The Ethics of Using Ad-Blocking Software
May 29th, 2009 by Andy Didyk
A few days ago, I added Google Adsense advertisting to what I hope is an unobtrusive are inoffensive area of my site. I was curious – could I make any real money by blogging? Would the ads be relevant to my readers? Would anyone care?
These questions put me face-to-face with the ethical dilemma I’ve been having as of late: is it unethical to block ads?
Like over 47% of the online community (as of April 2009), I use Firefox as my default web browser. And like over 50 million other people, I use Adblock Plus and a set of filters to block out 99% of the advertisements on sites I visit.
It started out innocently enough: many years ago, I was surfing the web on a 56K modem and the ads were simply eating up too much bandwidth (especially on sites like weather.com and cnn.com, where the ads are numerous and the actual content is slim), so I installed AdBlock with Firefox, and POOF all the ads were history.
Fast forward to 2009, where broadband penetration is north of 25% for the US, and I suspect that number to be tripled or higher for content creators. So bandwith isn’t a big deal. True, the ads are mostly annoyances, but the ad revenue is at least theoretically what compensates the producers of content and frees those people from having to hold down another job just to put good stuff online.
So here’s the moral contract I’ve made with myself. For blogs, news sites, Hulu, and other services that I use regularly and derive value from, I will selectively disable Adblock Plus for the entire site. It’s the way capitalism and American consumerism works at its best – voting with our (or really the advertiser’s) money as to what content is valuable and useful to the individual. This costs me nothing, but I believe that it will make me a better citizen of the internet.
Conversely, I will selectively block individual ads that I find to be offensive, overly obtrusive, or stupid. Yes, that’s highly subjective, but so am I when I’m choosing what to read or consume.
As with yesterday’s example, I shouldn’t expect something for nothing. What do you think?
This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 11:27 am and is filed under blogging, consumerism, interactive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
For me, it’s a matter of coming to terms w/ the fact that traditional interruption advertising is slowly but surely being replaced by marketing models that allow you to “opt-in”. If something is truly relevant to me AND helps me in some way, I’m not opposed to receiving the message.
When given the opportunity to skip or block ads, an astounding # of people do so because they are completely irrelevant or distracting. That should not be ignored. If you ignore it, you’re not listening to your prospects.
Something like a good ole email newsletter has a greater power of persuasion because it’s offers value and I subscribe. If it continues to be valuable over time, it builds trust w/ me and I’ll pay attention to their other products & services sooner or later–as long as it’s done tastefully and not overwhelming in frequency.
Ad Words aren’t too bad because they don’t stop you from what you were doing or get in the way.
I say use ad blocker on every site and accelerate the transition to permission based marketing. It enhances your experience and forces advertisers to respect your time & attention to remain competitive.
Just my 2 cents.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I think your point about annoying or irrelevant ads is well taken. That’s one of my primary motivators for continuing to block the ridiculous number of ads on sites like weather.com and cnn.com.
I love the concept of opt-in marketing, and I subscribe to a number of ads and messages from retailers that are relevant to me or that carry great deals.
I guess my thoughts are more towards sites that carry pure content that is written by someone, rather than a product site. Sometimes, I’m surprised by a good ad and may even click on it. But more importantly, disabling ad-blocker is the only way I can monetarily support the efforts of someone or a company that I believe to be valuable to me.
Thanks for the thoughts!