Finally, a Chrome extension solves the ad blocking debate

By Fusion Staff  |  September 22, 2015 | 5:31pm
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On September 16 Apple released its iOS 9 operating system. With the new OS users are able to install ad blockers on the mobile version of Apple’s Safari browser.

This reignited a conversation about ad blocking, its efficacy, and its ethicality, mostly among those in the media and software development communities. Many media companies, especially digital media companies, rely on the advertisements that ad blockers disable for their revenue; readers and developers argue that banner and other display ads slow down page load times and are generally poor experiences.

But now we don’t need to worry any more! The internet artist/puckish web guy Darius Kazemi has definitely, totally solved the problem with his Ethical Ad Blocker chrome extension:

The conflict at hand, aptly summed up by Kazemi, is that “users don’t want to see ads, but content providers can’t give away content for free.” So he has gamely come up with a solution: an extension for your browser that, “when it detects advertising on a website, blocks the entire website.”

Problem solved!

If you come upon a website that features advertising, the extension returns a page that looks like this:

That’s okay, because the extension also directs you to some sites that are unsupported by ads (like Wikipedia, or the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s site, or zombo.com). Those sites may not contain the relevant information or experience you were looking for, but at least they don’t have ads!

Whether you want to view it as a good way to make sure you don’t act unethically, or a commentary on an internecine conversation about how to make money on the internet, we can all agree with Kazemi on one thing about this ad blocker: “Everybody wins.”

Ethan Chiel is a reporter for Fusion, writing mostly about the internet and technology. You can (and should) email him at [email protected]

 
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