The other day I was trying to imagine an online world with no advertising. No advertising meaning, no Adobe Flash ads, no banner ads, no Eyeblaster roadblocks and no ad pages that pop up before I get to the page I clicked for.
Then I thought – couldn’t you write an add-on for Firefox that removes ads?
Turns out, such a thing already exists – has existed since 2006. I know, I’m late on this.
Is called AdBlock and has changed my online viewing experience completely allowed me to enjoy online content more. I think it also shows not only how ugly ads are to the online landscape. but also how outdated the current ad models are.
I don’t click on banner ads, but now I don’t have to deal with the noise that ads create on websites I visit.
In cheesy infomercial style, I’d just like to say,
“Thank you AdBlock – you’ve changed my life!”
How awesome is AdBlock? Look below for the below-and-after shots of some websites I frequent (note that none of these images have been edited in Photoshop):