Just watch the movie “minority report” to see what advertising will become.
amazing and scary at the same time.
-Eric
PL said: “Just learn to ignore the ads, just like you do when watching tv or reading a newspaper. No need to use ad blockers.”
If web pages would limit themselves to static ads, then I’d agree with you. But, unfortunately, in the competition for eyeballs, they’ve changed their ads to be flashing animations (some with sound) and rollovers. It’s gotten to the point where you can’t actually read the content because all the ad bling rips your eyes and attention away from it. So, even though I enjoy reading certain websites, I’ve been forced to use Adblock Plus on Firefox to block most ads (I might end up loading FlashBlock, too, since now the Flash ads are taking over and grabbing my attention). When the ads actually subtract from your content, you’ve gone too far (television passed that point years ago – I can’t watch TV without TiVo anymore). Now the web is going past the point, too.
Ads can really be a pain in the ass. Plus, they suck up loads of precious bandwith. Last month I visited my uncle and I noticed he was using a special program that ‘eats’ away all ads. He told me he bought a full license, but said the software was available for trial as well. It’s called AdMuncher (.com?) and sits in your taskbar, feasting on all those ads. Seems I’ve gotten so used to them, websites really look weird without all those ads.
It seems to me this is a self regulating issue. If there are too many ads or they are too annoying people will stop using that site. I know I have. I no longer visit any about.com result I find on google. They are probably around 85% ads and they try to open popups. Screw them, I don’t need their site.
Several of the code sites have the same issues and I loath visiting them and avoid them if possible.
I can’t help but notice that the amount of whitespace also takes up a greater share of the page than the content does. Should we worry about whitespace proliferation too?
As noted, advertising is about the only way to make money on the web. Without profit motive, there’s little reason for people to put any content out there, so maybe we should all just stop whining about it?
A world of endless advertising is like other things, made for “average” people and average people is plain stupid.
Anyway…
Among other solutions to filter ads from webpage, take a look of this:
http://bfilter.sourceforge.net/
BFilter is Free software released under the General Public License.
There’s a reason why you are seeing more and more of this.
Finding and consuming content of value implies a cost. The cost will come as some combination of money and time, and perhaps other scarce resources. Looking for content in a world of ads consumes more of your time, but less of your money then looking through your paid subscription to XYZWeek.
So as one’s time increases in value, one is more likely to pay someone else to find the good content, and clean it of ads before delivering it. So ad-based content delivery is just more appealing to those whose time is worth relatively less, OR for whom the ads represent less of a cost, and perhaps even represent additional value.
But that means that, the better market segmentation and ad targeting can be done, the more value that can be delivered in ad-based channels, and the more ubiquitous it will become – and indeed is becoming.
My favorite part is “Ow my balls!”
hahaha
Disable pictures.
Disable Flash.
Now its much better isnt it?
I only enable flash, when really needed.
pictures are enabled when I choose to (right click+show picture)
Here’s a great article on the graphic design of Idiocracy, which covers the pervasive advertising.
http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/003066.html
Even the earrings are little product logos. Scary.
The best tool for this in IE is the Proxomitron. It is a web proxy that offers regular expression matching and replacing, as well as a “Stop GIF animation” button.
It comes with a great set of built in filters, but if you are a regular expression junkie you can always add more.
Unfortunately it is no longer supported, but works fine on Windows XP. I haven’t checked on Vista.
The only ads I block are the Flash ones. If they don’t try to animate their ads I see no reason to block them. For example, Project Wonderful ads are nice and unobtrusive, and they also sell fairly well.
Does anyone read these ads, though? I know I don’t. My brain just automatically filters them out and hones in on the content. I honestly don’t think I have clicked on a single ad in the history of the Internet (although I might have read one or two accidentally while trying to avoid them). Beyond a certain threshold of advertising, I just navigate away from the page and look elsewhere, making them worse than useless.
This distinguishes TV and Radio from the Internet: under typical viewing conditions the ads on TV and radio are practically unavoidable (and they can still be heard while making a coffee or visiting the bathroom).
I don’t feel all that comfortable with adblockers. If ads are the main way for the sites I like to pay their hosting costs, etc, it seems a bit unfair to make that more difficult for them. I do sometimes intentionally click on the ads of sites I like as a “tip” for the site owner. There’s your micropayment for ya.
Another trick: always look for a printer-friendly version of the article. Not only do these usually not contain any ads, but they also compress articles spanning several pages into one.
Yeah, now that you mention it, it does look alot like Idiocracy! I watched that a couple of years ago, and it made me feel really good to be a programmer.
(But I also feel a touch of guilt for being part of what allows people to inch ever closer to bring the people of Idiocracy into reality…)
So Jeff, how long did you sit there and watch the Ow! My Balls! thing in the initial opening of the DVD? I think I sat there for 5 minutes at least…
I usually block ads, but there’s a perspective to have.
Ads can be content.
I know, I know. I thought the same, too. I was in Advanced Newspaper Editing when this concept was first posed to me. I, being all hip and non-commercial, scoffed. And, when the class was over, I found a break area, pulled out a copy of Maximum Rock 'n Roll, saw a Dischord Records ad saying that the new Fugazi album was out, and I achieved enlightenment.
I’m not saying that great gobs of advertising is ill-placed and badly done. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t run AdBlock. I am saying that, if they’re doing it right, there’s some signal you want in the advertising noise.
C’mon, many many people watch the Super Bowl just for the ads…
Way to advertise your back-catalog of posts on Twitter Jeff 
2 commenters at the rule of thumb 1% participation rate, that’s a few extra readers for today!
Good post though, love Idiocracy.
Make that 3 commenters since your tweet 33 mins ago