Comments on: Ad Blocking Isn’t Evil, Just Misguided

By: studebaker hoch

studebaker hoch — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:53:44 +0000

Motion has an overpowering effect on human peripheral vision. I don’t know what marketing genius decided to exploit this fact, but I can tell you that no only does it work in getting my attention, it’s so annoying as to get me to make a mental note of which products never to buy for as long as I live.

OTOH I’ve never blocked a text-only ad that keeps to itself far away from the content.

If you show me respect, by remaining discrete and unobtrusive, I may just read what it is you’re saying instead of instantly adding a filter so it never bothers me again.

By: David

David — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:45:47 +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: Udo Schroeter

Udo Schroeter — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:27:10 +0000

The reason people are using AdBlock (and other plugins) is not that they categorically hate ads and don’t want content providers to earn money. They use it because even the average Flash ads have become epilepsy-inducing, CPU-hogging, eye cancer-inducing abominations that nobody should be required to display on their screens. It’s not advertisement, it’s abuse. It’s an appalling shouting match between companies vying for attention that does nothing but turn customers away. It’s visual spam.

If you want to give me text-based, content-appropriate ads, go ahead. If you publish a sponsored review article once in a while, sure I’ll have a look at that product. But no way do site owners get to call AdBlock users thieves with any justification. Billboard advertising is over, I won’t let them put its braindead carcass on life support for a few more years courtesy of my computing resources.

And by the way, my life would continue to be perfectly fine without visiting Ars Technica ever again.