Ad blockers are incredibly controversial right now, especially since there are numerous websites out there that are relying on advertising as their main income source. Therefore, it makes sense for these websites to speak out against these browser add-ons, but some of them have begun to take action recently, particularly in France. Indeed, several large media sites have taken a joint stance against ad blockers by asking users to disable them in order to view their content. Some of these media sites include RTL, L’Equipe and Le Monde, but other smaller publishers, as well as the music streaming service Deezer, have also joined this protest.
Companies such as Le Parisien and L’Equipe require users to disable ad blockers completely in order to enjoy access to their websites while others simply ask users nicely to whitelist their publication because they rely financially on advertisements. Trade association Geste announced its plans to create this joint action last year, and it emphasized the fact that “content and services are not free.” Apparently, 27 percent of internet users in France have some form of ad blocking extension installed, which is much more than any other country in the world. Do you use ad-blocking software, and if you do, did you whitelist the websites that you are visiting often?
Yes I do, because the adds became increasingly ANNOYING AS FUCK
I don’t mind small ads, or banner ads, but when I’m reading an article and a huge pop-up takes over the entire page that’s too far, and that’s why we need ad-blockers. Stop doing that and maybe I’ll consider disabling ad-block. Any website that tries to force me to disable ad-block before showing me the content, will simply be closed.
I use it because I tire of being targeted. When I’m browsing a tech site I shouldn’t be seeing ads for Guitar Center or Autozone. Despite the fact that I have DNT enabled on my browser. I also find it horrible that websites have 10 or more animated flash ads going that completely screw with page loading times. And then there’s the ads with sound that start playing despite the fact that you’re trying to watch video content on the page. Websites brought this upon themselves by being shitty with their advertising. Want me to view your ads? Fine, give me static banners or adwords or sidebar ads. I’m good with that. Stop the site hosing bandwidth hogging flash ads and the uber creepy targeted ads and we’re buds. Until then, stop whining about it, you pushed me into using it.
Aggressive advertising is what ruins everything, internet or not. Tracking and targeted ads, as well as lowest common denominator bait ads and malware ads just assures our choices in adblockers. May be if the corporate boneheads did not only think of themselves and thought of the users a bit more…
I usee an adblocker on a lot of sites, the ones I visit regular I always leave open as I understand they need to make money from it. The problem is even I struggle with that as far too many ads take over the screen, blast your speakers with sound or cause a huge disruption. Maybe if you plonkers weren’t designing them to be so intrusive people wouldn’t mind so much.
If we were talking about one or two unobtrusive ads, I might be persuaded. But in the time it took me to read those two paragraphs, ABP stopped 27 ads. I didn’t choose to install an adblocker, I was driven because I was being overwhelmed.