Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Are Ad-Blockers Saving Or Ruining the Internet?

Ad-blockers may seem like an answer to an internet user's prayers. No annoying pop-ups, no promos before videos and no concerns about accidentally clicking on a virus.

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I'd say ruining; I can tolerate some annoying ads or even agree to paid subscriptions on a very few selected news sites but I hate it, on a site like Drudge when virtually every article you click on hasa pay wall or demands that you turb off your ad blocker, which would be fine, except their instructions on how to do that never work. I think I just want to delete all ad blockers from my system; if I can actually figure out how to do yhat and allow ads which might be annoying but better than being locked from reading so much information.

#1 | Posted by danni at 2024-10-29 12:24 PM

A bit gob smacked, clicked on the link and no pop up.

#2 | Posted by mattm at 2024-10-29 01:23 PM

I dropped off Meta about a year ago due to the incessant ads and political content of acquaintances.

#3 | Posted by mattm at 2024-10-29 01:25 PM

I'm most excited for Ad Blocking built into AR glasses. Then every billboard, poster, and campaign sign will be automatically removed and replaced with something you actually want to look at.

#4 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-10-29 03:52 PM

"Then every billboard, poster, and campaign sign will be automatically removed and replaced with something you actually want to look at." -

Posted by sitzkrieg

Something like this?

#5 | Posted by Hans at 2024-10-29 03:57 PM

... Are Ad-Blockers Saving Or Ruining the Internet? ...

That depends upon what you think "the Internet" is, or should be?

If you think that the Internet should be little more than a personal-data harvesting system for the corporate world, then I'd opine that ad blockers are not helping in that goal.


#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-10-29 05:51 PM

Saving the internet. I use Brave browser, no annoying ads.

#7 | Posted by bat4255 at 2024-10-29 06:05 PM

fAIRLY recently my subscriptiion to Ad Block Plus was expiring but I noticed their ads trying to convince me to renew mysubscription were far more annoying than any of the ads that it blocked were.

#8 | Posted by danni at 2024-10-29 06:12 PM

We need one for television. You can't even flip over to something potentially more interesting for 2minutes without enduring 180 seconds of ads.

It's gotten ridiculous.

#9 | Posted by fresno500 at 2024-10-30 02:52 AM

@#9 ... We need one for television. ...

Yeah.

Video streaming seems to be particularly bad in that aspect.


FTC investigates video streaming and social media for data collection (September 2024)
www.securitymagazine.com

... A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff report that examines the data collection and use practices of major social media and video streaming services shows they engaged in vast surveillance of consumers in order to monetize their personal information while failing to adequately protect users online, especially children and teens. ...



#10 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-10-30 03:03 AM

Saving.

Ads ruined the internet decades ago. Adblockers are our way of taking it back.

#11 | Posted by DarkVader at 2024-10-30 08:58 AM

For the modern web, Firefox + uBlock Origin are ESSENTIAL. NoScript is nice to have too.

#12 | Posted by DarkVader at 2024-10-30 09:03 AM

Brave browser has all that standard.

#13 | Posted by bat4255 at 2024-10-30 10:23 AM

Oh boo ------ hoo. They're whining because they can't spam us with ------ ads. They can suck it.

I am ok with denying access to sites when using ad blocker. You still have control of what you see. I'll accept the ads if I want to see the site that bad.

#14 | Posted by horstngraben at 2024-10-30 02:41 PM

Hey I enjoyed the internet much more when it was more open ended, and informative when ads funded websites and global news and encouraged pretty much open ended non censored reader comments. I felt journalism and site providers were being compensated and paid. Then things changed and everyone tried to protect their turf and protect themselves. The rationale could have been media protecting Biden. I like having free access to global news as it is informative to all.

Ive often thought we need a clearing house that might negotiate so as to allow users to opt in and get broad coverage for a flat rate. No one will subscibe for one article.

#15 | Posted by robson at 2024-10-30 06:13 PM

someonewhocares.org

#16 | Posted by billy_boy at 2024-10-30 10:29 PM

someonewhocares.org

A simple easy fix for some problems...use Adblocker Ultimate or your favorite ad blocker in conjunction with a host file and you'll be sitting pretty.

#17 | Posted by billy_boy at 2024-10-30 10:33 PM

Danni, how do you not know how to just pause adblock on a site that has the pop ups requesting it?

#18 | Posted by kwrx25 at 2024-10-31 11:54 AM

The problem today is big business is not content to just convince you to simply buy something. They want to spy, own, accumulate, and harvest everything about your life. They are already creating specific apps to aid and abet this process by demanding site specific apps rather than allowing access via generic browsers.

#19 | Posted by Robson at 2024-11-01 07:43 AM

Drudge Retort Headlines

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Musk Suddenly Realizes He Has No Clue How to Govern (29 comments)

Trump's Coming House Headaches (21 comments)

Trump's Transition Is Happening over Private Emails (21 comments)

Lousiana Bars Health Dept. from Promoting Vaccines (14 comments)

Clearance Thomas Received More Lavish Gifts from Harlan Crow (11 comments)

Musk Raises Alarms by Endorsing What's Known as 'German neo-Nazi party' (11 comments)

German Christmas Market Attack (10 comments)

Abbott Buys Billboards Threatening Migrants (9 comments)

Murder Hornets Eradicated in the US (9 comments)