According to Business Insider, “. . . ad blocking is expected to cost publishers more than $21.8 billion in 2015 in lost revenue.”

Golly!

The trend is growing.

Not only are web page ads intrusive and annoying, they encumber the amount of time it takes for a web page to load. So while the ads themselves may not bother you, the bottom line is that when a tool like Ad Blocker is installed, you get a web page experience that’s far peppier than it would be otherwise. Speed is important.

For every ad you see on a web page, a script is run. The script isn’t even on the web page you’re viewing; it’s on the advertiser’s page or, more frequently, on the page of a company that serves up the ads. That script must be fetched, run, and do whatever it does. All that activity takes time.

In fact, here on Wambooli, some of the Amazon ads seriously slow down how long the page takes to load. Most of my code here is really primitive HTML. So if the page is sitting and spinning for a while, you can blame an ad that’s trying to beam in from elsewhere.

For my web browsing, I’ve been using Ad Blocker Plus for about a year now. It’s marvelous! In fact, I’m surprised when I use another computer or go incognito and see how many ads the utility is blocking. It blows me away.

Obviously some type of retaliation will be in order from the online advertisers to switch off ad-blocking services. I think that’s an incorrect approach.

Advertising on a web page is necessary for many reasons. (And don’t get me started on how badly web page content providers are getting screwed out of commissions.) The key point is not to overdo it. Keep the ads light and relevant.

On this site, the ads are for my books. That makes sense! Another ad, off to the left, is provided by Google. It’s generally relevant to the topic on whatever page you’re viewing, although I’ve seen some weird ads. The point of that ad is to generate a modest income to help offset the cost of running the site. Does it work? No! But the income generated does help.

My guess is that if web pages weren’t invasive with advertising, and the ads were so obnoxious, Ad Blocker wouldn’t be so popular. It is, and so the trend to adopt ad-blocking tools will probably continue.