BlockIQ Escalates War on Ad Blockers

[steve2470]

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83436.html

As consumers turn to ad blockers to avoid advertising on their mobile and computer screens, marketers and content providers who depend on pitches to pay the bills are searching frantically for ways to counter the pesky programs. BlockIQ offers them one.

BlockIQ, owned by AdSupply, which recently merged with Adaptive Medias, has launched BlockBypass. The software can detect users of the popular ad blocker AdBlock and perform a number of countermeasures, including circumventing the ad blocker.

Websites can configure BlockBypass as aggressively as they wish. They can just educate a visitor about the harm of ad blockers to websites that depend on advertising to stay alive. They can refuse to serve content to a visitor until an ad blocker is disabled for the website. They also can choose a nuclear option and bypass the ad blocker altogether.

"The incredible growth of ad blocking has reached the tipping point where sites will no longer be able to operate," BlockIQ CEO Justin Bunnell said.


Web sites need to have NON-IRRITATING ads. End of story. Then ad blockers will mostly decline. Kind of simple, really.

[bemildred]

1. Oh good, an arms race over clutter on you screen. nt

[NV Whino]

2. Well, I can't seem to get the thing turned off on my iPad.

[metroins]

3. We've returned to the age of popups

They were big in the 90s and early 2000s. Then semi dissipated for a few years.

It seems like the past 2 years, some idiot decided to bring them back in full force.

There will always be adblockers. They can stifle one, then people will just edit their host files. When that doesn't work we'll just mask our referrer. When that doesn't work, we'll use a browser that doesn't compile certain aspects of Java.

It's a never ending battle, unfortunately for the masses, they will be behind the curve on each era.

[Visionary]

4. Too many adds

I finally had to get an add blocker because some sites had so many adds it would drag down or crash my browser. Popups, scrolling banner adds, flash adds, all kinds of adds.

[TM99]

5. Get TamperMonkey

then install the Fuck FuckAdBlock script.

It keeps scripts like this one from even detecting if an AdBlock extension is active.

[Nye Bevan]

6. Then won't someone develop a "FuckFuckAdBlockIQ" program

to detect when the Fuck FuckAdBlock script is running? And so on and so on......

[mindwalker_i]

8. It'll give us infinite-recursion fuck

#include <fuckedio.h>

int fuck()
{
fuck();
}

[TM99]

10. Yes, eventually, and the

war between open and closed will continue. C'est la vie, c'est la Guerre.

[steve2470]

31. https://github.com/Mechazawa/FuckFuckAdblock

https://github.com/Mechazawa/FuckFuckAdblock

[Fairgo]

7. I have had a personal theory for years...and it is proving out

There are 3 kinds of information. That which is meant to be true, that which is meant to deceive, and that which offers nothing to the desired discussion. Of these, the most dangerous is the third...the candy covered ass-flashing non information. It clutters the data stream and eventual chokes out discourse altogether. This is a proof, for future post-Neoliberal Democratic society, that information needs to be a public trust, just as much as health and housing. The internet could be a beautiful thing, if people were not allowed to try and sell me lemon-scented dildos...and how did they know I like the smell of lemons?

[KatyMan]

9. Well said, thanks. N/T

[bemildred]

16. Yes, advertising makes the channel noisy, is what it does, clutters things up and distracts.

And you get enough of it and it becomes the channnel and people move along, although to be fair some people like advertising, they will watch it all day.

But the problem today is everything is advertising, everything has to produce a buck in return. And that degrades the level of discourse something fierce.

[SeattleVet]

11. Screw 'em.

I block ads for a reason. I have *never* clicked on an ad. I use a browser add-on along with other methods to avoid having to see that crap all over my screen.

When I first started using the Internet, advertising was forbidden (mainly government and educational sites were around then). I kind of got used to NOT seeing any ads, and as advertising started to creep in I did my best to 'tune it out'. (I can have a page open, and my wife will say something about something she sees, and I have to ask her to show me where its is as I essentially ignore any ad content that is displayed - never look into the box or any extraneous text that is displayed, unless it is a part of the actual content I have pulled up.)

The advertisers are getting zero revenue from me. Mine are definitely NOT the 'eyeballs' you want. If the ads are too intrusive I leave the page and go elsewhere. I don't know how many 'news' stories I've closed as soon as an auto-run video ad started. If I open a video, of there is an ad before I can see the content I requested I either leave the site and forget about it, or turn the sound off until the ad is done, usually overlaying the page with another article I'm interested in.

By running an ad blocker I have made my intention clear - I do not want to see the freaking ads, since I never have and never will take in whatever ad content you are pushing on me. If you decide to force the ad to me anyway I will NEVER do business with you, and will probably add a Yelp! review stating the reasons that I won't do business with you.

Let the consumer decide. I have decided. Respect my decision, and stop wasting my time.

[Logical]

13. In other words "I want free shit"

[LanternWaste]

20. I think most people already pay for internet service, thus rendering* your "free shit" allegation in

I think most people already pay for internet service, thus rendering* your "free shit" allegation invalid.





*Render- verb (used with object) 1.to cause to be or become; make: to render someone helpless.; 2. to do; perform: to render a service; 3. to furnish; provide: to render aid. (Any other words in this post you have difficulty understanding, simply let us know and and we'll be happy to provide additional remedial assistance)

[KamaAina]

28. Some of the money we pay for internet needs to go to content providers

the way the cost of music is built into the price of a cassette tape. Problem solved.

[Logical]

33. Really stupid comment, i pay for cable and espn, yet i still get commercials, i dont think....

You understand the new york times makes nothing off your internet provider yet people want to read their news for free, read your thesaurus and get back to me. I had been missing my stalker though!

[Logical]

12. Good for them, people want free shit. Ads pay for content if you don't want.....

Ads then don't visit The fucking site and stop whining!

[Kurska]

18. Me visitng your website doesn't give you the right to hijack my browser

Given that ads are notoriously disruptive and many of the really shady ones can contain malicious code, then I have every right to block them.

If they were just banner ads, no one would ever care, but it has gone well beyond that point now.

[Logical]

19. Bullshit, like tv commercials hijack your TV? Nt

[Kurska]

21. Commercial don't literally play overtop of the tv show you are trying to watch

And none of them contain malicious code that might break your tv.

Current computer adverts prey on people with deceptive designs (fake x's to close it that take you top possibly malware ladden pages).

It is entirely another order of malicious than T.V commercial that just briefly interrupt what you are trying to watch.

If their design wasn't so utterly toxic there wouldn't be such a demand for ad-blockers. Right now not running an adblocker is a genuine security risk for your computer.

I will HAPPILY pay for content I find worthwhile (and I do for several websites), but I'm not putting my computer at risk because someone picked a messed up business model.

[steve2470]

25. amen! nt

[Logical]

32. Most people want free content, end of story

[steve2470]

34. I really don't mind ads unless they are annoying and intrusive as hell, honest

The ones here on DU push the limit for me, but I could cope with them if I absolutely have to. I buy a star to get rid of them.

[hunter]

14. I don't block ads. I block sites that have irritating ads.

I never install Flash. That gets rid of most irritating moving ads, and ads with sound.

I disable scripting except for sites I commonly use.

I allow cookies only from sites I commonly use.

If a site doesn't like the way my computer is set up and refuses to deliver content, well, that's their loss, not mine.

[bemildred]

15. Exactly. nt

[Ex Lurker]

17. I really don't have a problem with ads, except they slow down and sometimes freeze my computer NT

[ProfessorGAC]

22. I'm Not Buying Some of The Arguments For This

One real reason: i notice that when i'm fast-forwarding my DVR, i have found that i essentially know EVERY AD that i'm zapping through!

The graphic artists doing broadcast commercials have figured out how to make you realize what company's product you just saw even if one is going quadruple fast forward.

If the website advertisers can't figure out how to run ads without cluttering the screen, without slowing things down, without disrupting what i'm trying to do at that time, then they're not paying attention to how other people in their own industry are doing it.

Don't come up with an "unblocker". Make the ads quicker, less intrusive, and less processor cumbersome.

[alarimer]

23. The ads are atrocious.

I turn off the ad blocker here and the ads are disgusting. It's one thing to have ads when you on a computer with a large screen. It's quite another to access a website on mobile, where the ads take up much more real estate.

Worse still, are the auto-run video or audio that you can't find to turn off. When I'm on mobile, I have only a limited amount of bandwidth. I don't want to use my precious 2 or 3 GB per month on freaking VIDEO ADS! Why can't people who run website understand that? Also, ads are a good avenue for malware intrusions.

I will block ads and continue to do so until they pry my keyboard out of my cold, dead hands.

[PowerToThePeople]

24. I blackhole via dns advertiser domains.

Some sites try to stop my access, Forbes is one example.

I just no longer visit those sites.

I will adblock until those sites start subsidizing me for the bandwidth they are using pushing their adverts.

[Initech]

26. They can have my ad blocker when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

And sites like Taboola and Outbrain that sell click bait ad garbage and make it impossible to use ad blocker can go straight to hell.

[Kip Humphrey]

27. At what point does BlockIQ & BlockBypass not commit cyber-terrorism?

"perform a number of countermeasures, including circumventing the ad blocker" uses intercepted communications to hijack others' commercial software and usurp the will and intent of the ad blocker licensed user. Put that way, it doesn't sound entirely legal, nor does it appear ethical.

[Bonx]

29. Chrome with 'uBlock Origin'--> Browsing happily ever after.

[steve2470]

30. going to install now, thanks! nt