RE: UKNM: AdFilter - The death of ad-banners? (summary/last word)

[Philip Rooke]

Thank you, for the great response both on-list and off-list.  For those

that are interested I have summarised the various responses I received:


1) USER ATTITUDES


- Users are unlikely to go to the bother of using this system because of

banners and in-page ads.  (NOT LIKELY TO USE) 


- Adfilter, sometimes removes non-advertiser content adversely affects

many sites. (DISCOURAGING USE)


- Everyone hates pop-up window ads. This seemed to be the only thing

that people wanted to block. (ENCOURAGING USE)


- Users access content for free, paid for by advertisers.  Site owners

may introduce subscriptions to Adfilter users. (DISCOURAGING USE)


2) EFFECT ON ADVERTISERS


- Ad-filter works by parsing the HTML, looking for ad-calls.  If the ad

was never called, it is not measured by an ad-server and therefore not

paid for by the advertiser. (NOTHING LOST)


- Users who so actively hated adverts, are best not reached anyway.

(SOMETHING GAINED)


- Advertisers will have to be careful not to create user-unfriendly

adverts and encourage use of Adfilter. (SOMETHING GAINED)


3) EFFECT ON MEDIA OWNERS


- Some users will undoubtedly use this system.  And therefore revenue

may be lost (SOMETHING LOST?).


- If 200,000 UK users start using this system, it only represents aprox

3% to 5% of users.  Therefore, only sites that are selling 95% of their

inventory will lose revenue. (NOTHING LOST)


- Media owners as well as advertisers will have to be careful not to

create user-unfriendly adverts and encourage use of Adfilter. (SOMETHING

GAINED)


- If site owners introduce subscriptions to Adfilter users it may be a

more efficient method of paying for content than advertising. (SOMETHING

GAINED)


**** CONCLUSION ****


Ad-filter will cause little problems to the advertising industry.  In

fact there might be quite a few gains.


Preventing Adfilter becoming a common place is the responsibility of

advertisers and media owners.  Don't create/allow adverts that annoy

users.