Let's ALL block internet ads together!

[Aractus]

As per a previous thread here I hate internet ads with a passion.

Internet bandwidth in Australia is still very expensive. When Youtube introduced pre-roll ads, I never even noticed because the entire time I'd been using the MVPS HOSTS file. In fact I can't even remember when I started using it it was that long ago, it's been at least 10 years - probably longer. I went from IE5.5 to MyIE2 to Maxthon. The latter two had ad blocking extensions. Chrome launched, I hated it. Then I moved to Opera. Then I got sick of Opera, moved to Chrome. In May 2012, Google removed the Product Search feature. Although I had used Startpage quite a bit before that (and do understand Startpage used to be quite slow, not like now), in response to taking away product search I moved off Google completely. Startpage and DuckDuckGo provided all the search functionality I needed. Then I got a new computer, in mid 2014 I  got sick of Chrome - too many features I miss; like a proper title bar, and a proper status bar. Moved to Firefox.

In response to the excessive advertising from Adwords/Adsense I went back to using ad blocking extensions in addition to the hosts file. In the past Adsense didn't bother me, but that was when the search results were in their own boxes and clearly separate from the search results.

Today I've completed a page on why and how here, I will do a blog on it soon when I have time. I highly suggest installing uBlock, or one of the others where necessary.

There are a lot of people, mostly on Youtube, making the argument that "the internet needs advertising" and "the internet will suck without advertising". What bullshit. Wikipedia has never had any ads on it; yet according to their claim it should have been pushed-out by a competitor covered in ads. Youtubers can place as many annotations as they like and as many links in the video description as they like. Those links may not be as effective as in-video ads, but they're also much less invasive.

Google is the biggest internet advertiser, and all the profits they make in my country are funnelled out and taxed in Ireland. An advertiser that buys a local radio ad is supporting the economy - an advertiser that buys a Google internet ad isn't. If their advertising budget is $10,000 and they spend $5,000 on Google ads and $5,000 on radio ads then this it what happens:

Radio:
10% GST. - $454.55 tax paid to the Australian Government that then gets distributed to the States/Territories.
30% Company tax. This applies to net profits. So let's imagine that for a $5,000 advertising package that the company makes a modest $500 net profit after all expenses. That would be another $150 in tax paid to the Australian Government. In addition there will also be income tax, but we'll just count the corporate side of the taxation for now.
Total: $604.55 tax paid in Australia.

Google AdSense:
No GST
Company tax paid in Ireland
Total: $0 tax paid in Australia.

By blocking ads you will save the advertisers money, that they can then use on locally taxed advertising that support your economy.

And who cares if Youtuber's stop making money? They can go out and get a real job. Or sell real products and services instead of advertising. They don't pay to publish their videos anyway. Geocities funded free web hosting with just one 468x60 ad banner per page. They didn't need multiple invasive ads per page. Get real, it's excessive.

Here's my example image of what a banner ad looked like:



It's not hard for websites to use those and design them to go through ad blockers, so really by blocking ads you're also encouraging websites to cut out the middle man and negotiate directly with advertisers.

[Minimalist]

AdBlock Plus with Firefox.

[Jackalope]

The internet has ads?  

[Aractus]

@Min - uBlock is much more memory efficient, I did my own test a few weeks ago.

[Iroscato]

The internet has ads?  

They are myth. You might say we are...adtheists.

[Aractus]

Youtube is also known for its pirated content. I just watched the new official Jurassic World trailer, and this popped up as one of the first videos it suggests I watch next:

---

http://youtu.be/Nt_h0zyWTXo

---

It's been there for 3 weeks, has 176,000 views and what is it? It's the full Jurassic Park 1 (1993) movie from start to finish, minus the credits in 1080p. The same one that Universal sells here:

http://youtu.be/MxvOYdTmBbs

The same one that you could get on The Pirate Bay illegally too - although I doubt a "pirate bay" torrent would get anywhere near 176,000 downloads for a 1993 movie, especially in just 3 weeks.

Now if I just disable my hosts file for a moment, open up IE (which has no adblock installed) and open the Youtube video I can see it has a 2:20 long (skipable) pre-roll ad, and, 20 invideo ads. So Google's been making money on it, whoever owns the channel is apparently making money on it, and Universal isn't. Three weeks that video has been up and making money for Google!

And by the way this is hardly an isolated thing, there are hundreds if not thousands of videos that users have tweaked slightly from the rip to get away with posting the full commercial versions. In this case the video is slowed and needs to be watched at 1.25 speed to be enjoyed.

[Jenny A]

There are people who don't use some kind of ad blocker? Who are these aliens of which you speak?

Seriously though, although I do use an ad blocker, ads are what pay for most of what we see. It's just an arms race as to what they can force us to see, versus our ability to ignore. If we ever truly win, much of what we want to see will go away.

[Silver]

Adblock with Chrome.

[Aractus]

You know another thing is, these people who are arguing that Adblock is destroying revenue, and here's an example:

http://youtu.be/ifBpjs36kFs

Need to realise that only a small portion of internet users are using adblock at the moment, and what the vast majority want is less ads; so not 20 invideo ads in a single video, not pre-roll videos all the time. If Google actually made a decision to make more sensible limits, for example by making it so that a viewer cannot see more than 1 video ad per 30 minutes no matter how many videos they watch; they'd probably stop most viewers from wanting to use adblock. But that would result in a far greater decrease in advertising revenue than having a few people simply block all the ads, and everyone else be subjected to unlimited amounts of advertising.

In the last 5 years I've had a lot of junkmail come through. I do one of two things - 1. I put it straight into the bin, 2. I burn it. I always do one of those two things. Salmat keeps delivering me junk mail anyway. I keep throwing it out or burning it. In the past 5 years I've never paid any attention, I've never opened them, I've never looked at or cared about who is being advertised. Now if I wanted I could put a label on my letterbox that says "no junk mail" - but that spoils the look, so I don't, but I could. And it would block all of that junk-mail advertising. And some people do that, it's no different to adblock on a computer.

[dyresand]

Ad block plus + Ghostery (since most ads are cookie based) + chrome.
Youtube add free and everywhere i go is ad free.