Poll: Do you use AdBlock?

You might consider adding another option:

Yes - but I use the AdBlock preference which still shows Ads on Google Search Results Pages

I additionally run Google Sharing

[ http://googlesharing.net/ ] [ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1062495 ]

No, I think I owe something for the free services and content I use, nothing is free, I'm aware of the tech aspects of it and I'm not concerned by any privacy implications. I'm also generally not bothered by ads and use Readability or equivalent for cases when I am.

About the only ads I find offensive these days are (a) ads that play sound without it being initiated by the user, (b) ads that get in the way of the content and (c) the Kontera-style double underline in-text ads that have an annoying habit of popping up when you accidentally move your mouse to the wrong location. Webmasters who use that particular advertising method, I think, are displaying a blatant lack of respect for their readers.

Apart from those, regular ads don't bother me at all. I particularly don't understand people who feel that tracking is bad, when all it results in is a more targeted set of ads. If I'm going to see ads, I'd prefer ads for topics I'm interested in. Tracking for the purpose of ad targeting is a good thing.

Does disabling flash (or using click-to-plugin) count as blocking ads?

After I installed Lion I haven't bothered to install Flash Player. Everything is much nicer even without adblock. My primary browsing stays in Safari and I hop over to Chrome for flash sites (youtube/slideshare/vimeo).

Under Linux where Chrome is my only browser, I just turn on click-to-plugin so Flash and PDFs don't auto-run (see about:flags).

I have been using AdMuncher which has worked very well, tried a few different ad blockers but imo this works best: http://www.admuncher.com/

I unblock sites I like which are ad-supported. I'd never run a browser without an adblocker, though.

How could anyone function without it?

Yes. Laptop battery life is important.

I don't run an adblocker, but I would if it meant I could get rid of CSS popover ads.

Sometimes. - I turn it off for sites I frequent and benefit from, leave it on for sites I rarely visit.

Exception: even for sites I read regularly, if you are using that intellitext crap that pops up an add every time my mouse pointer slips over a keyword I'll both block your adds and stop visiting all together.

Whether I scrub ads or not has no bearing on whether a site I view makes money because I don't click on ads. Now, some sites I read do run advertising in their articles, that is, they choose to plug particular products they feel deserve attention, and I'll gladly check those products out. What I refuse to reward is spamming of advertising of the sort that network TV and ad networks take part in, in which the ads shown are all about whoever has the deepest pockets and have no bearing on the quality of the products being advertised.

A good example of how to make money from advertising that might actually make money off of me is the referral code system that Amazon uses, where you can embed a link to Amazon that also contains your referral code and therefore makes you money off of sales. This is flexible in that it works for any Amazon product, and also user driven in that a user can choose to add a referral code link to their site. This is in contrast to advertiser driven systems like what Google runs where the ads shown on a particular site are determined not by the site owner but on a combination of algorithms Google controls, settings controlled by the advertiser, and the unspoken force of money given to Google by the advertiser. It's true site owners have the option of blocking particular ads, but that's far from the owners actually endorsing the products advertised on their pages.

Too many times has my computer succumbed to malware in ads (mostly flash and java). Noscript for me.

I don't understand why would you not use Adblock. Perhaps there should be a poll for this question.

Yes and it is a real loss for the advertisers too because I do click on ads that I find relevant and I don't mind spending money online (when it is worth the price, which it frequently isn't, sadly).

So why do it? Googles search is (or rather was) good enough to find what I want and I would rather not pay more to buy through ads.

In addition there is the issue with annoying/flash ads, though that isn't much an issue any more because I block flash with a separate plugin.

No, I use a proxy (polipo) with filtering capabilities.

I don't use AdBlock, but FlashBlock which disables all flash content. I don't have anything against ads that's why I stopped using AdBlock, but I need to block the most annoying ads like fullscreen, sound, following mouse. I only whitelist sites like youtube and other which have "normal" ads.

This poll would be more useful if the "No" answer were also split into ad-supported/not, as that would let us determine whether working for an ad-supported company makes you less likely to block ads.

Yes, it's part of an effort to reduce distractions in my life. I don't watch or read news either, well, except tech related things like HN and Slashdot. I feel happier that way, too. (Try it for a week and you'll know what I mean.)

I still consume though, buy goods and services, of course. And I'm not cheap about anything. But I try to do so on a cost-benefit-evaluation basis. When the impulse to buy comes (say, the new iPad that I see everywhere), I discipline myself to delay the purchase. After a while I often realize that I don't need or want it. Instead I might buy some activity like a small trip somewhere, or getting a massage or going to a health club.

Anyway, the best advertising imo is a good product my friends or people I respect will talk about and/or show me.

And in a way I hope most people don't ad-block, so that these models stay profitable. Otherwise advertisers will get even more aggressive and Captain Kirk will use a Windows Phone, smoke cigarettes and drink Coca Cola in his new BMW in the next Star Trek sequel all the time. That would be disappointing.

Finally, if anyone invents glasses that also filter out display ads on the streets, I'd buy a pair. Then I'd walk around undistracted, perhaps thinking something worthwhile. For example what the economy, and the world as a whole, would be like, if everyone had those glasses.

yes. also disable flash, and run widgetblock in chrome.

i only block ad in firefox - why? its the browser i instruct my 9 year old daughter to use

I'm also using it in combination with privoxy and iptables filters for skype and many other malicious packets that I don't want to break-out or break-in.

I use it with FF but in Chrome I use my host file to block the most obnoxious Flash ad networks. Why not use Adblock in both? By the time I started using Chrome I had culled the list of sites I visit regularly to a short list. Why do I still use FF? Well I use to be able to be logged into two G accounts simultaneously but not anymore.

Yes. I do run business that significantly depends on ads.

The reasons are 1) because many ppl use it and - i need to test their experience with our products. 2) I just dont like ads, and dont care about "is it ethical?" stuff that has no significant direct impact on my business.