There was a significant problem years ago, annoying to power users but dangerous to most other users, where I would be on a website reading an article and then

There was a significant problem years ago, annoying to power users but dangerous to most other users, where I would be on a website reading an article and then all of a sudden I get redirected out of the article into "Hit 5 ducks and win today's prize" or "Your computer has malware and requires remediation" - intrusive scams seeking to deceive the user into installing malware. This problem was bad enough that I installed Brave on my phone simply for the rootless adblocker. These redirects even came from reputable news websites like WaPo or NYT - they weren't confined to "literally who?" websites using "literally who?" ad networks. Ever since then I've used an adblocker on both desktop and mobile simply for this reason. And I've recommended others install adblockers as well, because they may not be aware that it's not your operating system telling you you have malware, it's a website trying to get you to install malware. If this problem has receded in recent years, I'd say, "Great!" and be a little more chill about it. But until then, I staunchly recommend ad blockers just as protection from malware redirects that Google et al seemed very unconcerned about or unable to deal with effectively.