Advertisers Upset Over Norton's Ad Blocking

from the such-is-life dept

From Broadband reports we learn that Symantec's latest Norton Personal Firewall is upsetting many advertisers by showing certain ads (most noticeably Google's text ads) but making them unclickable. Of course, my first reaction is... why? If the point of the firewall is to block ads, that's one thing. But, how does it do any good to show the ad, but make it unclickable? Who is that protecting? If it were hiding the ad completely, I could understand it. But showing it without the link doesn't seem to help anyone. However, as for the advertisers being upset, I doubt anyone other than the marketers really cares. If individuals want to make an effort to avoid dealing with the everyday bombardment of advertising, that's their right.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Uber Techosis, 17 Mar 2004 @ 8:53pm

    Blocking ads since 2001

    In 2001 I purchased Norton Internet Security, which includes an ad blocker.

    It is not the best, but it has served its purpose well for the past three years.

    I noticed, however, that after 2001 they stopped hyping it on the packaging. So much so, that I thought it no longer included the ad blocker.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    aNonMooseCowherd, 18 Mar 2004 @ 7:46am

    who owns the computer?

    The question is who owns and gets to control the computer. Obviously the advertisers want to control what shows up on the screen, forgetting that the computer belongs to the owner, not to them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dean Chriss, 31 Mar 2004 @ 1:15pm

    Norton Ad Blocking

    I believe it now does not show the ads, but it also does not show ANY image of certain dimensions or proportions, thus excluding legitimate, non-ad images on many web sites.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dean Chriss, 14 Jul 2004 @ 9:52am

    Norton Internet Security

    One significant problem is that Norton blocks pictures based on the image size, even if the picture is not clickable, is linked to nothing, and advertises nothing. Many pictures simply do not show up if you have Norton turned on, and it has nothing to do with advertising.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.