Rise of Ad-Blocking Software Threatens Online Revenue (NY Times)

NY Times ^ | MAY 30, 2016 | By MARK SCOTT

[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.”

[McGruff]

Ghostery, U Bock Origin, FlashBlock is a good list. I also use an application called HostMan to update the windows host file to block many sites before they even reach your PC.

http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman

[The Louiswu]

Ping for later read

[IamConservative]

I’ve noticed some sites now won’t let you read content unless you disable adblockers.

[4yearlurker]

I agree. How much is to much? Any site that I can’t read because of ads I never visit again.

[T. P. Pole]

If the ads weren’t so obnoxious I wouldn’t be so set on blocking them. They overplayed their hand, what do they expect.

[PAR35]

I used to just block scripts, and allow static ads, but after the majors started serving up ads loaded with ransomware, I got more aggressive in my blocking.

I understand the need for ads, but until the big companies start behaving ethically, I’m not going to put myself at risk.

[dennisw]

indeed. but i found ghostery and flashblock broke too many websites, so i use adblock plus and set the flash plugin to always ask to be activated. i almost never have to activate flash except occasionally to view a vid clip. Even that does break a few websites that were stupid enough to be programmed almost entirely in flash. nonetheless,setting flash for manual activation made a gigantic improvement in firefox performance.

I am going to give your way a try on firefox  (adblock plus and set the flash plugin to always ask to be activated)

[Rusty0604]

It is irritating. I don’t see how anyone would want to click on one of those ads under those circumstances.

[Rusty0604]

That’s right. My son pays Google for that.

[JimRed]

Does anyone anywhere actually buy anything from an unsolicited online ad? I never have.

[dennisw]

Does anyone anywhere actually buy anything from an unsolicited online ad? I never have

I have once or twice from Amazon placing its targeted adds all over sites I go to based on what I have previously looked at, at Amazon. Amazon has effective brainwashing.

[JimRed]

Since I never looked at Amazon I guess they leave me alone. Mrs. JimRed’s another story...

[Captain Peter Blood]

I appreciate those ad blockers and such you posted for Firefox. I had been noticing for a long time my computer was running sluggish and I figured it was because of all the ads and video ad on’s on so many of these sites.

Right after I added these on the Firefox browser I could see immediately that things ran so much better. Thanks again.

[dennisw]

Glad to help! I learned from other freepers
Ghostery
U Block Origin
FlashBlock
Ad Block Plus
______

I have been using Ghostery but at the moment I am using
U Block Origin
FlashBlock
Ad Block Plus

Which is overkill. Flashblock is solid but really I could just use one of the other two.
_________

Windows task manager tells you how the computer is functioning. You can get there by pressing>>
control
shift
escape
at the same time then pin it to task bar for easy quick access

[dennisw]

If you use Chrome sometimes there are chrome versions of these blockers

[Colorado Doug]

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

There were search engines before Google, there will be search engines after google. Honestly, I think that many of the search engines before Google were better. It seems like Google is always trying to steer me to alibaba or some such thing.

[Colorado Doug]

This may come as an incredible revelation for the greedy, but the worst offenders are sites (all over the place) listing the "20 top (name a topic) that you can't believe! I don't think anybody at any time goes beyond "2" Are those folks brain dead? or just stoopid?

I don't know about all that but if you just click here I'll show you this weird trick, discovered by a mom that eliminates advertisements forever!

[Mears]

“”20 top (name a topic) that you can’t believe! “

---

I saw one once that was a slideshow of beautiful celebs who had ugly spouses.

Who on earth would bother with that????

.