Finally using an ad blocker

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I’ve resisted using an ad blocker for years, since:

  1. I don’t mind ads
    Especially if they are personalised (as most ads are now). And I’m happy for ads to track me all over the web if it means I get a better ‘ad experience’
  2. I realise many sites rely on ads as their business model
    If it weren’t for them showing ads I wouldn’t get access to many of the useful resources I currently get for free.

But I can’t really resist any longer. The reason: performance

In part, triggered by this post on Daring Fireball, I installed AdBlock (in Chrome) just to see how much of a difference it made to performance.

In a word: heaps

I was kinda blown away by just how much faster everything is when ads are blocked. It’s significant.

2 comments

  • Hello Craig,
    My name is Gil and i’m co founder with Stands, which offers an adblocker alternative.

    I am reaching out as I got intrigued by “Finally using an ad blocker” post as it is highly aligned with exactly what we try to do. Stands is specifically designed to allow you a browsing experience that is similar to that of an ad blocker, BUT is also solve the concern for hurting websites revenue.

    standsapp.org is a new browser app that act as privacy tools by blocking all 3rd party advertising, however, it does allow some ads to go through control environment. The ad revenue for these ads that the user did agree to see are split between the publisher and a cause that the user choose.

    This solution allows publishers to get the same ad revenue that allows them to operate, without compromising the user experience and privacy while providing people with a perfect motivation to agree to see some ads – doing good.

    I would much appreciate any feedback

    Best,
    Gil

  • I resisted Ad blocker for years too. And still do. Instead I use a combination of NoScript and BlueHell firewall in Firefox that effectively blocks most ads and scripts too.

    However I do let ads run on the websites I regularly visit. Needless to say, very few in number.

By Craig Bailey

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