Ad blockers rise as ads annoy, bog down websites

While Marco Arment, publisher of the Peace ad blocker pulled down the app from iOS store citing ethical concerns, others seems to be cashing in on this opportunity.

Now publishers, the IAB and industry observers are legitimately concerned by an increase in awareness and usage of ad blockers, as evidenced by the immediate adoption of Peace and other iOS 9 apps.

Eyeo GmbH, the company behind popular desktop ad-blocking tool Adblock Plus, now accepts payment from around 70 companies in exchange for letting their ads through its filter.

On iOS 9, you can long-press the Refresh button to view a page without ad blockers.

But there’s another side to the equation. The company likes to shroud the issue with a clean blanket and call them as “acceptable ads” policy according to which “minimal intrusive” ads will be served to the users, but the question still remains the same – is ad-blocker more of a revenue generating machine or it does have a utilitarian background to it. We do agree that as of now customers can choose whether they want to see the acceptable ads or not but again it wont surprise us if application publishers will design a workaround for that one too.

Some have even predicted the end of the free internet. Because the problems ad-blockers are created to solve are real, and they run a lot deeper than mere inconvenience.

And demand for online advertising isn’t suddenly dissipating either.

I personally find native advertisements an abomination and find it peculiar that the Times, which fancied itself the arbiter of ethics in the world of journalism, would so easily adopt the idea. Will you stop using the app in light of this news? Then VCRs and PVRs allowed them to fast-forward through the breaks. Given enough pushback, advertisers will figure out ways to make their ads less obnoxious and less processor-intensive.

You also can’t buy Kindle books or streaming Amazon videos in the Amazon shopping app for iOS, although you can use that app to shop for anything else. It’ll also remove a portion of ads on websites.

Ad blocking software is not new and there are tools being used in response to them.

Often, this blocking occurs at the network routing level. More broadly, consumers from all three countries spend more time viewing content from smartphones or tablets than they do PCs. Apple is directly taking on Google, and by providing a smoother and more elegant web browsing experience, hopes to steal a march on the Silicon Valley neighbours. You only cancel out as many ads as you pay for. More human input and imagination, in both the creation and placing of advertising, will help improve the craft, as will the intelligent use and interpretation of data.

Look, I’m not saying technology isn’t important.

Native advertising offers the industry (including hard-press media owners) perhaps the most exciting possibilities.

The Washington Post has been testing whether visitors with ad blockers installed would respond to being redirected to a page that asks them to pay for a subscription.

The problem these media owners face is acute.

Are we getting worked up too soon?

But Murphy said he isn’t looking to gain financially from the deal. However he doesn’t seem to share David Frew’s pessimism.

While the dispute about ad-blocking extensions has been ongoing, it’s been kicked into overdrive by the controversy surrounding the ad blockers that are already available for download on your iPhone. Given the option, many people would banish ads without much thought. It’s only a matter of time until a major browser ships with ad blocking turned on by default. “Achieving this much success with Peace just doesn’t feel good, which I didn’t anticipate, but probably should have”, he wrote on his blog. So relax, publishers. Ad blockers won’t destroy you tomorrow.

That’s because, according to a new report, just over half of all United Kingdom adspend will be digital next year, Carat has predicted, with the total market growing by 6.4 per cent in 2015.

It grows for one simple reason: TV advertising continues to work. It’s equally naive for marketers to believe that they can flood the web with auto-playing videos, giant banners, and full-screen ads without annoying users.