Last week, I linked to both the Firefox add-on Adblock Plus, and Nicholas Carr's Guardian article discussing its potential impact on the Web's prevailing economic model - i.e. giving stuff away for free while making your money from advertising. His main point was, that if Adblock becomes popular, why would anyone advertise on the Web? Huge companies, like Google or Yahoo, that rely on their advertising revenues, could go belly-up. Or perhaps more likely, we'd all have to start paying for everything. Either way, by using Adblock might we be shooting ourselves in the foot?
A correction
Having now spent a few days playing with the thing, I'm in a little better position to comment on his article. My first observation is that, erm, that article wasn't actually the one I meant to link to, this one was. In that one, Andrew Brown considers much the same thing, but more in the form of a personal moral dilemma - to block or not to block? to publicise Adblock or not to publicise Adblock?
Writing on this blog, rather than for The Guardian, I somehow doubt I might contribute to Adblock going viral, so the latter dilemma's fairly easily squared for me, at least. But, on a wider level, it's still an interesting point: shouldn't Adblock, perhaps, remain something that's not widely known about?
That said, of course, if Adblock doesn't entirely work, or it proves to be more fiddle and faff than the average net-user can be bothered with, that question still might be entirely academic; but let's see, shall we?
Will it catch on? Adblock in use
First things first, as Brown points out, the average net-user isn't a Firefox user. Not yet, anyway. But with Firefox 3.0 imminent, and more and more low cost PCs coming pre-installed with Linux (and other Open Source software) rather than Windows, who knows, that could change; perhaps at least enough that the existence of Adblock Plus might remain problematic. But beyond that?
Well, I think the Net as we know it might be safe, for now.
Don't get me wrong, Adblock seems to work. In fact, I've been having quite a lot of fun figuring out how to zap problem ads from the sites I use - it's almost like a puzzle game. The thing is, I'm damned if I actually know exactly what I'm doing.
True, it's rare that I'm bothered by an advert on Wired anymore, say, or MySpace, or any of the other sites whose annoying ads I seem to have managed to nuke, so I must be doing something right, but as far as I'm able to understand any of it I've just been replacing bits of URL type things with asterisks; it's almost entirely trial and error. You open up the 'blockable items' menu, pick the likely suspects, and replace bits of them with asterisks (or other things, if you understand what you're doing) so as to make a generic blocking rule - put an asterisk in the wrong place and you'll only block the specific ad that's appearing at that time, rather than any that will ever try to appear in that frame. Actually, that does seem to be the key, by the way, blocking frames rather than the bits of script that feed ads into them. Keeps the page neater too.
Simpler use
I've actually been making it difficult for myself, though; for an easier life, you could just add one of the subscriptions (packages of blocking rules other people have created) that Adblock offers you after installation. These (I assume) block every ad on every site, or perhaps just every popular site. Except, well, there are a number of subscriptions: some seemed to be specific to French Web users, say, or users who might encounter things in the Cyrillic alphabet, but other than that I failed to really work out what the differences might be.
However they might work, though, there's just one other thing that puts me off: I don't actually want to block all ads.
The problem with Adblock
You see, I don't know about you, but I tend to think that properly targeted ads can actually be pretty handy - they can be informative, or sometimes even entertaining. When I go to Pitchfork, for instance, I really do want to be told that so-and-so has a new album out - chances are that they might have been a bit quiet for a couple of years so I've stopped checking regularly for myself. Simple text ads that don't slow your browser down I don't exactly mind, either.
So what's my point? Well, as Adblock Plus stands at the moment, the easy option (subscriptions) will be too catch-all for some users, and the harder option (configuring blocking rules for specific sites) will probably have too steep a learning curve for the casual user. Hence my suggestion that the Web is safe, for now. Note the words 'for now', though.
Implications for the future
As Andrew Brown points out, the majority of people can't be bothered to tinker with their browsers, or even change browser. But what if the benefits of doing so eventually became sufficient to outweigh the odd short-term minor hassle? What if Adblock became a whole lot easier to use? And in the form of the little tabs reading 'Block' that you'll notice Adblock appending to some (though not yet all) ads on a page, perhaps there's a hint that greater ease of use might not be too far around the corner? Indeed, isn't ease of use, perhaps, all that's really stopping Adblock from going viral?
If so, maybe Web enterprises should at least be preparing for that eventuality. Most will probably just work out ways to block Adblock, I suppose... Or am I just being pessimistic. After all, there's a rather brighter alternative scenario: one day websites might feature only unobtrusive ads that will actually be of use to their users; ones that won't crash their bloody browsers.
Or perhaps not. But sometimes it's nice to dream, isn't it?
UPDATE: I hadn't properly noticed the option to disable Adblock on specific websites, earlier. So perhaps the subscription option doesn't have to be as catch-all as I thought. Even more reason, then, for websites to keep their advertising interesting and relevant.
In other news: This life hacking stuff might well have permanently moved to Tuesdays, I think. Well, it does sort of make more sense for it to feature on a Monday (as a balance to the Friday links), but for one reason or another, Monday just doesn't seem to have been a good day lately.
Oh well.
Links
It's a few months old now, of course, but lifehacker's 2007 rundown of the best free software and Web applications, is still well worth a look.
Another Firefox add-on: PDF Download. If you've ever clicked on a document, not realising that it was a PDF and then had your browser lock up until the thing's finally loaded, you'll love this. It alerts you to what's about to happen and lets you just download the thing instead. Wonderful.
If you're having real problems with procrastination, perhaps a psychologist might be able to get to the root of it all? Looks like MindMentor might be, essentially, ELIZA with a PhD, but still, at least a session only costs 4.95 EUR and there's no NHS waiting list.
A correction
Having now spent a few days playing with the thing, I'm in a little better position to comment on his article. My first observation is that, erm, that article wasn't actually the one I meant to link to, this one was. In that one, Andrew Brown considers much the same thing, but more in the form of a personal moral dilemma - to block or not to block? to publicise Adblock or not to publicise Adblock?
Writing on this blog, rather than for The Guardian, I somehow doubt I might contribute to Adblock going viral, so the latter dilemma's fairly easily squared for me, at least. But, on a wider level, it's still an interesting point: shouldn't Adblock, perhaps, remain something that's not widely known about?
That said, of course, if Adblock doesn't entirely work, or it proves to be more fiddle and faff than the average net-user can be bothered with, that question still might be entirely academic; but let's see, shall we?
Will it catch on? Adblock in use
First things first, as Brown points out, the average net-user isn't a Firefox user. Not yet, anyway. But with Firefox 3.0 imminent, and more and more low cost PCs coming pre-installed with Linux (and other Open Source software) rather than Windows, who knows, that could change; perhaps at least enough that the existence of Adblock Plus might remain problematic. But beyond that?
Well, I think the Net as we know it might be safe, for now.
Don't get me wrong, Adblock seems to work. In fact, I've been having quite a lot of fun figuring out how to zap problem ads from the sites I use - it's almost like a puzzle game. The thing is, I'm damned if I actually know exactly what I'm doing.
True, it's rare that I'm bothered by an advert on Wired anymore, say, or MySpace, or any of the other sites whose annoying ads I seem to have managed to nuke, so I must be doing something right, but as far as I'm able to understand any of it I've just been replacing bits of URL type things with asterisks; it's almost entirely trial and error. You open up the 'blockable items' menu, pick the likely suspects, and replace bits of them with asterisks (or other things, if you understand what you're doing) so as to make a generic blocking rule - put an asterisk in the wrong place and you'll only block the specific ad that's appearing at that time, rather than any that will ever try to appear in that frame. Actually, that does seem to be the key, by the way, blocking frames rather than the bits of script that feed ads into them. Keeps the page neater too.
Simpler use
I've actually been making it difficult for myself, though; for an easier life, you could just add one of the subscriptions (packages of blocking rules other people have created) that Adblock offers you after installation. These (I assume) block every ad on every site, or perhaps just every popular site. Except, well, there are a number of subscriptions: some seemed to be specific to French Web users, say, or users who might encounter things in the Cyrillic alphabet, but other than that I failed to really work out what the differences might be.
However they might work, though, there's just one other thing that puts me off: I don't actually want to block all ads.
The problem with Adblock
You see, I don't know about you, but I tend to think that properly targeted ads can actually be pretty handy - they can be informative, or sometimes even entertaining. When I go to Pitchfork, for instance, I really do want to be told that so-and-so has a new album out - chances are that they might have been a bit quiet for a couple of years so I've stopped checking regularly for myself. Simple text ads that don't slow your browser down I don't exactly mind, either.
So what's my point? Well, as Adblock Plus stands at the moment, the easy option (subscriptions) will be too catch-all for some users, and the harder option (configuring blocking rules for specific sites) will probably have too steep a learning curve for the casual user. Hence my suggestion that the Web is safe, for now. Note the words 'for now', though.
Implications for the future
As Andrew Brown points out, the majority of people can't be bothered to tinker with their browsers, or even change browser. But what if the benefits of doing so eventually became sufficient to outweigh the odd short-term minor hassle? What if Adblock became a whole lot easier to use? And in the form of the little tabs reading 'Block' that you'll notice Adblock appending to some (though not yet all) ads on a page, perhaps there's a hint that greater ease of use might not be too far around the corner? Indeed, isn't ease of use, perhaps, all that's really stopping Adblock from going viral?
If so, maybe Web enterprises should at least be preparing for that eventuality. Most will probably just work out ways to block Adblock, I suppose... Or am I just being pessimistic. After all, there's a rather brighter alternative scenario: one day websites might feature only unobtrusive ads that will actually be of use to their users; ones that won't crash their bloody browsers.
Or perhaps not. But sometimes it's nice to dream, isn't it?
UPDATE: I hadn't properly noticed the option to disable Adblock on specific websites, earlier. So perhaps the subscription option doesn't have to be as catch-all as I thought. Even more reason, then, for websites to keep their advertising interesting and relevant.
In other news: This life hacking stuff might well have permanently moved to Tuesdays, I think. Well, it does sort of make more sense for it to feature on a Monday (as a balance to the Friday links), but for one reason or another, Monday just doesn't seem to have been a good day lately.
Oh well.
Links
It's a few months old now, of course, but lifehacker's 2007 rundown of the best free software and Web applications, is still well worth a look.
Another Firefox add-on: PDF Download. If you've ever clicked on a document, not realising that it was a PDF and then had your browser lock up until the thing's finally loaded, you'll love this. It alerts you to what's about to happen and lets you just download the thing instead. Wonderful.
If you're having real problems with procrastination, perhaps a psychologist might be able to get to the root of it all? Looks like MindMentor might be, essentially, ELIZA with a PhD, but still, at least a session only costs 4.95 EUR and there's no NHS waiting list.
