Popular Firefox add-on, AdBlock Plus, is ticking off a lot of website owners by blocking ads on their websites. To many website owners, revenue generated from advertisement helps to pay for expensive hosting costs. In retaliation, some websites are calling to block Firefox users all together. Let’s look at the argument from both sides:
AdBlock is the greatest invention mankind has ever known!
Personally as a user who spent hours visiting different websites daily, I think AdBlock works extremely well in blocking all ads on every website I visit. It cuts down loading time tremendously. It’s even more useful in sites where the advertisements are extremely intrusive. Take a look at the following images of ESPN homepage with AdBlock on and off.
AdBlock On
AdBlock Off
As you can see, AdBlock successfully got rid of the ad banner at the top and the ad block on the right.
Fundamentally, I hate it when people tell me what I can do and cannot do on my own browser. I should be able to install whatever I want on my machine. Now, if I am consciously making the choice to install AdBlock, most likely I won’t be clicking on the advertisement anyway. So, the publisher didn’t really lose any potential ad revenue in me.
AdBlock is evil and should be banned from all browsers!
As a blog publisher myself, AdBlock is the last thing I want to see people using when they view my blog. Granted, I don’t make a whole lot from ads, but every little bit does help to cover my hosting cost. Now, my argument is that if you choose to visit my website, then you should be bound to my terms of agreement. One of my rules is that you do not change the content and appearance of my website in any form. AdBlock significantly changes the appearance of my website by removing ad banners and ad blocks. In the case of ESPN homepage, it makes the site looks uneven on the right side.
I put a lot of effort in maintaining the site and coming up with contents for readers to enjoy. If all of the sudden all of my readers install AdBlock, I would have no choice but to start charging people for coming to my website to recoup loss in advertising revenue. Doing that may cause most of my readers to walk away from visiting my website at all. But hey, someone’s got to pay for the service. If I am putting in my time and effort to deliver the content, at least the readers should pick up the tab. You may be fine in walking away from my small blog, but it’s becoming a trend that all major websites now carry advertisement. Besides ESPN, have you seen Facebook, Yahoo, CNN, … If they don’t get their advertising revenue, someone else will pay.
Conclusion!
As you can see, both sides present very sound arguments. There’s no doubt that AdBlock is a great product. But its impact on the online advertisement industry cannot be overlooked. Remember, online advertising is not evil. It helps to pay for some of the costs so that you and I can get access to contents or services for free. Running a website isn’t cheap. Taking away the ad revenue will just make it less enjoyable for website owners to continue to maintain the site. This may lead to a decline in quality of blogs and smaller websites. The bigger websites will simply make you and I pay for their costs one way or another. So, you may think that it’s your freedom to use AdBlock, but in reality you will pay for it sometime in the future.
What’s the best solution? Use AdBlock only when you must. Let’s say if you are researching random websites, go ahead and turn on AdBlock to avoid the annoying ads. But, when you are visiting a site that you enjoy often, go ahead and turn AdBlock off. You may not like the ads, but if you like the site, you can live with the ads. Think of it as a token of appreciation to the site owners for providing free content or service.
