AdBlock.org

A few years ago, we published a simple adblock detection script. Our purpose for this was to catch the users who had Norton Internet Security installed and inform them that the software they have installed may be blocking content (both ads and non-ads) without their knowledge. A few years have passed, and it seems that NIS have resolved some of their issues with default behavior and invisible installation.

The changing world of adblocking has us with many more users who are blocking ads intentionally than being unaware (at least for now), and therefore our detection script’s audience has changed (at least our implementation of the detection script).

Our purpose has always been one of awareness. Based on some recent feedback, we’ve developed another method for messaging Internet users, including the ones who are purposefully blocking ads, with a more passive but still visible notification about adblocking along with a site-specific alternative to adblocking software.

Voluntary Ad Removal
Adblock.org now offers a voluntary ad removal option. Users can choose to have an ad-free experience on our site even though our ads are pretty benign. If while you’re opting-out of our ads you’d like to make a donation to offset the removal of our revenue source, please do. It’s sort of like the donation box you see at free museums and libraries.

Given the nature of adblock.org, advertising is not by any means a major revenue source, so we offer this as a demonstration and proof of concept. The logic is this:

If you block ads because ads bother you, not that you don’t think I deserve to get some monetary benefit for my efforts, you now have an alternative. Make a donation in exchange for an ad-free browsing experience. Whether you accomplish that through use of adblocking software or through this site’s voluntary ad-removal is your choice.

Offer Voluntary Ad Removal on Your Site
Webmasters, we’ve provided the source code for our donation/ad-removal system. We encourage you to use it on your own website in whatever way you see fit.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 9th, 2006 at 7:04 am and is filed under Adblock Software, For Webmasters, For Consumers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.