Ad-blocking and whyfirefoxisblocked.com
Recently it came to the attention of the Digg masses that some slimy SEO guy was advocating web site owners block every Firefox user simply because Firefox allows ad-blocking plugins, and doesn’t provide web site owners with any way to block users of such plugins.
I find this incredibly silly for a number of reasons. The number of Firefox users who use such plugins is likely very small. By blocking all Firefox users, you not only keep the ad-blocking users away (who most likely wouldn’t click on your ads anyway), but also the much larger number of users who might click on your ads. Mmmmkay…
Even if he’s doing this out of principle, or to make a point, he apparently doesn’t realize that every popular browser has ad-blocking software available. See below.
Personally, I’ve realized that I’m completely web ad blind. After 10+ years of web browsing, I’ve subconsciously conditioned myself to ignore all web advertising, unless it’s something truly obnoxious like Flash ads with sound, etc.
That said, this guy has inspired me to install both ad blocking software, and plugin to change the browser’s user-agent string to get around silly browser-specific filters (although if a site resorts to blocking certain browsers, do you really want to support them?).
Ad Blocking
Firefox: Adblock Plus, also available from the Firefox plugin directory.
Safari: PithHelmet
User-Agent Changing
Firefox: User Agent Switcher
Safari: built in, enable Safari “Debug” menu by entering the following on the command line:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1
Update: the ad-blocking debate got picked up by at least one mainstream newpaper, surely causing a surge of new Ad-block users… not quite what the slimy SEO guy had in mind. Karma?