Re:Firms help websites evade ad blockers
by onion2k on Thursday October 29, 2015 @02:01AM
(#10469522)
The Washington Post certainly is not going to win that war.
For tech-savvy people who understand the issues an ad-blocker might be worthwhile even if it means some websites don't work temporarily while the ad-block developers think of new ways around things. For more typical web users though, the Washington Post's approach will result in a line of thought like "I installed that software and my Internet broke because some websites didn't work any more. I'm going to uninstall it." It's not unreasonable to believe ad-blocking might never become a mainstream technology that enough people use for it to change the way websites are funded. That, I would argue, would mean the ad industry has won the war.
For tech-savvy people who understand the issues an ad-blocker might be worthwhile even if it means some websites don't work temporarily while the ad-block developers think of new ways around things. For more typical web users though, the Washington Post's approach will result in a line of thought like "I installed that software and my Internet broke because some websites didn't work any more. I'm going to uninstall it." It's not unreasonable to believe ad-blocking might never become a mainstream technology that enough people use for it to change the way websites are funded. That, I would argue, would mean the ad industry has won the war.