[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #452: Should we block ads?

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OPLIN 4cast #452: Should we block ads?
August 26th, 2015

[image: stop sign]Since the 1930s, people have said, "There ain't no such
thing as a free lunch," and this certainly applies to "free" information on
the Internet. If you haven't paid to read an article (or are not reading an
article for which a library has paid for your access), chances are very
high that the web page containing the article is festooned with all kinds
of advertisements angling for your money. Some of the most intrusive ads
are pop-up ads, and many people and web browsers use blocking software to
stop such ads. Two weeks ago, PageFair, a provider of counter ad block
solutions for publishers, released their annual report
<http://blog.pagefair.com/2015/ad-blocking-report/> documenting the
increasing use of ad blockers. Is this a problem?

   - The digital media industry needs to react to ad blockers ... or else
   <http://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/will_ad_blockers_kill_the_digital_media_industry.php>
   (Columbia Journalism Review | Michael Rosenwald) "This is an exciting and
   chaotic time in digital news. Innovators like BuzzFeed and Vox are rising,
   old stalwarts like *The New York Times* and *The Washington Post* are
   finding massive new audiences online, and global online ad revenue
   continues to rise, reaching nearly $180 billion last year. But analysts say
   the rise of ad blocking threatens the entire industry-the free sites that
   rely exclusively on ads, as well as the paywalled outlets that rely on ads
   to compensate for the vast majority of internet users who refuse to pay for
   news."
   - Ad blockers and the nuisance at the heart of the modern web
   <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/technology/personaltech/ad-blockers-and-the-nuisance-at-the-heart-of-the-modern-web.html>
   (New York Times | Farhad Manjoo) "Nearly 200 million people worldwide
   regularly block ads, the report said, and the number is growing fast,
   increasing 41 percent globally in the last year. Today ad-blocking is
   mostly restricted to desktop web browsers. But iOS 9, Apple's latest mobile
   operating system, will include support for ad blockers when it becomes
   available in the fall."
   - What the ad blocker debate reveals
   <http://www.mondaynote.com/2015/08/03/what-the-ad-blocker-debate-reveals/>
   (Monday Note | Jean-Louis Gassée) "You can't blame the browser, it's the
   way the system has evolved in the Web advertising race to the bottom. Back
   when physical newspapers were still vital, advertising space was limited
   and thus prices were well-behaved and constant. No such thing on the Web,
   where the 'ad inventory' tends to infinity. As a result, prices fall, sites
   need more ads to stay afloat, and they must consent to exploitative
   practices."
   - The ethics of modern web ad-blocking
   <http://www.marco.org/2015/08/11/ad-blocking-ethics> (Marco.org | Marco
   Arment) "Web ads are dramatically different from prior ad media, though -
   rather than just being printed on paper or inserted into a broadcast, web
   ads are *software*. They run arbitrary code on your computer, which can
   (and usually does) collect and send data about you and your behavior back
   to the advertisers and publishers. And there's so much consolidation
   amongst ad networks and analytics providers that they can easily track your
   behavior across multiple sites, building a creepily accurate and deep
   profile of your personal information and private business."

*Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - With ad blocking use on the rise, what happens to online publishers?
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=6XN201507202005&site=ehost-live>
   (*All Things Considered* (NPR), 7/20/2015 | transcript)
   - Do you recognize its brand? The effectiveness of online in-stream
   video advertisements.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=103266057&site=ehost-live>
   (*Journal of Advertising*, 2015, p.208-218 | Hao Li and Hui-Yi Lo)
   - Consumer reactions to intrusiveness of online-video advertisements.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=101743233&site=ehost-live>
   (*Journal of Advertising Research*, March 2015, p.37-50 (Kendall
   Goodrich, Shu Z. Schiller, and Dennis Galletta)

------------------------------
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