Ad Blocking Software

Categories: Tech, Metrics

Yeah, you shouldn't have visited so many, um, "adult art film" websites. You knew eventually they would haunt you. So now, you get all kinds of ads popping up on your computer, suggesting you buy premium membership services to said "art" sites.

How do you solve this intrusion? You buy ad blocking software, hopefully itself not a virus invading your computer. The ad blocker system has a black, grey, and white list of websites and cookies, or snippets of data, telling Big Brother who you really are. White-listed sites are identifiable, G-rated, and acceptable for anyone, grey sites are usually sites they simply don't yet know. Black-listed sites are those promulgating their "art films."

The system need not be so nefarious. In fact, ad blocking software can be used to simply block banner ads from appearing on the pages you visit. You may hate seeing that Prius ad for the 43rd time, but for better or worse, the content publisher, i.e., people like Shmoop, paid for the artist to write that content in the first place. So if ad blocking software happens at scale, users will have a choice: either pay a monthly premium bill (like they pay for HBO), or, they'll do without the content, as many content publishers now have "snipping tools" that simply don't render their content to people with ad blocking software.

Yeah, it's Faust. Deal with it.



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