The Bad and Good Sides of Ad Blocker

Here are the two sides of the coin on why you should and should not use an ad blocker software.

Ads are an inevitable part of our online lives. They are all over the Web because most of the online services we consume are offered to us free of charge, unless we turn to subscription-based websites.

In order to browse a page without the clutter of ads that pop up on almost every portion of the web page, most Internet users install an ad blocker plugin or extension in their browser. This for the purpose of keeping a clean screen. But that is of course a vain reason for installing ad blocking extensions, though they at least help spare your memory from the RAM-intensive toll of ads.

A more acceptable reason for blocking ads on the website you frequently visit is to keep your privacy and security. Some ads, especially those that offer things that sound too good to be true, are dangerous. They can sometimes contain malware that would ruin your machine when clicked on. Others are just spam. Still some ads lead you to a phishing page.

There are, of course, trustworthy ad networks. But even at that, they can still compromise your privacy when they start tracking you with cookies that sometimes get slipped into our computer without our knowledge. Cookies are temporarily files that allow ad networks to learn our browsing habits in order to customize ads for our unique preferences, usually based on our search keys. In other words, cookies are used to target ads to a specific segment of audience.

But here’s a more compelling reason, on the other hand, not to use ad blocker plugins: they kill content creators.

Undeniably, ads are what keep websites running, especially those that rely on ads for revenues. Of course, there is the subscription model, but it has proved ineffective in expanding revenue streams as far as site visitors are concerned.

When you start using an ad blocker, you are preventing the website you are visiting from generating revenues, which in turn will be used to produce more content for you, content to which you contributed nothing. The only thing you can then is to let reliable ad networks run an ad on the page you are currently viewing.

Web publishers have long criticized the developers of ad blockers for their destructive business. True enough, continued patronage and expansion of ad blockers could eventually lead to the demise of the web publishing industry.