njegovi korisnici.

To bi moglo dovesti do nepoštene i monopolističke prakse u svijetu oglašavanja na mreži. Moćna tvrtka mogla bi platiti dovoljno da "održava" popis dopuštenih takvih blokatora oglasa, da dopusti vlastite reklame i blokira oglase svojih konkurenata. Tko zna da bi se sama definicija prihvatljivih oglasa^{(Acceptable Ads)} s vremenom mogla promijeniti!

Ad blockers could well acquire immense power in the future!

U igru ​​bi ušlo više blokatora oglasa. Neki bi mogli započeti s plemenitim idejama o neovisnosti, ali bi ih uskoro mogao uvući neki online oglašivač.

Moguća rješenja^{(Possible solutions)}

Mora postojati bolji mehanizam koji zadovoljava sve zainteresirane, tj. izdavači sadržaja, korisnici web-mjesta, internetski oglašivači i blokatori oglasa.

Prva metoda koju možemo vidjeti je oglašavanje uključivanja^{(opt-in advertising)} . Web-mjesta mogu korisnicima pružiti značajku za odabir vrste oglasa koju bi željeli vidjeti. Iako vas agencije za internetski^(Internet) marketing i društvene mreže već prate na internetu^(Internet) kako bi pratile vaše interese, kako bi vam pružile relevantne oglase, postupak dopuštanja korisnicima da odaberu koje vrste oglasa žele vidjeti uklonit će mnogo zabune . Takvu praksu imate djelomično implementiranu na Facebooku^(Facebook). Ako vam se određeni oglas ne sviđa, možete ga zatvoriti i navesti što vas zanima. Ovu metodu samo treba doraditi, implementirati od strane web-mjesta i prezentirati blokatorima oglasa, kako bi mogli provjeriti u svojoj bazi podataka kako bi odlučili hoće li blokirati oglase ili ne. U tom slučaju, postaje dužnost/obveza oglasne mreže održavati bazu podataka korisnika i njihovih interesa kako bi mogli prikazivati ​​oglase za uključivanje. Morala bi biti suradnja između web stranice i oglasnih mreža kako bi se identificirali interesi korisnika prema onome za što se on/ona odlučio.

Druga metoda također uključuje malo istraživanja. Blokatori oglasa u pregledniku^{(Browser Ad Blockers)} mogu ispitati koje web stranice korisnik posjećuje. Na temelju učestalosti posjeta , ^{(frequency of visits)}blokatori^(Blockers) oglasa mogu odlučiti dopustiti oglase na web stranicama. Na taj će način pomoći i izdavačima web stranice i korisnicima web stranice. Prvi još uvijek može zarađivati ​​dok drugi zna da mu se sviđa sadržaj i zauzvrat dopušta učitavanje oglasa.

Mrežni skeneri URL^{(Online URL scanners)} -ova nadziru web-mjesta i prijavljuju ako ih nije sigurno posjećivati. Može li zajednica za blokiranje oglasa skenirati web-lokacije i blokirati oglase^{(scan sites and block ads)} samo onih koji koriste prekomjerne oglase, skočne prozore itd. – i pustiti ostale koji prikazuju razumnu količinu nenametljivih oglasa. Može li to biti mogućnost?

AŽURIRANJE^(UPDATE) : Google je pokrenuo program Contributor koji korisnicima omogućuje blokiranje oglasa.

Ako se tako nastavi, neću se iznenaditi ako vidimo pomak od besplatnog interneta^(Internet) s oglasima kakav poznajemo danas, na zatvorenu platformu s plaćanjem za sadržaj, kojom dominiraju odabrane kvalitetne web stranice.

Dok se ne pronađe alternativni model ili poslovna strategija za financiranje ili održavanje “besplatnog” interneta, online oglašavanje je tu da ostane. Web-mjesta će se oglašavati, blokatori oglasa će blokirati, web-mjesta mogu blokirati korisnike programa za blokiranje oglasa, korisnici će tada koristiti dodatke protiv blokiranja oglasa koji su sada dostupni, mrežni oglašivači će platiti blokatorima oglasa da bi njihovi oglasi bili na popisu dopuštenih i tako dalje.^{(Till an alternative model or business strategy to finance or sustain the “free” Internet is found, online advertising is here to stay. Websites will advertise, adblockers will block, websites may block ad-blocker users, users will then use the anti-ad-blocker add-ons now available, online advertisers will pay adblockers to get their ads whitelisted, and so on.)}

Pitanja^(Questions)

1) Hoće li se softverske tvrtke za blokiranje oglasa ponašati etično ako prihvate novac i dopuste 'prihvatljive oglase'?

2) Biste li kao korisnik dobrovoljno onemogućili svoj blokator oglasa za neke web-lokacije ili stavili na bijelu listu nekih web-mjesta, na primjer, ovu^{(this one)} ?

Bili bismo vam zahvalni ako biste odlučili staviti TheWindowsClub.com na bijelu listu i podržati nas.

3) Hoće li doći dan kada tvrtka poput, recimo, Googlea^(Google) kupi, recimo, popularni blokator oglasa kao što je AdBlock ? Bilo bi moćno oružje u rukama Googlea^(Google) da selektivno dopušta samo vlastite oglase i guši konkurenciju.

It’s too early to speculate, and we will have to wait for Time to unravel events!

Do tada uživajte u ovom stripu Tech Of Joy on the Case za korištenje (ili nekorištenje) blokade oglasa^{(The case for using (or not using) an Ad Blocker)} .

Ažurirano 15. rujna 2019.

Uz doprinose Aruna Kumara^{(With inputs from Arun Kumar)}

Surfers vs Website owners vs Ad blockers vs Anti Ad Blockers War

Іn this poѕt we will see how users use Ad Bloсkers to block ads, website owners use tools to detеct Adblock scripts using Anti-AdBlоckers, and some web surfers use other software to blоck Adblock detection using Script disablers. Where is this cоnflict heading towards? Is the free Internеt model as we know today, рoised for a shift, to a new model? The threat оf AdBlock is very rеal and could well changе the free Internet, as we know it todаy.

The price for a free Internet

Nothing on this planet is free. Many of us assume that the Internet is a free source of information. Is it really free? Can it really exist in the utopian free state? In today’s life, one cannot do away with ads – whether it’s in the newspapers, the television, the outdoors or the web. You may ignore the newspaper ads, go for a snack when the TV ads are flashed or go blind to the large billboards which dot Urbania. The ads are there, and you may choose to ignore them – but they are still there, none the less, make no mistake!

Threat from AdBlockers

In the online world, to support their existence, websites place ads. Like it or not, Online Advertising has indirectly funded the growth of the Internet by encouraging webmasters, bloggers and writers to generate content. The better his content was, the more his traffic and consequently his revenue.

Some are well-placed ads, and some ads are intrusive. The nonintrusive ads are usually static and displayed towards the sides, beginning or end of articles.

And there are others like the pop-ups or the full-page ads which block you when you land on web pages of some popular large-traffic websites. You may have to manually close these ads, and some of them are programmed to again open a related window even as you click on the Close button. Such advertisements are intrusive ads. You have to leave what you were doing, to close these ads. These ads, which pay a lot, can be very irritating and are used by websites whose focus making more money, rather than providing you with quality content. The cost of such intrusive and annoying ads can be very high, says Microsoft Research.

Surfers vs. Online Advertisers vs. Ad blockers vs. Publishers War

The argument for Website Publishers

Maintaining websites needs money. While sometimes the main aim of a website is to make money, there are many bloggers who do it just for passion and dissemination of information. In either case, once the sites become popular and traffic increases, there are maintenance costs – if not anything, the domain name and hosting costs, to begin with. Then come Authors fees, SEO, software costs, freeware development fees, CDN expenses, Web firewall &  antivirus costs and so on. The list could be endless. Of course, many of these are available free on the internet, like the WordPress blogging platform, but others require money. The website income thus helps support the website, the owner as well as his family. Now if a user visits a website and reads the content for free, some say that this could well be compared to seeing a movie in a theater without buying a ticket!

The argument for Internet Surfers

The web surfer does not care about these things. He/she just wants information free and without any clutter. His argument typically is What appears on my desktop is my business, and I am not here to see your crappy ads – not realizing that the information he is reading has cost money to someone to generate and display. There are people who want information and use the Internet for a purpose. From students to teachers to researchers to people looking to find solutions to different problems including Windows – everyone searches for information on different blogs and websites.

The Ad Blocking community

The age-old method of blocking ads by modifying the Hosts file was not something everyone could do. Things changed when various ad-blocking software, add-ons, and plugins were released as free downloads. They started becoming popular. For instance Adblock for browsers, with more than 200 million downloads, is being downloaded 170,000 times a day, says its developers Eyeo.com.

A recent report by PageFair.com said that ad blocking was growing at the rate of 43% every year and that 100% of web surfers could well be having some sort of an ad-blocking software installed by 2018. This figure does look too hard to digest, especially since PageFair.com is a company that helps websites identify how much money they are losing due to ad-blocking, so it is understandable that they may exaggerate, but it is a sign showing the direction in which web could well be moving. There is also a free plugin for WordPress users that can tell them how many percent of their users use some sort of ad blocker.

Over 20% of visitors to general interest websites are blocking ads. The worst affected sites are those that target more technically savvy audiences, such as games and technology sites like this one.  More than 30% of the visitors to these sites block advertising.

But ad blocking is expected to cross 50% soon.

Online Advertisers

Google with its products AdWords & AdSense is by far the most powerful online advertising company. Google with a market capitalization of around $ 300 billion, comes 3rd after Exxon and Apple.  In 2012, it made around $44 billion from online advertising, 68% of which came from Google’s own sites, 27% from its ad network and 5% from other sources. The stakes are thus high for Google. It cannot see the online advertising business shrink or die – no way! I am mentioning Google here since it is the largest online advertising network.

The war begins

AdBlockers, Anti-AdBlockers & Anti-AdBlocker script disablers

To counter Ad Blockers, some websites came up with the idea of blocking content to visitors who use ad blockers. That is, if a website detects that the browser is using an ad blocker of any type, it will give a message asking the users to disable the ad blocker so that they can view the content. Many such Anti-Adblock scripts are freely available on the net, including a free WordPress plugin to block Adblock users. There are several techniques to block Adblock users on your website.

Arstechnica some time back, experimented for 12 hours by blocking users who had ad blockers installed. Dating site OKCupid used to ask ad-block users to donate $5 to support the site. I do not know if they are still doing it, but these are just a few examples. Reddit too, I believe offers its users an ad-free experience for a small monthly fee.

Could this pave the way for a subscription model then? There are already some news sites and blogs who ask you to pay, to be able to read beyond the first paragraph or two.

Facebook has now pro-actively taken steps to circumvent ad blockers and show ads, despite users using them.

The game continues!

To counter this, Anti-AdBlocker script disablers are now available as free downloads for Firefox and Chrome browsers. These browser plugins disable the anti-adblocker scripts which such websites use and allow them to view the content.

A former Googler has started SourcePoint.com that promises to fight AdBlockers.

Google, in March 2013, removed Adblock from the Android Store. This has had a significant impact on user growth says the developers of AdBlock.

The bombshell!

Users trust ad-blockers to block all advertising and other non-essential bells and whistles like the social sharing bars, tracking codes, etc. But what is little known that some ad blocker software companies have started accepting fees for white-listing ads from select companies?

A case in focus is the very popular Adblock Plus. By introducing the concept of “Acceptable Ads“, it will now be in a position to decide who sees ads, what kind of ads and whose ads! In a survey carried out, it found that only 25% of Adblock Plus users were strictly against any advertising. Thus seems to have born the idea of Acceptable Ads. In all fairness, Adblock has laid down some strict conditions for getting the ads whitelisted. Moreover, one has to realize, ad blockers too have expenses to pay, have you thought of that? So where do they make money from? From using the only tool they have! Adblock Plus says this fee is about helping it to maintain its filter list.

There are reports that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Taboola pay to get ads past Adblock Plus.

Google and some other companies have started funding, in part, AdBlock Plus. By paying a fee to Adblock, they can get their advertisements allowed under the Acceptable Ads whitelist. This has triggered an intense discussion on Hacker News. Some and not all, advertisements of some companies are allowed as per the white list. These include those from Google, Amazon, SmartSearch, gmx.fr, livestrong.com, fusionads.com, banner.t-online.de, gutefrage.net, etc.

Two problems here as I see!

The trust of web surfers who use this adblocking software is being compromised. Some may feel that AdBlock has started selling them out, by encashing their trust. Such ad blockers will now decide which advertisements its users will see.

This could breed unfair and monopolistic practices in the online advertising world. A powerful company could pay enough to “maintain” the whitelist of such ad blockers, to allow its own advertisements and block ads from its competitors. Who knows the definition of Acceptable Ads itself could change over time!

Ad blockers could well acquire immense power in the future!

More ad blockers would get into the game. Some may start up with noble ideas on being independent, but they may soon get sucked in by some online advertiser.

Possible solutions

There has to be a better mechanism in place that satisfies all concerned, viz. content publishers, users of websites, online advertisers & ad blockers.

The first method we can see is opt-in advertising. The websites can provide users with a feature to select the kind of ads they would want to see. Though the Internet marketing agencies and social networking sites already keep tracking you on the Internet to track your interests, in order to provide you with relevant ads, the procedure of allowing users to select what types of ads they would like to see will remove much confusion. You have such a practice partially implemented on Facebook. If you do not like a particular ad, you can close it and specify what interests you. This method just needs to be refined, implemented by the websites and presented to the ad blockers, so that they can check against their database to decide whether or not to block ads. In this case, it becomes the duty/obligation of an ad network to maintain a database of users and their interests so that they can display opt-in advertisements. It would have to be a collaboration between the website and ad networks to identify the user interests per what s/he opted in for.

The second method too involves a little research. Browser Ad Blockers can survey which websites a user frequents. Based on the frequency of visits, the Ad Blockers can choose to allow advertisements on websites. That way, it will help both the website publishers and website users. The former can still earn while the latter knows s/he likes the content and in turn, allows adverts to be loaded.

Online URL scanners monitor websites and report if they are unsafe to visit. Could the ad-blocking community scan sites and block ads of only those who use excessive ads, pop-ups, etc. – and let go of the others who display a reasonable amount of nonintrusive ads. Could that be a possibility?

UPDATE: Google has launched a Contributor program that lets users block ads.

If this continues, I will not be surprised if we see a shift away from a free ad-supported Internet as we know it today, to a closed pay-for-the-content platform, dominated by select quality websites.

Till an alternative model or business strategy to finance or sustain the “free” Internet is found, online advertising is here to stay. Websites will advertise, adblockers will block, websites may block ad-blocker users, users will then use the anti-ad-blocker add-ons now available, online advertisers will pay adblockers to get their ads whitelisted, and so on.

Questions

1) Will ad blocking software companies be engaging in ethical behavior if they were to accept money and allow ‘acceptable ads’?

2) Would you as a user, voluntarily disable your ad blocker for some sites or whitelist some sites, like say, this one?

We would be grateful to you if you were to decide to whitelist TheWindowsClub.com and support us.

3) Will a day come when a company like, say, Google buys, say, a popular ad-blocker like AdBlock? It would be a potent weapon in the hands of Google to selectively allow only their own ads and stifle out the competition.

It’s too early to speculate, and we will have to wait for Time to unravel events!

Till then, enjoy this comic Tech Of Joy on The case for using (or not using) an Ad Blocker.

Updated on 15th Sept 2019.

With inputs from Arun Kumar

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