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Adblock.org Goes On The Offensive

August 30th, 2004 by Wayne Porter

The battle over Adblocking continues. Brian Clark covered it recently in this journal entry:

But Norton takes this ad stripping to a new level, targeting all manner of code inside the HTML of pages. Google AdWords? Hyperlinks get stripped out. Images that are the same size as an IAB ad size? Those are out of there too. Links inside pages that include LinkShare, Commission Junction or BeFree tracking URLs? Removed, stripped, deleted. In fact, the Kowabunga white paper provides just a partial list of the HTML code that can trigger the stripping mechanisms, and that section is four pages of the nine page PDF file.

And now it appears others are joining the fray. Most webmasters agree there is little they can do if end users decide to block ads by tweaking their browsers or installing 3rd party software. The same argument can be applied to cookies. Afterall it is the user’s machine and they have control over the filters in which they view web pages. If they want to block ads or Active X controls or delete cookies it is certainly in their power.

However it really heats up when security vendors make the decision for end users on what ads should be blocked by default. Often the blocking of ads defaces the pages to the point where they are no longer readable. i.e. in the case of a site that uses data feeds or web services. They even go as far as to block Google Adwords, which I find to be the least intrusive of ad formats and often quite beneficial. Afterall what is better than a targeted collection of text links that are relevant? Google has fulfilled the contextual marketing dream!

Norton Utilities has come under heavy fire and now webmasters are fighting back via grassroots fashion. Adblock.org has released a javascript that detects ad blocking and allows users to redirect those with ad blocking on to an education page. (View Demo).

Ironically I have begun my own experiments to find out just how many users are blocking ads with some custom javascript we have written- the real question is what to do with the people who are blocking ads?

My first thought was something like this “We understand you do not like 3rd party advertising while surfing the Internet, to make it convenient for you we have provided a premium membership so you can enjoy our site completely advertisement free. Otherwise please disable your ad blocking software to fully enjoy all of the great features of our site.”

The bottom line is that many free content and services will go away without sponsorship or advertising. Just like spyware and anti-spyware this is another battle that promises to escalate as angry webmasters protect their intellectual property and try to scrape out a living online.

Adblock.org also offers up some handy tips to help combat ad blocking here a few tidbits:

1) Educate your surfers. Write messaging or use scripts that notify users that they have ad blocking software on their computer.

2) Name your images and files with discretition. Don’t use common ad terminology in your links, like “ad”, “468″, “banner”, etc. Software like Norton Internet Security blindly blocks such files.

3) Don’t include image dimensions in your graphic files. Filtering software triggers off common advertisement sizes when looking for HTML to block.

4) Cloak your advertising and affiliate urls and links through local redirects. Ad blocking software are continually looking for “sitting ducks” like large advertisement aggregators i.e. doubleclick, valueclick, fineclicks, commission junction and linksynergy.com, etc.

In closing I have to ask what is next? Will some enteprising ad agency or web publisher file a lawsuit against Internet Explorer’s because Service Pack 2 blocks all pop-ups by default and hence damages their revenue stream….