Mobile Network Plans To Block Adverts

[Michael Browne]

The war on mobile ads is heating up in the European Union as several mobile carriers are preparing to block these ads on their network. The latest carrier to be considering such a move is O2 UK.

 

O2 & EE customers could soon be browsing the web free of adverts, as the company has admitted that it is in the “well advanced” stages of testing the technology that would see ads automatically blocked network wide.

 

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1594267/mobile-network-plans-to-block-adverts-on-devices

[MaxxPower]

Except of course ads from companies that pay a nice fee to the carrier

[ericsbrother]

OOooh you cynic. I see them playing along as it gives them an inroad into another market via leverage against the search engine and personal contacts companies. Then you will see the filtered ads you expect to see continuing.

[BankFodder]

Ads are extremely annoying of course and I hate them just as much as anybody else. On the other hand, organisations such as the Consumer Action Group depend on the small amount of revenue that they produce to keep on going.

 

We received hardly any donations at all and if it were not for the revenue that we get from people clicking ads, we would probably no longer exist.

 

These kind of moves by O2 – and which might be followed by other service providers, will play into the hands of banks, large stores, debt collectors, bailiffs, payday loan companies – and all the other people who somehow or other seem to go out of their way to do people down so that they are forced to resort to a free self-help resource like ours.

 

The same goes for ad blockers. People who put ad blockers on their mobile phones and tablets and so forth – well I can't say I blame them on the other hand, do they realise that what they are doing is that they are leaving the way open the large well funded organisations to put their own material up on the net while closing down access to the probably – millions – of small organisations around the world which are concerned with consumer rights, free speech, political transparency and so forth.

 

Ads may be evil – but they are an extremely necessary evil, unfortunately.

 

It is the click through ads on this forum which are paid for by the very people who cause the problems – the loan companies, the banks, et cetera which allow the 1 million visitors who come to this forum every month to get information to defend themselves.

 

Unfortunately, almost none of those 1 million visitors ever stop to say thanks or to make a donation.

 

If ads dry up then we may well dry up as well pretty quickly.

[JoeyJoeC]

I have adblock, I enable it only on sites that have annoying or intrusive ads. Sorry to say I disabled it on this site because of the amount of space they take up under the header. I believe there are better ways to display them.

[Guest]

thats one of the things, some sites' ads are just too intrusive/excessive/over the top etc. and cld even lose the viewer in the first place once an ad or ten pops up.

but, as you say bankfodder, some sites need the revenue just to keep going.

adblock plus for eg gives the option to allow unobtrusive ads, which is fine imo. maybe thats one poss way forward re compromise.

then there is the issue re data hungry ads (especially those auto video ones). some still pay/mb for their internet data when on mobile/tablet, or even have limited broadband.

and there is the issue of compromised ads (the popular daily fail recently had malware ads on their site), and unwanted tracking beacons in the ads.

[Guest]

this isnt an ad (excuse the pun ) for ad plus. but it shows a poss view/way forward on compromise re 'acceptable ads'.

https://adblockplus.org/acceptable-ads

[londonblue]

I have no problem with ads on websites which tend to translate on both desktop and mobile devices. They're just 'on page' and they do provide revenue for the site owners. The biggest issue I have are the ones that have somehow permeated into apps, and will pop up full screen, often with no obvious way of getting rid of them, and then lead you to spurious web sites. These aren't viruses either — they are 'legitimate'. I don't think the mobile operators will be able to block those as they are powered in-app.

 

I think BankFodder is so quick to call for donations to this site, lambasting the "1 million visitors [n]ever stop to say thanks or to make a donation" (s)he is missing the whole point. Still, I suppose when this site is now apparently so desperate for cash that it has to call for donations with every story, suggesting that the whole site could close at any moment, it's not surprising.

[londonblue]

You're not sorry at all! If you want to see bad ad management try Answers dot com.

[HSBCrusher]

 

I think BankFodder is so quick to call for donations to this site, lambasting the "1 million visitors [n]ever stop to say thanks or to make a donation" (s)he is missing the whole point. Still, I suppose when this site is now apparently so desperate for cash that it has to call for donations with every story, suggesting that the whole site could close at any moment, it's not surprising.

 

That's a bit mean if I may say so London blue. This site has been helping out desperate people for nearly 10 years now, it's run by volunteers. Thank goodness they were here when I needed them.

 

And it's a "he" BTW.