In Defense of Defense: Why Ad Blockers Are Essential (Op-Ed)

[Aks_X]

After the first Ad Op-Ed, I had white listed TomsHW. This second Op-Ed matches my opinion. I believe that quality advertisement is the key. I go through newspapers in a hunt for a good bargain / deal on something that's on my wishlist. Ads are important but they should never be like those auto-playing videos, roll-over/pop-up/pop-under banners. Keep the good work going guys. I really appreciate this portrayal of different opinions within the same editorial.

 

[bendrick]

Our biggest reason for running ad blockers is poorly written, resource consuming ads. At my place of business we use almost 100% desktop virtualization. Not long after rolling out virtualized desktops we noticed regular, sustained CPU utilization on almost all browser processes. Our first thought was of course Netflix, YouTube, etc. Nope. Ads. You could prove this by either disabling JavaScript or minimizing the browser. After installing WebSense the browser CPU utilization dropped sharply across the board. On a multi core desktop having an ad spewing page consume an entire core may not be that noticeable. In a shared resource environment it adds up quickly. And that translates into the need for more server resources which translates into a lot of money. Are ad blockers "stealing" from web content producers? That's a subject of debate. Do ads cost the end user money? In a virtualized environment they certainly do.

As a side note TomsHardware was guilty of having CPU consuming ads. The video banner ads were killing an entire core. We had to block the site until WebSense was in place. Even conceding the argument that ad blocking is stealing, the content producer may still be losing more b/c eyeballs are kept off the site due to resource consumption the ads are causing.

 

[Martell1977]

I had never used an ad-blocker until one day I came to Tom's and after the page seemed to have loaded, the screen got a grey overlay with a huge CDW ad in the middle, then going to YouTube to watch a video, like something by Metallica and having to sit through a Beiber or Swift album ad. Then other sites having ads that are just shy of causing a seizure with its flashing and claiming I'm a winner. I installed AdBlock and never looked back, and this article makes the point why.

How to fix this, QC the adds before they are allowed to be posted. No flashing banners, relevent adds for the material in the article and ensuring that the ad directs to a legit and clean site. Keep the ads off to the side and out of the way of the article and do not allow the ads to delay the usage of the article. Once the article is loaded, i want to be able to scroll or click where ever I need/want. Lastly, no follower ads, when I scroll down, the ad should not scroll with me. If I didn't look or click it at the top part of the screen, I'm less likely to when the thing flickers and scrolls with the page.

If I'm on a GPU review, I don't mind seeing a GPU or other desktop component ad that is legit and clean. But being in a GPU review and seeing an ad for "beautiful women in russia are waiting for you!" (just and example), or an ad that takes over the page, regardless of the content is ridiculous and leads to blocking.

I might whitelist Tom's in the near future, but the first offensive or non-relevant ad and that's the end of the road for me. Tom's was part of the reason I started using AdBlock and if i give it another chance, there will only be that one chance. I appreciate this site and its content, but will not be barraged with ads to get it.

 

[anathema_forever]

in the last 15 years I don't think I ever bought something because of an online advertisement. I bought something because I needed it or found it browsing or because of a review site. Never actually spent a dime on online advertisements.

 

[Flipper35]

I use it on site that have ads with videos that autoplay when you visit. Otherwise the static ads don't bother me.

 

[Pnevma]

I disabled AdBlock from this site. But left Privacy Badger untouched, because I don't wan't to be tracked. And you know what? No ads were displayed, because your ads are trying to track me.
I would find it ok to let you show me ads, but I don't want you (or companies that pay you) to know where I go to. Sure, that makes your ads more valuable, but at the expense of my privacy.

 

[drapacioli]

You know, the other thing about ads is simply the performance drop. I can take a brand new computer on a 100 maps Internet connection, go on a normal website, and that website will grind to a halt while loading for 20+ seconds loading annoying flash content and autoplay videos that destroy my ears because the ads are always the loudest things on the Internet. Or I can fire up a 10 year old computer, turn on an ad blocker, and get what I want loaded in less than a quarter of the time. Why should I slow down my Web browsing experience to load things that do nothing but annoy me and keep me from viewing more than 1 or 2 pages of a particular site?

Personally, I would like to see an ad "whitelist" which would have a team screening ads for annoyance and safety. It would block all ads that are deemed too large, flash related, or unsafe, while leaving the Okay banner images and other less intrusive stuff. If such an application or extension existed and was reliable, I wouldn't even think of a conventional ad blocker, I'd go for that. The result would be that sites that regulate their ad content and keep out the performance and bandwidth stealing flash and video ads would get to show me ads which I wouldn't mind, while other sites that try to bombard you with crap in the hopes you accidentally click on one trying to get the hell out of there won't be given the chance.

 

[COLGeek]

Nicely done and stated. Good job and agreed 100%.

 

[nukemaster]

Very good writeup.

The advertisements here have become much less of an issue than some in the past. I remember some covering the full screen.

A more recent one was this(covering part of the article), but least digikey is useful to me since I make orders from them from time to time.

What are your thoughts on the minefield/ IEDs that tomshardware and tomsguide uses on their articles. Other than the malware ads (advertising downright malicious software such as registry cleaners and driver updaters), the minefield is one of the main reasons why I block the ads.

You know what, I normally do not find that Ads too bad. I know amazon(can disable it) and digikey(or maybe they just know what people want) track me for ads and at least those are things I look at an buy, BUT you are so right about performance.

This is the first time I have noticed it and only on the Computex story. It was so slow to scroll AND it was constantly eating more memory downloading stuff non stop.

For comparison.

Please note I have 30 other tabs open and loaded at the time of testing.

Tom's Hardware(this page scrolls into new the next news and all that)

Tom's Guide Computex(scrolled all the way down to see if it would stop eating resources)

With Adblock enabled(no more constant cpu/memory load and bandwidth use).

 

[whiteodian]

I just want to say that I did click an ad on this page for the Lumia 640 because I was interested. Ads are not bad. It's just when they become so obtrusive. Funny thing is...the ad link didn't take me anywhere. Dead link maybe? http/adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=lhttp/refs.nokia.com/clicks/linkgen/refs/4081

 

[Ima Nuone]

While those pop ups can be annoying ( This article was filled with them. Was that to prove a point? Either for or against?), I realize they do help to cover the cost of operating a site or web page. the site or web page. Yahoo's home page though deserves a questionable mention. Usually a large add appears at the top and usually most, if not all, advertisers give you the option to read or delete it. "Apple" is the exception. Their add can't be deleted. The only way to remove it is to scroll it up off the screen. To me that's more annoying.

 

[gooseslapper]

I know this might be simplistic, but why can't you just run ads "screenshots" embedded in your own web page and not run by third party servers? That way, you have more control of the look and feel of what is being served up to your viewers. Seems to me, adblockers are succeeding because they take advantage of the third party way that ads are served (which might be convenient for the content host, but at a price).