Last week, I wrote in my Link by Link column that Adblock Plus – an add-on to the Firefox browser that easily eliminates almost all ads on a Web site – had the “potential for extreme menace to the online-advertising business model.”
Potential, that is, because so far the software is still a niche add-on to a niche browser and the big players – for example, Google and CNN.com – have chosen to ignore the entire phenomenon and ride things out. Well, on Sunday, the dominant political site on the Left, Daily Kos, broke the taboo and posted a note at the top of its site directly addressing users of adblocking programs: “We won’t stop you from using ad blocking software, but if you do use it we ask you to support Daily Kos another way: by purchasing a site subscription.”
On his blog, Nick Carr had commended the strategy of ignoring the phenomenon entirely.
That’s why Google’s best course – maybe it’s only course – is to avoid any mention of Adblock (which would only serve to raise people’s awareness of it) and hope that it remains a niche product. The odds would seem, at this point, to be in Google’s favor. There’s no evidence that Adblock Plus or similar products are about to go viral. In fact, there’s no evidence that the masses view online ads as a nuisance.
He added, a caveat: “Then again, you never know. Viral events are unpredictable.”
A survey of the reaction online to ad blocking showed that no one had an easy solution. On his blog, Lauren Weinstein, a long time privacy advocate, displayed the typical mix of anguish and guilt, as he advised users of ad blocking programs, as well as Web site operators who are considering blocking users of the programs, to think of the long-term effects of their actions.
Before sharpening our weapons and strapping on the armor, perhaps we should give some serious thought to the ramifications of going down the path of this particular Internet war. If we are unwilling to view Web ads, then many useful sites will undoubtedly move toward more direct ways to collect fees — or else close down operations entirely, leaving us all the poorer. If we don’t want ads, and we don’t want to pay directly for accessing most sites, there’s a serious dilemma afoot.
As it happens, the polite request at DailyKos would seem to be exactly the kind of response Mr. Weinstein was suggesting.
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