Ad Blocker

I’ve been pushed to my limit.

I actually try not to use ad blocker because it takes revenue from the indie sites I frequent (no ad views = no money for them), but when it gets to the point where they’re having two videos playing that can’t be closed when I’m trying to read a damn comic, I’m turning ad blocker back on.

Ads

I have been soooo sick of online ads lately. If I leave my laptop unmuted, I get attacked by obnoxious sound ads. And don’t get me started on the hated pop-ups. It’s like, advertisers think that if they make the ads obnoxious enough, we’ll pay attention to them, which is some sort of logic I can’t wrap my head around, like string theory or why Law and Order: SVU is still on.

But! There are ways to block them. Adblock Plus is considered one of the best, and it’s available as extensions for all browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera if you have to be different. As for Explorer...well, I’m sure it works, but if you’re using Explorer, that’s an entirely different problem and frankly, you’re asking for trouble. Adblock is good because you can adjust it to allow non-intrusive ads (e.g. regular banner ads) so the sites you visit still get their ad revenue. I follow a lot of independent web comics and I want to support them, so it’s a good option. Just remember you have to go into options and adjust it manually.

So that’s enough unpaid shilling for today. Ads mostly suck. And if advertisers really want their messages  heard, they need to stop being so obnoxious.

I’ll be more wordy on the next post. Later!

Ads

My feelings towards ads range from mild dislike to outright hatred, depending on whether or not I’m forced to watch them—I will refuse to buy a product with an intrusive ad campaign out of spite. God help you if your stupid ad pops up on my screen when I’m trying to watch something. And targeted ads—ugh! (Hm, I’ve been using that word a lot this week…oh well, it fits) Lately, I’ve been trying to watch shows online and I get those ASPCA ads with the sad looking animals. Damn it, I’m trying to watch the Nostalgia Critic to laugh. You’re ruining everything!

So I clicked on that little blue triangle in the corner of the ad to try and figure out how I could make those stop popping up and making me cry. It took me to AdSense Help, and from there, I clicked on “Ad Settings”. Turns out, they make some…suppositions about you based on the sites you visit.

Apparently I’m a guy. And I like bike riding. I had no idea. Good thing Google is around to tell me.