Contemplating An Ad Free Internet

from the good-or-bad? dept

A Washington Post reporter was thrilled to get the new pop up blocker software from Earthlink and blow away pop up ads one by one. However, as he used it, he began to wonder what would happen if ads went away from the internet completely. He points out that this could potentially be bad, since it would make many more companies go out of business, and force more sites into a subscription model. Unfortunately, he is (like so many others who comment on this issue) missing the point. They make the very wrong assumption that the only possible business model is annoying, intrusive advertising. They forget that people like good content, and that good content that people like can be advertising itself. They forget about things like sponsorships, and all sorts of other types of "creative" advertising - that would get a lot more attention while make consumers much happier. The only reason that pop ups will go away is because consumers make it clear that they are annoying as anything. A smart company learns how to advertise their products in a way that's useful - not annoying. If consumers are telling advertisers they're annoying, then those advertisers are doing a bad job. Random aside: the writer also suggests that many advertisers may end up suing Earthlink and other pop-up blocking software products for "stealing" from them. I wouldn't be surprised if this happens, but I'm still hopeful that maybe those companies will come to their senses and realize that pissing off people isn't a good business model.