In the past few days since Apple released iOS 9 with its ability to install ad-blocking software, a minor kerfuffle has ensued. All the ruckus seems to be centered on Marco Arment who, according to his web site is “a programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast”. He is quite well-known in tech circles for his involvement with Tumblr and Instapaper. On August 11th he posted a very lucid, succinct article titled “The ethics of modern web ad-blocking” in which he makes several points about the many evils of modern web advertising, any of which provide ample justification for installing an ad-blocker. Taken in total they make you feel like all web advertisers should be imprisoned. As soon as Apple would allow it, Mr. Arment began selling an ad blocker he developed for iOS called Peace. All the hullabaloo started when, after just a couple of days in the App Store, Mr. Arment suddenly pulled the app and posted this, “Just doesn’t feel good”. He explains he still believes in all the reasons for an ad-blocker but he doesn’t want to be the arbiter. I can respect that. Especially when I realize what a butt-load of cash he’s turning his back on. Peace was the #1 bestseller in the App Store when he pulled it. Observing principal in action is quite refreshing, actually.

This event with Mr. Arment is the catalyst that has everybody talking about a serious issue that’s been flying under the radar and festering for quite some time: Web advertising and the methods the ad companies employ have gotten completely out of control. For example, some sites I’ve visited lately border on unreadable. Loading the site takes much longer than it should because it seems like all the ads load first. I think it’s finally done loading and scroll to the beginning of the article, read the first few words and SWOOSH. It jumps down because a huge banner ad loads at the top of the site, pushing the text I want to see halfway down the page. I scroll down to the beginning again and then a pop-over ad appears obscuring the entire site until I find the tiny “x” or “Close” button that only appears when I mouse over it. By the time I get past all this clutter (Mind you, I have no idea what the ads were about.) I begin to wonder if this damned 500-word post is worth all the trouble. Does this sound familiar? This is just a couple of examples of the intrusive tactics employed by advertisers and the sites that host them. Add to these the video ads that load and play automatically, the pop-in ads that suddenly appear in the middle of an article that make you lose your place and train of thought and oh yeah, we shouldn’t forget the ad-words that pop up obscuring things if you inadvertently mouse over them. I’m getting pissed-off just writing about it.

On top of all this “in-your-face” advertising there’s the issue of privacy. I don’t pretend to know all the ways these advertisers track my activity, and I suspect setting my browser to “Do Not Track” doesn’t completely prevent third parties from collecting data about me. In fact, I’m pretty sure advertisers are always one step ahead of privacy tools provided by browser makers. So what is a person to do? Install an ad-blocker, that’s what. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that revenue from ads are how many sites make a living and I don’t mind ads in general. I have a few ads here on MacTexan. I just don’t like having to fight to read a web page and I detest ad companies collecting data about my activities. And there’s one other point no one seems to be mentioning. I don’t like having to use my tightly rationed, expensive mobile data to download ads. At least not to the extent web sites force on us now. A typical tech site I visit is over ¾ ads! (when measured by size in bytes) Don’t believe me? Install Crystal for iOS and Ghostery for OS X or some other ad-blocker of your choice and see how much faster Safari performs. It is a complete transformation. Sites load three or four times faster. If you’re like me, it will make you mad when you realize how much of your time has been wasted and how much of your hard-earned money has been spent buying bandwidth just to load ads. I’ve been running Ghostery on my Macs for some time and now that Apple is finally allowing it in iOS 9 I bought and installed Crystal on my iPhone and iPad.

To the web sites who rely on ad money for their existence: Sorry, but you and the ad companies you allow on your site have forced me to take these steps. I know it's not all of you, but it's enough of you to cross my pain threshold. If so many of you hadn’t resorted to such intrusive, underhanded methods to force your advertising down my throat I would have never considered filtering your content. I really don’t like ad-blockers all that much. They cost money and require continual curation to make sure they only block what I don’t want. They certainly aren’t a perfect solution…

 

 

…just better than the alternative.