Prophylactic browsing
The New York Times has a thoughtful piece discussing the pros and cons of using software that blocks out ads on browsers. The application in question, Adblock plus, has been quite controversial of late, mostly because it works. What it does is to "white out" the ads on a given website's page. Some ad-dependent sites have taken to blocking Firefox as a way of stopping Adblock.
Advertisers also hate it. The 'S' word is often invoked by those in the advertising business to describe ad blockers--"stealing". Similar sentiments have been expressed by television networks in regards to Tivo or movie studios to "Pirates."
It's time for content providers to wake up and smell the Java. The effective way to advertise is to make the advertising appealing, not intrusive. For every Doubleclick, there will always be an Adblock.
Posted on September 04, 2007
