I just read a great article that I found on Digg:
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars
I have never purposefully gone to ars, but every once in a while I end up over there on a link from sites like Digg. (As an aside, this article prompted me to add ars to my bookmarks and it made me think about my criteria for what it takes to make my bookmark bar.)
In this case, I was impressed with the honesty of the writer in addressing the issue of visitors using ad blocking and how that impacts the viability of a medium size website. The social experiment that they conducted to determine how people would react if a website were to deny content to ad-blockers is the most interesting test I’ve seen in a long time.
I have never used an ad blocker myself. I actually like ads as part of the browsing experience. Much like magazines and newspaper, I find that the ads can add an extra dimension if they are contextually relevant.
I look forward to the future of behavioural targeting. I imagine a technology that would allow me to opt in to share as much information as I please, including browsing history, life stage and additudinal information to make it easier for advertisers who have products that I would be a likely candidate to consider.
Relevant ads make the experience better, as long as they are not overly intrusive or have a noticable impact on my browser’s performance.
