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Rise of Ad-Blocking Software Threatens Online Revenue (NY Times)
NY Times ^ | MAY 30, 2016 | By MARK SCOTT

Posted on 05/30/2016 8:17:17 PM PDT by dennisw

Many of the world’s largest Internet companies, like Google and Facebook, rely heavily on advertising to finance their online empires.

But that business model is increasingly coming under threat, with one in five smartphone users, or almost 420 million people worldwide, blocking advertising when browsing the web on cellphones. That represents a 90 percent annual increase, according to a new report from PageFair, a start-up that helps to recoup some of this lost advertising revenue, and Priori Data, a company that tracks smartphone applications.

The use of ad-blocking software has divided the online world. Supporters say it allows people to get better access to content without having to suffer through abrasive ads. Opponents, particularly companies that rely on advertising, say blocking ads violates the implicit contract that people agree to when viewing online material, much of which is paid for by digital advertising.

Mobile ad blockers, though, have become particularly widespread in emerging markets, where people are more reliant on their smartphones to use the Internet.

Already, 36 percent of the smartphone users in the Asia-Pacific region have so-called ad-blocking browsers on their mobile devices, allowing them to remove online ads when they use the Internet. In India and Indonesia — two of the world’s fastest-growing Internet markets — that figure is almost two-thirds of smartphone users, according to the report.

“We found the results surprising because in the West we don’t often consider what’s going on in developing countries,” said Sean Blanchfield, chief executive of PageFair. “It’s only a matter of time until mobile ad blocking comes to the West.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Miscellaneous; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: adblocker; addblocker; adobe; flash; scc; trash
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1 posted on 05/30/2016 8:17:17 PM PDT by dennisw
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To: dennisw

duh


2 posted on 05/30/2016 8:18:42 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: dennisw

Imagine reading a newspaper and having someone keep putting another piece of paper in front of what you are reading. Extremely rude. The pop ups are out of control.


3 posted on 05/30/2016 8:20:03 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:23)
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To: dennisw

I use>>>
Ghostery
U Bock Origin
FlashBlock

I have to use them or Firefox gets really bogged down and memory& CPU use goes through the roof as seen on windows task manager.
I use similar blockers on Chrome.
I rarely use windoze Explorer or Edge

Ghostery is really a tracker blocker not an ad blocker


4 posted on 05/30/2016 8:21:36 PM PDT by dennisw (The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong)
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To: aimhigh

Firefox with Adblocker Plus works for me


5 posted on 05/30/2016 8:22:25 PM PDT by UB355 (Slower traffic keep right)
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To: dennisw

But who will be laughing when you’ll have to start paying Google to search?


6 posted on 05/30/2016 8:22:33 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dennisw
what are these things called ads of which they speak???
7 posted on 05/30/2016 8:25:28 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - Luke, 22:36)
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To: dennisw

These ads are getting really annoying, like redirecting you to another website when you click read more.


8 posted on 05/30/2016 8:29:39 PM PDT by dila813 (Voting for Trump to Punish Trumpets!)
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To: dennisw

They csn blame it on the very annoying manner in which ads make it impossible to read pages.

I don’t mind ads and I accept them. But when the page bounces around ro much that I can’t click something or have to continually find my place again as I read, forget it.


9 posted on 05/30/2016 8:32:27 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: dennisw

I’ve been using the SlimJet browser from Chrome lately and really like it. Streamlined and fast. Has it’s own Ad Block Plus. Javascript can be turned off.

Get a kick out of sites begging for the ad block to be turned off and js to be turned on :)


10 posted on 05/30/2016 8:33:14 PM PDT by upchuck (I'm hanging here until my Free Republic 401K is fully vested.)
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To: aimhigh

These people killed the golden goose. Pop-ups, talking ads, ad traps, and so on. A REASONABLE number of them are tolerable. People gotta eat :), and, I’m very aware that good stuff is not free. I have a DVR but very often I DO watch interesting or funny ads, sometimes more than once if they are really good. It can be done with some creative effort.

And, the faster internet is just barely keeping pace with these bandwidth-sucks. There are sites I’m on that politely ask that you turn ad-blocker off, and those sites have a reasonable number of ads, some of which are actually of interest to me.


11 posted on 05/30/2016 8:36:29 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: dennisw

Many of the ads are full of malware!!!!

An increasing number of Net users have adblockers that were installed by security companies after recovering from a hack.

If Web companies and advertisers work with adblocker makers to design ads that are free of malware and are allowed by the adblocker, all can live in peace. But the Web companies (including the New York Times) are unwilling to do that.


12 posted on 05/30/2016 8:37:07 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: dennisw

I use ad-block plus and ad-block ultimate. Some websites without them are unreadable as they will not load fast or are constantly refreshing or the ads themselves are distracting winking and blinking.


13 posted on 05/30/2016 8:39:44 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: aimhigh
Imagine reading a newspaper and having someone keep putting another piece of paper in front of what you are reading. Extremely rude. The pop ups are out of control.

Everytime that happens, I immediately delete the ad, without even glancing at the content. By the third time, I delete the link. I don't have time to waste on stupidly written URL pages. The other type I hate is the URL promising 30, 40, or 50 photos of something, only to force you to see one photo per page with popup ads, and force you to click to another page to see the next photo. Again, I'm out of there. Stupidly written web sites won't keep me as a customer, I'm avoiding them.

14 posted on 05/30/2016 8:43:12 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: dfwgator

“But who will be laughing when you’ll have to start paying Google to search?”
_______

Will never happen. They make a fortune just aggregating and selling your data. Far more intrusive than the average person believes.


15 posted on 05/30/2016 8:43:25 PM PDT by The Continental Op
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To: dfwgator
But who will be laughing when you’ll have to start paying Google to search?

There are plenty of other search sites, and they are better than Google because some of them don't track you or record your data. Some even act as proxies to hide your origination from the destination. Google is allied with the government snoops.

16 posted on 05/30/2016 8:45:18 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: dennisw

The site owners and ad content creators have no one to blame but themselves for this. I am totally fine with non-intrusive ads, but that’s not what you get. You get stuff flying around the screen, obscuring content, auto-playing video and audio, unconstrained Javascript and Flash that heats up your device and/or drains the battery. Breitbart.com is a great example of a site like that. I had to enable the Ad Blocker on it as a defensive measure more than anything else.


17 posted on 05/30/2016 8:46:29 PM PDT by Scutter
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To: dennisw

Web site designers brought it on themselves.

Some web pages are so full of junk that they take forever to load.

On some, it takes a lot of effort to find what you want because of all of the junk stuff.

The Daily Caller is a good example.


18 posted on 05/30/2016 8:48:03 PM PDT by old curmudgeon
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To: dennisw

NYT is just whining because they have no revenue model. Hey, join the crowd.


19 posted on 05/30/2016 8:49:35 PM PDT by DaxtonBrown (wrote Harry Reid.s only biography www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: dila813

Ad what is worse is the other site that locks you in.


20 posted on 05/30/2016 8:50:36 PM PDT by old curmudgeon
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