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Poll: Do you use ad-blocking software?

7 points by chaosprophet ↗ HN
How many of you use ad-blocking software such as Adblock Plus? If yes, do you blanket block all ads or only certain ads (like from a certain ad network)? What kind of ads would you be willing to unblock? If you don't use adblocking software, how do you find the ads useful?

13 comments

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icey
I use AdBlockPlus and I allow ads from reddit.
lucumo
> If you don't use adblocking software, how do you find the ads useful?

I find them useful in that they keep the sites I use free. Sometimes something interesting comes around, most of the time it doesn't, but I always feel that I've helped keep a site free.

humbledrone
I blanket-block all ads. I get advertised to enough when I leave my house (billboards, etc).
uptown
Just recently disabled AdBlockPlus on a few sites that changed their implementation to combat ad blockers, and was so put off at how over the top the ads have become that I've decided to stop going to about half those sites.
humbledrone
Yeah, some ads are definitely over the top. For the most part, I could survive without AdBlockPlus, but there is one type of ad that I detest more than any other: the audio ad. I can't even find words to describe how severely I detest advertisements that start talking when a page is opened.
icefox
Why is this a poll? Wouldn't it be easier and more accurate to just perform a test on your page to determine what your users block?
humbledrone
Unless the poster's clientele consists solely of HN readers, they would probably end up getting different results.
chaosprophet
I haven't launched publicly yet, and I was wondering if I should totally ditch the advertising, which was why I conducted the poll.
mooism2
I block all ads that annoy me enough that I decide to block them. That includes ads that don't load (or have at some point failed to load) and thus prevent me from seeing the web page they're supposed to appear on.
CWuestefeld
Some people object to the advertised links on Google. But when I'm shopping, I really think they're helpful. So this is one place where I quite intentionally leave the ads in place.

Having a wife from China, it appears to me that ad presentation has cultural differences. More specifically, ads on Chinese web sites tend to look like someone threw up on the page, with all kinds of bright colors and blinky things. This stuff gives me a headache (really), so really feel the need to block such ads.

MaysonL
I don't block ads, per se, but I do block Flash, which gets rid of the most obnoxious ones.