Is there anything more frustrating about the Internet than advertisements? Pop-ups, banners, videos – they interrupt the browsing experience and may even grind your page load times to a halt (and drain your monthly mobile data plan, by the way). At the same time, online advertisements are a valuable source of revenue for publishers, who have seen revenue from print advertisements largely dry up.
Enter ad blocking software. These controversial tools are common among Internet users, and they’re sure to become even more popular after Apple permitted the use of ad blocking software on its devices, as part of its most recent iOS update.
This leads to a number of questions. What are the ramifications for publishers if blocked ads suppress revenue opportunities? Are paywalls and contributed content viable alternatives? What about other collateral damage of ad blocking (goodbye Google Analytics tracking)?
We explore all the ins and outs of ad blocking on this week’s episode.
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Show Notes:
- The Cost of Mobile Ads on 50 News Websites (New York Times)
- Life After Content Blocking (Monday Note)
- Content Blocking in iOS 9 Is Going to Screw Up Way More Than Just Ads (The Next Web)
- Just Doesn’t Feel Good (Marco.org)