Free Republic

The experiment is meant to urge users to disable their ad blockers or subscribe to YouTube Premium. YouTube is looking to take a more aggressive approach in preventing viewers from using ad blockers while watching videos on its platform. As BleepingComputer reports, people have been posting screenshots on social networks like Reddit that show a pop-up notice warning them that their player will be blocked after three videos. The warning says YouTube will block their ability to play videos on the platform unless they disable their ad blocker or add the website to their white list. "Ads allow YouTube to...

On the other hand, everyone was busy blasting Google for a similar plan in Chrome. There's been much said about Google's supposed plans to limit the power of ad blockers in Chrome, but something similar has already happened in Safari, and not that many people have noticed, let alone criticize Apple. Over the course of the last year and a half, Apple has effectively neutered ad blockers in Safari, something that Google has been heavily criticized all this year. But unlike Google, Apple never received any flak, and came out of the whole process with a reputation of caring about...

I am not much of a vanity poster. This morning I have noticed that Firefox had disabled my browser extensions for Ghostery and Adblock plus. I tried to install several other adblock anti-trackers and none of them will install. I have tried to re-install them yet I am denied. I hate to wave goodbye to Firefox as I have been onboard since the Netscape days. But, I cannot get these extensions to install no matter what I do and I will dump them if they want to force the issue

On January 8th, ExtremeTech published a piece about Forbes forcing users to disable their ad blockers in order to see any content, and guess what happened. Malware. For the past few weeks, Forbes.com has been forcing visitors to disable ad blockers if they want to read its content. Visitors to the site with Adblock or uBlock enabled are told they must disable it if they wish to see any Forbes content. Thanks to Forbes’ interstitial ad and quote of the day, Google caching doesn’t capture data properly, either.What sets Forbes apart, in this case, is that it didn’t just force...

Ad-blockers may seem like an answer to an internet user’s prayers. No annoying pop-ups, no promos before videos and no concerns about accidentally clicking on a virus. But for ad-driven websites, they’re a revenue leech that needs to be pried off. This is becoming one of the internet's biggest debates. More countries are cracking down on ad-blockers—the EU’s European Commission even proposed a rule this week that would allow media companies to ban users who use ad-blockers. The debate is no longer on the fringes with tech’s biggest names, including Facebook, weighing in. “Ads support our mission of giving people...

I just have to get this off my chest, websites in general have become incredibly annoying! Videos play that I don't want to watch, I start reading something and a pop comes up asking me sign up for an email I will never ever read, flash ads give me the dizzy;s, your bullshit plugins give me script errors and on average you leave 10-15 tracking cookies. And you folks are surprised people are using ad blocker? If someone comes up with annoying blocker you are screwed! Concentrate on user experience and then revenue, I just flat out leave websites I...