Why Using an Ad Blocker Can be a Bad Idea > NetSparsh

Home
>
Personal Technology
>
Why Using an Ad Blocker Can be a Bad Idea

Why Using an Ad Blocker Can be a Bad Idea

Ad Blocking is getting to be a common sport on the internet. Now there are some legitimate uses for an ad blocker. Some ad companies resort to downright harassment when serving their ads using annoying pop ups, flying ads, floating ads and the like. Blocking these types of ads are not a problem. Using an ad blocker though to block all ads on a site including text ads, banner ads, etc is wrong and here's why.

Free Information makes the Internet Valuable.

Do you like getting free news from major news sources? How about the latest weather for free? Do you like being able to use a search engine to find information on a topic that interests you? How do you think the companies that run these services can afford to give this information away for free? It's because they charge advertisers who display advertisements on pages where this free information is found.

How useful would the Internet be if it was Ad Free?

Without ads, there would be much less commercial business transacted online. Would it eliminate it completely? No. But there would be much less of it. Now, some people think that would be a good thing but stop to think about it. If you take away all free news sources like CNN, NY Times, and all major news sources, then take away all Travel sites, then cut the number of free information websites on almost any topic by 95% and what kind of internet are we left with?

Would everything be a disaster on the Internet without ads?

Having email being spam free would be nice but blocking spam is a lot less precise than using an ad blocker to eliminate all kinds of ads. If we had no pop ups to worry about the Internet would be nicer, but most people already get this with the latest browsers.

I am all in favor of eliminating intrusive advertising methods like pop ups and spyware but I think the whole idea of blocking all ads is short sighted. Tools certainly exist to block almost all forms of advertising online. I would urge you though to think twice before you activate ad blocking on all forms of advertising.

Non intrusive, in-context advertising can actually help you

I can't count the number of times I've been on a web page that didn't have exactly what I was looking for but an ad on that site did. Same thing when searching Google. Sometimes the listings are not relevant to the kind of information I'm after but the ads on the side or the top are.

Is all advertising evil? Of course not. Many forms of advertising can actually be helpful. Next time you're thinking about blocking that text or banner ad, think twice. You may need access to an advertiser in the future. What's the harm in that?

Joe Duchesne is the owner of Yowling.com. Yowling is a web hosting company that offers a web site builder that allows you to create a professional website in no time flat. Reprint freely as long as you keep the live keyword rich link found in this resource box.

In The News:

This RSS feed URL is deprecated, please update. New URLs can be found in the footers at https://news.google.com/news

New York Times
The Benefits (and Limits) of Using Tech to Plan a Wedding
New York Times
Because of the deeply personal nature of a wedding, you can't just plan everything with a few taps on a smartphone or by sitting in front of a computer. Eventually you will have to talk to lots of people the old school way: on the phone or in person.

New York Times
When a Tech Reporter Doesn't Use Much Tech
New York Times
How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? David Streitfeld, a technology reporter in San Francisco, discussed the tech he's using — and not using. For a tech journalist, you don't use a lot of tech ...

New York Times
How to Convert Photo Files in Bulk
New York Times
Q. I have hundreds of TIFF-formatted photos. Is there an efficient way to convert these photos to JPG all at once? A. Just as you can rename multiple photos at once through “batch processing,” you can convert a large collection of images from one file ...

88.9 KETR
Businesses Need To 'Mind The Gap' Between Office Tech And Personal Tech
88.9 KETR
Our personal technology commentator, Jeremy Gamez, comments on a recent article emphasizing that businesses wanting to attract the brightest young employees need to be sure that their office technology is as good as Millennials' personal technology.

New York Times
Add Pictures to Android Contacts
New York Times
Q. How do I add an Android contact photo for someone who doesn't already have one so I can see something besides initials in a circle? A. Start by opening the Contacts app on your Android device and selecting the contact you'd like to dress up with a ...

New York Times
How the 52 Places Traveler Stays Charged While Chronicling the World
New York Times
How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Jada Yuan, who is crisscrossing the globe as The Times's 52 Places Traveler, discussed the tech she's using. You are endlessly traveling, and you must have to ...

New York Times
How to Go Back to the Old Gmail
New York Times
Q. I tried to get used to the new Gmail web design, but I just don't like it. Can I go back to the old one? A. For the time being, Google is keeping around the previous version of Gmail on the web, and you can revert to the old look from the inbox ...

New York Times
What Europe's Google Fine Means for Android Users
New York Times
American government officials have expressed interest in taking a tougher stance on regulating tech companies, but Europe has largely acted by itself in its regulatory actions against Silicon Valley titans. So other than Google's having to pay a big ...
Google quietly working on a replacement for Android, called Fuchsia, that's causing some fierce internal squabblingFinancial Post

all 524 news articles »

New York Times
Emergency Charging Options on the Road
New York Times
Likewise, the Federal Trade Commission has previously warned travelers about directly connecting phones to the USB jacks for the infotainment systems in rental cars because the phone could share personal data with the car's system, but a dedicated ...

and more »

New York Times
I Used Apple's New Controls to Limit a Teenager's iPhone Time (and ...
New York Times
Apple's new parental controls cut a teenager's iPhone use in half. It wasn't as effective on our personal tech columnist.

and more »

Google News

Why Using an Ad Blocker Can be a Bad Idea

Personal Technology Personal Technology