Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Michael Lankton | Oct 07, 2009 | View Comments


All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Connected Internet or its proprietor.

When you come to one of my websites you are absolutely welcome to not click any of the ad links. You are equally at liberty to not pay attention to the ads should you so choose. I will also make a promise to the user that the monetization of my sites will not be intrusive and will not draw undue attention to itself.

That said, if you block the ads on my site, pound sand. It’s practically like you are stealing from me.

I am sympathetic. There are websites that are so intrusive with their monetization that there is more advertising than content. Some sites you don’t dare move your mouse for fear of launching an inline ad link. I get it. I don’t like it any more than you guys do.

However, you don’t get the option to ignore monetization in the world. You get it on TV, radio and print media. You drive by it daily. You attend events in venues, whose very name is monetization, to see entertainment that is sponsored by a financial concern. People are wearing it. There is product placement on TV and in movies. There are ads in video games. It’s everywhere.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that people use the internet to try to make a buck. Let me tell you where I’m coming from regarding ad blocking:

The ads on my site represent the only way I have to pay for my hosting costs. Also, while I do web design and writing because it’s an enjoyable pastime for me and my main pursuit is to add value to the internet, my time is valuable and I would like something back. There is absolutely nothing wrong or mercenary about that. I do not own a single domain whose sole purpose is to make money. Everything I do on the web is about the content. If I want to stick a banner and a couple of AdSense units on my page, who are you to block them?

Look, regarding the sites with advertising so intrusive it drove you to run an ad blocker, boycott them. Vote with the only thing that counts to a web site, your unique visit. Enough people do that and sites will change their ways.

As for the sites you visit whose content you enjoy and who don’t ram monetization down your throat, why not click an ad link now and then? It’s a way for you to show your appreciation for the service the web site is providing. It helps the site make money. It took you about half a second.

The title of this article was purposefully inflammatory so you would read on. I am not about to block Firefox users or tell anyone how to do so. I want every Firefox user out there to hit my web sites. I would also like a few of them to help me make a little money by voluntarily clicking ad links. If no one is seeing my ads I may have to reconsider whether I want to spend my family’s money and take my time away from my family to continue to contribute to the web.

So think about that before running ad blocking software. Instead maybe you should turn it off and just stop visiting the sites you can’t stomach without it.


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About the Author: Have you been a bass player in a hardcore punk band? Built stroker Harleys? Have you been in a fight this month? Written an article about SEO that somehow managed to turn into a social commentary editorial?Mike has.Since 2007 Mike has been sharing his unique worldview with Connected Internet readers. Stop back to see what Mike is thinking about next week.

  • What a jumped up little IE using bearded prick.
  • dave
    This page with NO filtering: 681.45 KB. With NoScript and ABP(non-agressive filter set): 252.89 KB. There were still enough ads to click.
  • GrifterMage
    Place me firmly on the pro-AdBlock side of this debate. When my browser contacts this site's server and requests a copy of the particular document that is this article, it makes no promises about how or even whether the content of said document will be displayed to me, the end user. Just as I am under no obligation to read or even display your entire article merely because I clicked a link leading here, I am under no obligation to view or even load the portions of the document that are comprised of ads.

    It is not my problem that you have based your business model ('you' as in whichever shadowy group of people did the structuring, not you, personally, Michael) around the (mistaken) _assumption_ that everyone who downloads copies of the site's pages from you will also choose to download all of the other documents (ads) those pages reference, any more than it is my problem that people who put their sites behind paywalls base theirs around the assumption that everyone who wishes to view their content will be willing to pay to do so. It is your problem, not mine, that reality is not in accordance with your assumption, and it is your responsibility, not mine, to act to solve that problem.

    Evidently you have decided to attempt to solve your problem by accusing your users of being in the wrong in order to guilt them into acting in accordance with your poorly-based business model. Don't be surprised when that doesn't work any better.
  • BW
    The problem is, it is a rare ad that actually manages to interest me. I'm suspicious of ads, suspicious of what they aren't saying, suspicious of what they are hiding and their motives. I'd rather read a review by a trustworthy and knowledgeable reviewer.

    That said there are sites which I whitelist. The ads have to be unobtrusive and the site has to provide content I really want. I sometimes even click on the ads... just because I feel sorry for them.

    Adblock is the moral equivalent of a labor union. If the controlling class pushes too far, the subjugated class pushes back, they often try in turn to subjugate the controlling class, stripping it of power and punish it's supporters. One way of punishing a supporter is to ensure they get no income - boycott. For the particularly spiteful, there is also resource wasting - sit-in. When the public trust is abused, the public gets the idea that is ok to abuse the abusers; what goes around, comes around.

    Now only if there were more folks who were moderate in the ads they displayed. Recently I was at MSN (I haven't bothered to change the homepage for IE, I rarely use it) where there was an ad on the front page for a service that after digging through the promotional material and website became plain that it was a scam, bait and switch, it wasn't evenly cleverly disguised but you could fall for it if you weren't really really through and read between the lines. That sort of thing really irritates me. The law may absolve M$ of any responsibility but in the court of the common man they are complicit. Rarely do those who profit from ads try to make amends for the damages those ads do, they just brush it off.

    Its not enough to promise to be good, any child can do that, they have to be held accountable, their have to be repercussions. Until the industry can protect users from their unethical clients, the industry will have to live with ad blocking.

    P.S. Firefox isn't the only browser with adblocking, all the major browsers via hook or crook can do it. Even those that can't internally can access the internet through a manipulation proxy like Proxomitron.
  • Andreas Siregar
    my time is important.
    your'e wasting my time by showing ads.
    i should sue you for wasting my time.
    or i can block your ads so that would not wasting my time

    which one?
  • FYI: Firefox isn't the only browser with ad-blocking capability. You can block ads with IE by downloading IE7Pro, for example (ie7pro.com). You can even fix Google Chrome so that it blocks ads (for more on this, see: http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2009/03/25/blo...).

    People use ad blocking technology b/c they hate ads. You hate ads too, Michael. Admit it. Do you sit through every ad on TV? Do you fast forward through them using your Tivo/DVR? You do, don't you? Of course you do, b/c you're a normal human being.

    A major reason why people use DVRs, rent movies from Netflix/Blockbuster (instead of watching them on TV), download serials from the Web, etc., is b/c they hate ads and try to avoid them whenever possible.

    If you're annoyed with people blocking ads, you ain't seen nothin' yet. This is just the beginning. Google is going to see its revenue from Internet ads collapse once add-ons like Adblocker go mainstream. Then it, and every other entity that earns money from advertising, is going to have to do what companies have done since the dawn of commerce: find another way to make a buck.

    Shoving your product into people's faces -- most of whom aren't interested -- just won't cut it anymore.
  • btw, I just noticed that whatever inline text ads Everton is using on Connected Internet is injecting ads right into your comment. I love it. Made my night. :)
  • FYI: Firefox isn't the only browser with ad-blocking capability. You can block ads with IE by downloading IE7Pro, for example (ie7pro.com). You can even fix Google Chrome so that it blocks ads (for more on this, see: http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2009/03/25/blo...).

    People use ad blocking technology b/c they hate ads. You hate ads too, Michael. Admit it. Do you sit through every ad on TV? Do you fast forward through them using your Tivo/DVR? You do, don't you? Of course you do, b/c you're a normal human being.

    A major reason why people use DVRs, rent movies from Netflix/Blockbuster (instead of watching them on TV), download serials from the Web, etc., is b/c they hate ads and try to avoid them whenever possible.

    If you're annoyed with people blocking ads, you ain't seen nothin' yet. This is just the beginning. Google is going to see its revenue from Internet ads collapse once add-ons like Adblocker go mainstream. Then it, and every other entity that earns money from advertising, is going to have to do what companies have done since the dawn of commerce: find another way to make a buck.

    Shoving your product into people's faces -- most of whom aren't interested -- just won't cut it anymore.
  • Don't forget Safari, they have an ad blocking solution as well.

    While I probably have the same ad filter in my brain that everyone else does, I don't hate them. I am not above being influenced by an ad. I appreciate when an ad steers me toward something I may be interested in. I love the new Brutal Legend/Dethklok commercial. I have seen loudspeaker ads on hi fi sites that led me to look into a company. I ate Black Jack Tacos at Taco Bell two weeks ago, because I saw an ad.

    People who don't want to see ads aren't going to see ads, anymore than people who don't want to pay for music and movies are going to pay for them when they can download them free of charge. I respect that people are trying to make a living or a buck off whatever it is they are monetizing. If I like their content, it's a small price to pay to have a couple of AdSense units on the page. If I don't like their content it has nothing to do with the ads.

    It's not like spam. Spam ends up in your mailbox, and you didn't ask for it. Blocking ads is subverting a means of income someone has in place in lieu of not providing the content at all.

    Which internet do you want? The internet that is full of crap, but that also has a lot more good content because people are successful at generating some income from an ad based model, or the internet with less of everything because of people who value their own comfort over the efforts of the people who provide a product they are interested in, the content?
  • Mase
    oh guess what let me also spread the word to facebook and twitter.
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