Firefox Leading to Loss of Ad Revenues?
December 4th, 2004 Leave a comment Visited 87 times, 1 so far today
Firefox Leading to Loss of Ad Revenues
Sometime back, I mused about how blocking advertisements can be bad for free nature of the Internet. Some snippets from that weblog entry:
Well, as I look at it… much of the World Wide Web is practically running on advertisements. Talking about big corporate sites, even MSN (owned by the biggie Microsoft) runs on advertisements. Hotmail, GMail, Google and most search engines and webmails uses ads to finance the free services that they provide us. Then computer users like me have forums and tech sites to feed tech junk to our brains… These sites keeps me updated with news, help me find solutions to my problems and even provide some 1337 moments online. Moreover, all of these sites are funded by the money generated with online advertisements.
So, if I for the sake of saving some bandwidth and ignore some non-intrusive advertisements block ads and still use these sites… I am practically being selfish to the forums I use for personal gain. They do not charge me money to find me free solutions… If I cannot tolerate some ads in return… I am denying the sites to earn some money for the help they are providing me.
Now, the latest reports say that Firefox users are 4-5 times less likely to click on advertisements on websites. Same thing apply to other alternative browsers, which are basically used by advanced users of the web. Firefox and IE based Maxthon come with ad-blocking abilities. Firefox even comes with advanced extensions, which can practically make Internet advertisement free. All these can potentially lead to possible losses for websites, which make money from these revenue sources.
What this means is that as Firefox gets more and more popular, website developers would have to find more innovative ways of getting through these ad-blockers and find way to entice user into clicking them. Or soon, Internet would lose more aspects which are available free online.
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December 5th, 2004 at 2:04 am
This is very interesting. Some websites rely on ads to keep their site up. Commercial and non-commercial. Besides, do we really want an ad free internet?
December 5th, 2004 at 2:05 am
It may sound good to some having an ad free interest. However, many websites rely on ads to keep their site up. Commercial and non-commercial. Besides, do we really want an ad free internet? Maybe annoying ads such as popups and flash can go, but filtering out a text and banner ads will only hurt websites. I’d be a little upset if people are sucking up some free services on my websites while filtering out the ads. I say compliment the webmaster and click a few ads.
December 5th, 2004 at 3:43 pm
please invite me for gmail
December 6th, 2004 at 5:08 pm
Theres no such thing as a free resource, and that includes the Web.
December 7th, 2004 at 9:19 am
Jim,
You’re right, there’s always somebody paying for something, or putting in work.
December 8th, 2004 at 1:16 am
Depends on the ad. Flash? Should be against the law. Animated/blinking/rotating GIFs? I block the serving computer permanently. Ads that mimic system messages or windows? I suggest the death penalty. Popups? Off to Guantanamo Bay you go.
Plain text ads, google style? I have no problem with them and if they are intelligently targeted even click on them a fair percentage of the time.
The problem is intelligence and ethics. Most ad-serving people are ethically bankrupt morons or criminals. Out-and-out crooks can’t afford to buy ad space in the New Yorker or Time, but they’re all over the mainstream web. We haven’t scratched the surface of consumer frustration over this kind of garbage.
Besides, the intrinsic value of a web site is almost always in inverse proportion to the amount of flashing/blinking/scrolling rubbish marching across the page. Ad types always think their stuff is “vital” but it almost never is. There’s usually someone offering the same or better content elsewhere for free or with inobtrusive ads.
December 19th, 2004 at 5:50 pm
This article is inaccurate. Firefox does not come with extensions that allow you to get rid of all ads, with the exception of the built in pop-up blocker. The extensions I’m assuming this author is mentioning must be downloaded elsewhere. In fact, I would assume that most people who download Firefox don’t even know about their existence.
The fact is, people using Firefox are probably more savvy than the average computer user, and for that reason, they tend not to click on ads. I have the extension alluded to in the article, but when I’m not at my home computer, I never click on any ads, with the exception of maybe two in my whole life. And those were for products I was already interested in. I figure most people smart enough to pick up Firefox feel the same.
March 18th, 2005 at 9:17 pm
i dont trust ad’s at all with all the malware , spyware etc even though my computer is pritty secure but the defence is made after the “viruses” are made so you never know. also advanced user’s of computers will also not click on ad’s because they know there way around if they wont some think they know were to go.