Last updated on June 12, 2017 - Back to blog home page
TweetAn ad-blocker is a piece of software, a browser plug-in or a component of an application, that can identify advertisement on a website or mobile application and prevent ads from rendering. It can act on all form of advertisement from classic banners to pre-roll video ads. Modern ad-blockers sports advanced features and detection mechanisms and can become a serious threat for business seeking a legitimate source of revenue with online advertisement. Note the word legitimate it is of much importance here.
Ad-blockers usage vary depending on countries and user's age but a consistent trend exists: adoption is (still) rapidly growing as of mid-2017. In March 2016, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that UK ad-blocking was already at 22% among people over 18 years old.
Most common ad-blockers are browser-based plugins like Adblock Plus or AdBlock - but this is just the beginning as browser manufacturers are also now providing their own ad-blocking solution ( already available in Opera and soon in Chrome).
Now why would a company like Google - which has been living the dream with ad-revenue for many years - would start building an ad-blocker within Chrome? Well like they say - if a situation gets out of hand, be part of the solution not the problem. By doing so Google hopes it can help creators, journalists and web developers who depend on legitimate ad-revenue to continue funding their content creation by blocking intrusive, performance-taxing ads while still allowing user-friendly ads to run.
This article from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) says it all. Too much, uncontrolled online ads over years-and-years have created distrust among content viewers and linked the words bad-user-experience with online advertisement.
Ad-blockers say they can help in the following areas: block intrusive ads, save bandwidth, provide faster page loading times and access to content, save battery on mobile devices, help with protecting privacy. Yes when you read this it is hard - as a viewer - to say no!
The reality though is that ad-blockers are making money off ads (and tracking too). Nothing is free after all ...
At Radiant Media Player we can help you fighting ad-blockers - many of our customers rely on video ads to generate legitimate revenue and keep the day-to-day business going. Though there are no miraculous solution to completely get rid of ad-blockers - solutions do exist to mitigate their effects:
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