Comments on: The Ad-Blocker’s Dilemma

By: Interesting Links, March 2010 | An Eclectic Mind

Interesting Links, March 2010 | An Eclectic Mind — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:23:35 +0000

[...] The Ad-Blocker’s Dilemma – Some interesting thoughts on blocking ads on Web sites. On PlagiarismToday.com. [...]

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:27:29 +0000

Well, if you don't wanna see my page with ads included, then I don't wanna show you my page at all.
Seems strait, simple and fair enough!

By: armac

armac — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:03:00 +0000

I really think that a blogger writing in English should learn to write English.

By: Online Revenue Business Models | Ezebis

Online Revenue Business Models | Ezebis — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:15:22 +0000

[...] The Ad-Blocker’s Dilemma (plagiarismtoday.com) [...]

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:55:07 +0000

Nah, when you visit a website, your computer says "hey can I have a copy of this page?" The website says "yes" and sends you a copy.Completely analogous to me asking a newspaper vendor for a newspaper and him giving me one (only the costs are different).

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:51:16 +0000

Yeah, but what's the harm in breaking a sites TOS? Especially if its one you never accepted? Usually from what I've seen the penalty is "you can't use our site anymore".If you, the site owner, crack down on me or try to enforce that TOS (unless your site is google.com) I'm probably going to be mad enough with you that I won't use your site voluntarily anyways.

By: davidellis101

davidellis101 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:56:36 +0000

The issue is not whether to block or not to block it is more fundamental.There is an implicit assumption that advertising in its current format will continue as it has always done. In other words an industrial-age concept of billboards can be successfully grafted onto the information superhighway.This is working at the moment only because an information age alternative has not yet emerged where vendors can meet with consumers in a more efficient, less intrusive and more cost-effective environment.Information age advertising mediums are inevitable and are starting to appear right now. One example is the Customer Satisfaction Monitor which has recently been launched. This Customer Satisfaction Monitor (http://www.customersatisfactionmonitor.com) answers the three most important pre-purchase questions and introduces a new step into the sales process. Advertisers can now target prospects at a very crucial point in the sales process much more cost-effectively and less intrusively because the consumer is in control.As an advertiser it will be increasingly uneconomical to advertise elsewhere because potential customers will be ambushed at services like the Customer Satisfaction Monitor. Industrial-age advertising will, as a result, wither on the vine.For those services relying on advertising it is time to rethink your revenue model.

By: Eric Harbeson

Eric Harbeson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:35:03 +0000

Great that you're bringing this up. I just have a couple of small points:For a number of reasons, I doubt that ad-blocking could be considered the creation of an infringing derivative work. In large part, this is because under normal circumstances the copyright on the work in question (say, an AT article) extends only to the content of the work itself. If I run a website that serves ads, I own the rights to my blog post, but the advertising agency retains the copyright on their ads. If the website's ads are blocked, whose copyright is being infringed? Not the advertiser's, and they wouldn't care anyway because they only pay when their ad is seen. Unless you can convince a court that the specific ad is part of the fixation of your work (which might be especially hard if the advertisements are controlled on a different server and/or are served on a rotating basis), I think you'll have an uphill battle.I doubt, too, that TOS clauses prohibiting ad-blocking would be enforceable. The opinion in ProCD v. Zeidenberg (86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir., 1996)) suggests, to me at least, that this option would not be available unless, at the very least, the user was required to agree to the terms prior to opening the desired page.I understand the concerns of website managers, but I think the solutions to the problem will need to be found outside the courts and congress. My 2¢ anyway…

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:53:09 +0000

Although I seem to have developed the ability to mentally block out ads, there are some cases when I just can't seem to do it. Those cases have the following in common:- So many ads that ad space occupies more page space than actual content.- Disgusting or annoying ads (think fat women in bikinis, yellow teeth, blinking lists of states).- Ads that appear when you simply move your mouse near/over them.- Ads that make noise.If I can't block ads I don't want to see on a site, I simply stop visiting that site.Also, I've found the Readability (http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/) utility extremely helpful for reading good content on ad-laden sites. It basically takes the content only and displays it on a page that's easy to read.I should also mention here that I actually go out of my way to click Google ads on sites I like and want to support. It's my way of paying for content. But in all cases, these sites aren't so full of ads that you can't find the content. Ad space should NEVER take up more space than real content on any site.

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:12:49 +0000

To be completely fair to Facebook, if all it took to create a site of that caliber was to build a social networking platform, I think its safe to say they would have been obliterated a long time ago. Running a site like Facebook takes a lot more than that, there's promotion, member management, legal issues, server maintenance, site maintenance and more. Facebook employs hundreds of people full time and that costs quite a bit of money.While I am sure you could easily create a social network for you and your family/friends to participate, much of sites like Facebook is connecting with new people and that's an experience that requires a larger, more open network, a big part of the reason why they left the "EDU" phase.In short, to create the services that everyone enjoys, money has to come in at some point.