Ad blockers are used by more and more people world-wide. and for good reason — many people find the ubiquitous pop-up ads annoying and too often the very heart of the modern web.
Now it turns out that all of those web ads actually cost you money. A recent study done by the New York Times has shown that using an ad blocker on your I Phone 6 was able to increase battery life by 21%, and reduce data usage which ultimately leads cost savings on your monthly cell phone bill. A popular webpage that produces a large number of ads could use upwards of 20MB of data, but with the ad blockers it can reduce data usage to 4 MB. Since many cell phone plans charge by data usage and offer unlimited calls and text it’s the data that can run a bill up. Ultimately by decreasing data it decreases your monthly bill. The three ad blockers used by The New York times were Purify, Crystal, and 1Blocker. The actual cost to users of all those web ads is part of what drove Apple to allow ad blockers on iPhones starting with iOS 9. with a predictable backlash from ad providers.
But before you go and start searching through the app store for the latest ad blockers, consider the consequences. Some developers of ad blockers, such as Marco Ament, have pulled their product claiming that it “just doesn’t feel good” — in other words, he has misgivings about the impact of ad-blocking technology on web publishers. “While [ad-blockers] do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don’t deserve the hit,” Arment writes. Does he have a point? Since today’s world is so technology-driven how can companies advertise their products with so many bans today on advertising and selling? There are already been bans on telemarketers calling people on cell phones and landlines. People spend a majority of their day online either working or for pleasure so do companies have right to advertise on specific webpages, especially on free websites that are not subscription based?
If you’ve thought about the pluses and minuses of ad blockers and have decided that your business would benefit from the cost and time savings they bring, feel free to call Nettology Philadelphia IT support on 610-558-1730. Nettology offers Nettology Cloud and our all-in-one Total Care support package to keep your IT infrastructure running smoothly.
