One of the most infuriating things about the internet is, to me, the torrent of advertisements you turn loose whenever you browse it. They're just so annoying! Buy this, buy that. Whenever I see a thirty-second unskippable ad about Schick Hydro on YouTube, I want to flip.
That's why I've recently installed AdBlock, an extension on my Safari browser that--you guessed it--prevents a website's advertisements from popping up on web pages I view. It's worked pretty well so far; I haven't even seen any ads on Reddit or The New York Times website. But I hadn't the faintest clue about how it actually functions. So I used that great fountain of knowledge, Google, and dug up some info. Not all of it was what I wanted to hear.
It turns out that ad blockers (also known as ad filters) are not all that complicated. Most ad blockers, according to TechCrunch.com, are installed as an extension on a web browser--just like I have mine. Once it's been installed, it can filter out those pesky ads in one or two ways:
- The ad blocker can check against a crowdsourced blacklist of domain names which are always ads, and prevent them from loading before the web page is even finished loading, or
- Quickly checking the page after it has loaded and removing any items that meet certain criteria, such as a box that says "Sponsored."
There's more to it than that, though. According to Wikipedia, some ad blockers can manipulate a Domain Name System (DNS). Some external devices, like AdTrap, can even block advertisements.
Ad blockers work well for people like me who are sick of seeing ads, but are they actually harmful? Online content creators or hosts have only two options when it comes to making money: They can either ask for it directly from consumers (like Netflix, which charges a subscription) or collect revenue from ads. So, the site's owners receive less (an infinitesimal amount due to a single user, but it adds up) whenever someone uses an ad blocker.
Does this mean ad blockers are unethical? Are people who use ad blockers moochers? I can't say for sure, but I definitely think that advertisers would do well to work to alter their ads so that they actually spur people to buy products instead of just irking them.
Sources
- "Ad Blocking: A Primer"--from TechCrunch.com
- "Ad blocking"--from Wikipedia.org
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Yes---ads are annoying! I am planning to purchase a blocking app, actually!
ReplyDeleteI've had an ad blocker extension on Chrome for a while now, but I've noticed recently that some websites are beginning to deny access to those using it. You make a good point about how using ad blockers can actually do harm to creators, but it's so convenient when it comes to YouTube that I don't think I could let it go!
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