A long time ago there were these terrible horrible things on the Internet called “pop-up” ads. If you are under a certain age you may have heard of these legendary beasts, but never seen them. However, if you were using the internet in the 90s and early 00s I’m sure you remember them. Sometimes these forms of abusive and intrusive adverts could cause your whole computer to crash as more and more appeared when you tried to kill one like the mythical hydra. However, tools came out to avoid these horrible adverts and advertisers had to settle for banner and sidebar ads.
But over time, these basic adverts have become more complex. The simple images that didn’t require much data evolved into auto playing videos, contextually aware adverts and then there are all the cookies that implant themselves onto your machine to watch your activity while you aren’t even on their site. When combined with the falling revenue for websites on advertising, it has lead to more and more adverts which invade our privacy in more intrusive ways.
Perhaps it is no wonder that tools like Ad blocker Plus, a web browser extension, have become so popular in an effort to make websites not monitor our entire browsing history, possible to read and load in an acceptable time.
iOS 9 Brings Back the Blocker
Well, with this latest release of iOS 9, Apple has added the ability to use ad blockers in Safari for a similar effect. Obviously this is a divisive issue as many websites terms and conditions explicitly state that use of their service is conditional upon allowing them to serve up adverts to you in exchange for their “free” service, while others point out that a site such as a news site or blog which doesn’t clearly detail what tracking facilities it is using don’t have a right to monitor your usage off site and perhaps by taking a stand against these invasions of privacy, it may lead to better advertising practices (similar to what happened with the pop-ups of old). That is something for you to work out, personally I have mixed feelings and I’d love your insights in the comments. The rest of this post is going to look at the actual use of an ad blocker on iOS 9.
Set Up
Setting up an ad blocker is a rather simple process. Simply go to the App Store, find an ad blocker app to download, install, then go into settings > Safari > ad blockers and move the slider across to activate it.
Your ad blocker may then require you to adjust some settings to activate or deactivate certain aspects of websites.
A word of warning, not all ad blockers are created equal. To block content, they require a database of what types of content are adverts, cause heavy load speeds and so on. Some also don’t have as granular control which may cause issues later on as you’ll see.
I went with Peace by Macro Arment (it has already been pulled from the App Store) Not only is Marco a respected developer, but his app has several features that appealed to me. Firstly it has an exclusive Ghosterly license, a premium ad blocking service rather than an open source offering which relies on a small group of volunteers to occasionally update. Secondly, peace offers settings to limit social widgets, external fonts and comments. All factors which can slow a load speed and finally (but most importantly) it offers a few extensions which allow you to adjust your settings (including adding a website to a whitelist) view the website normally or view a website using peace settings even if the app doesn’t support the Safari web viewer which lets you block content.
The Difference
There is definitely a speed difference when using an ad blocker. Many sites which rely on per click advertising send a large amount of files every time you log on and very little are actual content. By blocking these trackers, adverts and other features a website will load much quicker and take away a lot less from your vital cellular data allowance.
Another noticeable difference (if you enable it) is the lack of third party fonts. Suddenly the web becomes a lot more standardized if you take away fonts such as Gotham or even Montserrat from loading. However, the default fonts built into iOS 9 aren’t bad and so I still found the web aesthetically pleasing to view.
Conclusion
Ad blockers are here on iOS and I can certainly see the appeal. They speed up the web and remove a lot of fluff. If you are the sort of person who has used the readability view on Safari to simplify a web page (guilty) then you will love the speed and cleaner web you will find after installing one.
However, there is an ethical question to using them, one which I don’t have the answer to (though I’m sure some readers will inform me one way or the other on). One thing I do suggest you consider, even if you are fully in favor of ad blockers, is to unfilter sites where you want them to continue their writing and good work.
Fortunately for us at ChurchMag, our tracking is very limited and our adverts are sold differently. Using a ad blocker shouldn’t impact the future of ChurchMag, however beware, if you want to see the clever and brilliant comments our other readers leave, consider your settings.
Eric Dye says
My vote is “no.”
At the same time, I see website after website who have abused their readers enough to bring them to the point of using adblockers. While layout and design has become mobile friendly, our ad strategies have not. This is the kind of things that we—as ChurchMag—are thinking about. Unfortunately, others are not.
Bottom line, however, is something has to give.
If publications don’t clean-up their revenue stream, the end-user will clean it up for them.
IMHO
Andrew Fallows says
I use AdBlock in my browser regularly. I sometimes consider the ethical implications, but I haven’t really gone deep in my thoughts.
Similar to what Eric is alluding to, I am motivated to use an ad blocker primarily because ads have historically been really aggravating; bright, flashing, distracting from the content. I started using an ad blocker years ago because there were sites that I really wanted to use because if their content, but was genuinely considering avoiding because the ads bothered me that much.
I think there is a case where I would consider it strictly unethical to block ads on a site, and that is a case there the site’s TOS explicitly includes an agreement that I won’t block ads. In that case, I’ve given my word that I won’t. (Admittedly, I may be registered on a site with this in their TOS and not know, because I never read the TOS, which is its own problem).
Ultimately, I dislike advertising as a way to monetize a product, and I don’t think a company has grounds to claim that you owe them the ad views in exchange for the service.
I feel comfortable using Adblock because I’d like to see advertising go away. In the past few years I’ve hardly seen any ads because I block them on my computer and I don’t watch live TV. It’s amazing how much we take them for granted, something I realized when, after a few months of never seeing any, I was first subjected to them again.
Bunch of rambling thoughts there, but the bottom line is that I think using an ad blocker is reasonable.
Blessing Mpofu says
I have no problem with ads. In fact I’m still not using ad blocker because I want to see and appreciate SOME ads. Not all ads are helpful.
the problem is when you have to fight ads in search of content. There’s a distasteful way some sites / blogs implement them and that is why people are pushing back. Some big news site posts, for example, have at least half the page with ads thoughtlessly splattered.
i have no qualm with ads if done in a way that allow for a decent user experience and at the same time allow the content creators / producers to continue paying the bills.
Eric Dye says
Or keeping the search bar between ads?
Oops. 🙁
We’re working on it, though. 😀
Chris Wilson says
Great point Blessing. I know there are times when I come across really helpful ads and I think there are a few sites that do adds really well. I also know of sites where the ads make the site nearly unusable. I hope Cmag isn’t too bad. I don’t think it is.
It’s funny, I tend to find that Google Ads tend to not be the most useful ads though. Just me?