I´ve used AdBlock for years.
One of the first things i learned when i was introduced to the internet was about ad-blockers.
Nowadays i use a number of them, including disconnect, adblock and a number of other extensions that make my browsing faster and my life easier.<p>But what about people who don´t care / don´t know about these little helpers who destroy all those intrusive little things?
A while ago i went to my grandpa´s home, and at a certain moment i asked to use his computer to check my mail. I ended up going to several webpages because it was late at night and i was bored, and what i saw was devastating.
Ads were cluttering my screen and restricting me from closing them. New windows were minimizing themselves and playing sound, and my favourite websites were telling me i was the 1.000.000th visitor and asking me to claim my prize.
I would say just the fact that i had to see a youtube video stop to load an ad in the middle of it was enough to make me cringe.<p>Yes, i'm probably exagerating, but my grandpa is an avid internet user, and he is browsing in horrible conditions everyday, losing an insane amount of time closing popups and preventing his wife from seeing the porn ads.<p>The visual pollution that we have today is alarming.
It seems that the non-tech savvy portion of the population is suffering a great deal with websites trying to catch users with no ad-blockers, and it's not only repelling this population from the wonders of the internet, but it's also hindering what it really should be: A means to provide either a service or information to a user.<p>Extra info: In google, two thirds of my screen was occupied by an ad or an ad-sponsored search. It's disgusting.<p>Disclaimer: My main language isn't english, so i apologize in advance for bad grammar.
Also, i know many won't agree with my level of discomfort with ads, that's okay. I'm just giving my opinion.
As a content creator myself it's disappointing when I see Adblock rates as high as they are, but I absolutely get it. If I'm upset at anyone in the Adblock debate it's the advertisers; the people who introduced intrusive pop-ups, auto playing videos, and those obnoxious banners with the smileys that scream "OH MY GOD, NO WAY!"<p>Then there are the issues of ads causing videos to freeze, browsers to crash, and containing malware. Or what if the ads are offensive to you or you have young kids in the house? For me it's impossible to blame users who just want to view their content in the most optimal way, which is why I see Adblock as a barometer for how satisfied users are with the way websites are delivering both paid and organic content.
I love Ads. With out them I would have to pay for a lot of the services that I enjoy for free (like google). Some sites are worse than others, and I chose to avoid them rather than stealing their service as you are.
An additional option is to avoid sites that use practices, or a business model you don't like. For example: I like the forecast from weather.com, but they are one of the worst sites I have seen, and heaven help you if you have your speakers turned on when you visit them.<p>Now I use weather.gov and I am pretty happy with the result.
The problem is not with the ads themselves. What you described here screams ADWARE at me. Somehow, your grandpa got an adware installed on his machine (maybe by clicking on every ad that says "boost your computer speed by 10x!"). That's what is causing him such a painful browsing experience.
Yes...ads are annoying but they are not normally as annoying as the espericence you had at your grandpa house.<p>I think he may have a virus/malware installed that is feeding extra ads into the browsing session..particulary the aggressive pop-up windows are indicative of client-side malware<p>You should you do virus check/removal with a reputable program.
Are you willing to pay for every website you visit? Oh yeah, you don't think you should pay for anything. Somehow money goes on trees for the websites owners, how dare they try to monetize their investments!
Yes. Yes they are. You won't find a lot of support for that opinion on this website for websites which want to slurp up all your data just to sell it onto someone else.
My thoughts on ads:<p>I don't mind ads, as long as the following conditions are met:<p>* They don't present a security risk.
* They don't impede the usability of the website (or, in the case of some ads, Firefox in general! Some Flash ads use absurd amounts of CPU) .
* They don't leak information to third parties who may resell said information.<p>However, pretty much all ads in practice fall into one or more of these categories.