Marco.org

We don’t see many or most of the display ads we see online (this post isn’t talking about search ads btw). And it’s more than just “blindness”. I’m told over and over again the most popular firefox extension is ad blocker. And some of my favorite extensions like rapportive blow out the ads on gmail to make gmail better.

As a result of all of this, ads need to get smarter. That’s just evolution at work.

I disagree. No matter how “smart” ads get, there are going to be many people who, in some or all contexts, object to them enough to ignore them or seek out solutions to disable them.

If you currently block ads, is there anything the ads themselves can improve that would make you change your mind? (I’m guessing there isn’t.)

Even the best ads are still ads, and still aren’t always appropriate or wanted. I don’t think smarter ads are the solution to this problem. I don’t think ads are the solution to this problem. What if more ad-supported sites and services offered paid no-ads subscriptions?

And what could motivate ad-blocker users to pay for those subscriptions?

Would you pay $5 per month to remove every Google ad across all of their services and the content network (other sites displaying Google ads)?

Does your answer change if, instead of Google, it’s $2 per month to remove ads on your favorite indie blog or service? What if it’s messaged as a premium “supporter” subscription that makes you feel good about supporting your favorite blog, and it happens to remove the ads as well?