Metropol

does anybody know of a decent browser plugin to block banner adverts in webpages, for internet explorer?

Service pack 2 takes care of mine.

I presume Mark means normal adverts on websites not popups.

Sadly I do not know of such a plugin, I used to use my HOSTS file to remove ads across the board although the only ones that ever annoy me are the ones on digitalspy as they are so slow. I generally am able to block them out.

Hymagumba wrote:I presume Mark means normal adverts on websites not popups.

My mistake.

After a quick bit of googling I have came across AdMuncher http://www.admuncher.com/

It's got a cow as a mascot, it's gotta be fab

I notice Camino 0.9a1 for Mac OSX has a "Web Advertising Blocker". Works great - and unlike Windows doesn't require extra bloated software or plugins.

As someone who earns part of their living from ad-funded websites, I have misgivings about people who block ads.

Is it really fair on the people paying the bandwidth bill for the sites that you visit?

Popup-blocking I can understand, and I wouldn't dream of using popups on any site that I am involved in, but blocking banner ads doesn't seem right to me.

Do you rip the ads out of the newspapers and magazines you buy before reading them? Poor analogy I know, but still...

OK, you may say that you wouldn't dream of clicking on a banner ad anyway, so what difference does it make if you block them. Hard to argue with that I suppose.

Also, I suppose it's hardly different to recording a programme on a commercial channel and fast-forwarding through the ads.

Anyway, I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on the 'ethical' aspects of online ad-blocking.

I know of one publisher of a popular site who explicity says "if you use an ad-blocker, then you're not welcome to use this site" and describes use of an ad-blocker as theft. I wouldn't go that far, but still...

James Hatts wrote:As someone who earns part of their living from ad-funded websites, I have misgivings about people who block ads.

Is it really fair on the people paying the bandwidth bill for the sites that you visit?

Popup-blocking I can understand, and I wouldn't dream of using popups on any site that I am involved in, but blocking banner ads doesn't seem right to me.

Do you rip the ads out of the newspapers and magazines you buy before reading them? Poor analogy I know, but still...

OK, you may say that you wouldn't dream of clicking on a banner ad anyway, so what difference does it make if you block them. Hard to argue with that I suppose.

Also, I suppose it's hardly different to recording a programme on a commercial channel and fast-forwarding through the ads.

Anyway, I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on the 'ethical' aspects of online ad-blocking.

I know of one publisher of a popular site who explicity says "if you use an ad-blocker, then you're not welcome to use this site" and describes use of an ad-blocker as theft. I wouldn't go that far, but still...

this is something i've never really thought much about - i certainly do not consider it immoral.

just as the website author has the right to put banner adverts on their website in anyway they wish, I, the user, have the right to control what comes down my line and eats my own bandwidth. With many broadband services metered, this is quite an important choice.

Most adverts that I see on web pages are seldom useful, as are sponsored links which get inserted in some pages automatically. The improvements to my browsing experience are significantly more important than any potential advert i may miss.

The site admin of the forum where I'm one of the moderators (SillyDog701) says that there's a hardcore
of (mostly Mozilla users) who'll block all web adverts no matter what. In his opinion, this is unethical.

My view . . . while it may be in some way unethical, to attempt to block every single ad that appears
within the page vieweing area of your browser window, I'll selectively block the most intrusive ads.
Usually these are the ones that are excessively animated, make sudden noises, or masquerade
as Windows style error messages, which look totally out of place if you're using Mac or Linux!

Any ads for online gambling sites, and other such services that cater for gullible fools that think they
may recieve a prize of some kind (Punch the Monkey, anyone?) I will block those without hesitation.
I'll also block any ads that come from adservers known to leave behind tracking cookies.

Meanwhile, I don't bother blocking "Ads from Goooooogle" since they're mostly text based anyway.

The browser extension I usually use for the selective blocking of web based ad banners is AdBlock.
It's officially only available for the Mozilla based web browsers, such as Firefox, Netscape 7.x and
the Mozilla Application Suite, although I did recreate a version of it to use with Netscape 8.x.

Adblock doesn't just help to remove certain ad banners, it can also enable the user to get rid of
needless embedded multimedia content, such as the scrolling Java applet at wotsat.com, or
any items on a webpage made with Flash that has no relevance to the main content. Just
click on the small translucent AdBlock tab that appears over any blockable content, and
click OK, and that item is instantly removed from the page.

Perhaps there ought to be an addon for IE similar to AdBlock, since users of that browser are
the ones most at risk from the nefarious actions of the more unscrupulous web advertisers.

Is it any more unethical than skipping the adverts when watching commercial channels via Sky+ or TiVO?

marksi wrote:Is it any more unethical than skipping the adverts when watching commercial channels via Sky+ or TiVO?

Aah, but note the fastest it can fast forward is 30X, not very fast if you think about it (you still get a good long time to see the ads). They must have thought that in.