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> We find that installing ad blocking extensions substantially increases both active time spent in the browser and the number of pages viewed. This empirical ev

> We find that installing ad blocking extensions substantially increases both active time spent in the browser and the number of pages viewed. This empirical evidence supports the position of ad blocking supporters and refutes the claim that ad blocking will diminish user engagement with the Web. This gives me echos of "thrift paradox" - kind of behavior which is great for you as long as most of the other folks behave otherwise. If a majority of users continue viewing ads and thus provide monetary returns for content creators, then the minority users of ad blockers get a better experience and hence they are more engaged with the web. On the other hand, if everyone starts using ad blockers, then how are content creators going to survive? Probably, a bunch of copycats and click-baiters deserve to perish. But this can also have unintended consequences of niche blogs vanishing and/or paywalls going up and/or survival of only those with some benefactor (Washington Post) or cross-subsidizing business empire (Murdoch). Do we want that kind of future?

zzzcpan 8y ago
Small independent creators cannot rely on ads for income already and fund some other way. And so almost all of the websites, except for some thousands of top ones. But those can probably find a way to survive another way. Blocking ads may not actually affect anyone beyond online advertising corporations.
- jonathansampson 8y ago
  Content creators have been hurting for some time, and it doesn't just impact those who have seen diminished returns. Many have been unable to monetize their content at all (which we see quite often on YouTube, etc). We built Brave Payments (now Brave Rewards) into the Brave browser to _re-monetize_ the web. Each month we give out BAT grants to our desktop users, which fund their favorite online properties (sites, streams, channels, etc). Brave is also standing up an alternative ad-model which requires explicit user consent. If a user participates, ad-matching happens locally, on the user's device. This protects privacy, cuts out middle-men, reduces fraud, and more. Furthermore, the users are compensated for their attention (up to 70% of ad revenue), which adds to the sustainability of the web.

zzzcpan 8y ago

Small independent creators cannot rely on ads for income already and fund some other way. And so almost all of the websites, except for some thousands of top ones. But those can probably find a way to survive another way. Blocking ads may not actually affect anyone beyond online advertising corporations.

jonathansampson 8y ago
Content creators have been hurting for some time, and it doesn't just impact those who have seen diminished returns. Many have been unable to monetize their content at all (which we see quite often on YouTube, etc). We built Brave Payments (now Brave Rewards) into the Brave browser to _re-monetize_ the web. Each month we give out BAT grants to our desktop users, which fund their favorite online properties (sites, streams, channels, etc). Brave is also standing up an alternative ad-model which requires explicit user consent. If a user participates, ad-matching happens locally, on the user's device. This protects privacy, cuts out middle-men, reduces fraud, and more. Furthermore, the users are compensated for their attention (up to 70% of ad revenue), which adds to the sustainability of the web.