referrer blocked by AdSubtract

[rcjordan]

I've been getting a few of those 'blocked by'
[AdSubtract.com]

[DaveAtIFG]

rcj - How did you identify the blocks? I poked around in my logs a bit and saw nothing but I'm far from being an expert.

[rcjordan]

Extreme-dx logs the referrer as "referrer blocked by AdSubtract."

[DaveAtIFG]

Thankfully, I can't find a trace in six months of logs for both my sites. Anybody else seeing it or are they only blocking rcj? ;)

[rcjordan]

>only blocking rcj?

hmmmmm.... now there's a thought.

[JeremyL]

I have seen a few in my logs. It is from people using software from [adsubtract.com...]

The whole concept is scary. It has been around awhile. Thank GOD it hasn't caught on. If it did it could kill the internet as we know it.

[rcjordan]

>it hasn't caught on. If it did it could kill the internet as we know it.

Uh-oh. USA Today is pretty mainstream....

Software boots online ads off PCs [usatoday.com]

[theperlyking]

Theres other software besides AdSubtract that will do this. The software I use has this feature but I never enable it because I dont see theres any risk in letting someone the single last site you viewed.
On the subject of killing the internet, do you mean due to loss of advertising revenue? I have to admit I use my software to block adverts mainly, though there are other benefits.

[rcjordan]

>other software besides AdSubtract

Yeah, I just picked this adsubtact thread to bump because it was convenient. I've seen some press releases for webwasher, I believe.

Webwasher.com, a spin-off of German electronics giant Siemens, already has more than 4 million worldwide users. Last week, it finished staffing a New York office...

As for killing the internet, I think the current ad market has done infinitely more on that score than ad-nuking software will ever achieve.

[Xoc]

Anti-ad software will become the norm in the next several years. Look for it to be included with web browsers. I have my firewall block images that match certain criteria, which blocks out about 85% of the ads. I even have some ideas for how to block out ads more selectively.

And if you go into the IE setup, you can at least turn off Animation, which stops all the horrible animated gifs.

[rcjordan]

>I even have some ideas for how to block out ads more selectively.

As a publisher, I don't want to hear about 'em. ;)

Perhaps noteworthy: I know of a forum (geek-types, naturally) where the site owner reports that over 20% of his banners are blocked by the members.

[theperlyking]

Mozilla allready lets you selectively block images from loading on specific sites.
The funny thing is IMHO some advertisers have helped push people towards blocking them, if they were less annoying I wouldnt have gone to the trouble - but crazy flashing images on a web page i'm trying to read really irritate me. I've also noticed a marked speed improvement on some sites - when you no longer have to wait for a third party server to supply the images.

Its the same with satellite TV, the volume of ads means I now record the vast majority of programmes I watch.

[BoneHeadicus]

I've been using AdSub since I saw it in this thread and it really is nicely transparent in the way it works. It also blocks the GoTO prices in the serps though.

I give it a "two thumbs up".