Comments on: On ad-blockers and free content

By: Phil.

Phil. — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:12:49 +0000

I enabled an ad blocker in my browser for the first time about a week ago when I realised how much time I was wasting watching the “Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net…” and other messages in the status bar.

It’s just ridiculous when you have half a dozen domains being contacted for images and Javascript for advertisements.

–Phil.

By: The UM

The UM — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:07:56 +0000

This is stupid. The counter factual is that adds are annoying untargetted intrusions. We’ve been thru this in many cycles, bulk mail, spam, pop ups and now add blockers.

I remember a model proposed by Bob @ Smoothspan, charge for add free content… There other ways

By: adrian

adrian — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:16:39 +0000

Ben, what is he on?
We can’t complain that whenever we find some surreptitious way of interrupting the reader with an advert, that same intelligent person will find a way to subvert our income generating scheme.
It’s the game of advertising, but the goal of a real change agent would be to find ways to still have a compelling product that means we still consume it and are willing to interact and compensate in other ways.
That’s what books are, what magazines are, what the CD we collect are, because at heart we don’t consume so viscerally as to be able to cope with downloaded ‘free’ content alone.
Love your classified analogy, particularly as the mainstream media have already almost discounted the section themselves