AdBlock Plus to help sites get ads in front of visitors

Wladimir Palant claims he isn't trying to kill online advertising and is even proposing revisions to his ad blocking product which would allow site owners to plead their case to site visitors to allow ads to be displayed.

by Helen Leggatt

The developer of one of the most-used Firefox ad-blocking plug-ins, Wladimir Palant, has recently been discussing how AdBlock Plus can be made more publisher-friendly. At present, most users have an all-or-nothing approach, blocking all ads on all sites. What publishers want is for Internet users to be more considered in their approach to which sites they block ads on.

Palant believes that the increasing intrusiveness of online advertising is what is turning consumers off, despite some campaigns being engaging and entertaining. However, the fact is that many consumers just don't want to see ads because, they say, they won't ever click on them or they just plain hate being advertised to.

That's not what publishers want to hear, after all, ad revenues are the life-blood of most content-related sites. At present, publishers have no way to get ad messages through to visitors using AdBlock Plus.

Palant's proposals, outlined in his blog, would give publishers a way to communicate to frequent site visitors that their ad content is not annoying or intrusive by displaying a notification. That same notification would then give visitors the option to continue blocking ads or "whitelist" the site and be shown the advertising content.

Tags: ad blocker, AdBlock Plus, annoying, intrusive, online advertising, Wladimir Palant