AdBlock and other programs will destroy internet advertising.

It's over, put a fork in it.

[littlecubpanda]

I'm getting a ton of hits, but far few ad loads.

It's game over. How did Google allow this to happen?

[fumanchu]

The ad blocking plugins and what not have never faced a counterattack. I believe that, as time goes by, new tools will be developed that will allow site owners to redirect those using ad blockers away from their sites.

They do have the right to block ads, but they have no right to free content without ads. That is the reality for them, and for site owners. So be patient, at some point I expect there to be tools that will assist in at least funneling these people away from sites so they don't leech bandwidth and raise costs for site owners, while providing no revenue.

[Samizdata]

The ad blocking plugins and what not have never faced a counterattack

Look through this forum and you will see that counterattacks have been going on for years.

Webmasters are entirely free to shut out people who use adblockers (including those at work in corporations and government departments who have no choice in the matter).

What they hope to gain by doing so is another question entirely.

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[fumanchu]

I found a very useful tool:

[antiblock.org...]

It's a script that you can customize. They'll need to disable their ad blockers to see your site's content. I added a link in to an affiliate shopping site for those who didn't want to disable it.

Just google "antiblock" if the link is removed. Quite a useful tool. Use the PHP version, I believe that is harder for those using ad blockers to get around.

[freitasm]

Or use a Blockmetrics more elegant solution that still gives users content but ask, nicely to white list your site...

I'm not associated with Blockmetrics and I have not posted the link - you can search for it.

Currently in beta.

[Samizdata]

They'll need to disable their ad blockers to see your site's content

They need to be able to see your site's content to know whether it is any good.

They won't link to it, promote it on social media, or tell their friends otherwise.

And if they are at work they may not be able to turn off the adblocker anyway.

Even if they don't immediately hit the back button and try the next SERP (the most likely outcome) and go to the trouble of disabling the adblocker (pretty unlikely) the chances of them clicking on any of your ads are as close to "none whatsoever" as makes no difference.

But if it makes you feel better, go for it.

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[fumanchu]

No problem, Sam. That means they aren't sucking up my bandwidth or tying up my server resources for other readers. I can live with that and the possible...gasp!...loss of social media traffic.

Life is good. :)

[treeline]

You weren't going to make much money from some of us running adblock. I think I clicked on a google ad once when they came out to see what happened. It's a lot of years ago. Perhaps you can view it as improving your click thru rate.

So what happens when encountering one of these anti-adblock scripts? With one exception it's always been assume the site is worthless and move to a better one.

The exception was a useful site related to my niche, severely overloaded with ads. They had a tool that processed some frequently updating data.

One day they put up an entertainingly annoying threat blocking persons using adblock. Were going to sue or prosecute or something if you circumvented their ad-block-blocker.

Well, OK, if that's how you feel. It's your site, you get to do what you want.

Since the site was now unusable it needed replacing. Step one, remove all links from my sites. One enjoys the most traffic in the niche, nationally and worldwide. Many manufacturer's concede it is their top source of web traffic. Step two, remove links from the industry trade association. Step three hire a programmer to write a similar tool for my site. Now the info is still available for free, but without all the annoying ads. Turns out this brings even more repeat visitors.

If you have a useful site, some of your adblock users may be valuable to you in ways other than clicking on ads.

[fumanchu]

Tree, the problem is that those folks also consume server resources. Yeah, you might get a link or two back. So what? Is that worth possibly slowing down your server for the other readers?

I doubt it. But your mileage may vary.

As I said before, ad blockers are a direct threat to the web economy. And, sooner or later, tools will be developed that will disrupt them. It will probably be an arms race, but so what? It's the same thing with the scraper bots and other web nuisances.

[Samizdata]

As I said before, ad blockers are a direct threat to the web economy.

Adblockers have been around for many years, during which time the web economy has expanded massively. I have never felt threatened by them at all.

And, sooner or later, tools will be developed that will disrupt them.

As pointed out above, disruptive tools have also been around for years (though you apparently only discovered them yesterday, possibly because few webmasters see any value in them).

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[netmeg]

Meh. I have thousands and thousands of simultaneous users pounding away on my sites at peak. A few ad blockers aren't going to slow them down. I also don't think of my users as leeches, even if they don't click on ads. Maybe that's why they keep coming back and bringing their friends, I dunno. I do pretty well.

[HowYesNo]

Google reportedly paid Adblock Plus not to block its ads

i hope so

google it

[moTi]

Google reportedly paid Adblock Plus not to block its ads

cheered too soon: only on the search network. the content network is still blocked.