# Adblocking

Ads are so common on most sites that at this point I barely notice them, let alone remember them. Having never used an adblocker, the difference was shocking.

I searched google for "news" and chose Yahoo news. Instantly half the screen is covered with a banner ad that is seen on most websites.

After turning the adblocker on, 

I was shocked that the entire screen was only the content of the website. There were no ads interfering with anything.

The adblocker I downloaded was Ublock, an adblocker that does not allow for acceptable ads. The BetterCloud ad that appeared without the adblocker, would have definitely been an acceptable ad.

Through an internet search, I noticed that the popular Gimp.org scandal that Sharma (2022) mentions could have been avoided with an adblocker.

I made a google search for "pacsun", a popular clothing store with and without an adblocker. 
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The Gimp.org issue arose when people searched for the site and the first result was a google ad that was another company pretending to be gimp.org. With an adblocker on, you can block the sponsored search results, allowing for much safer internet searching.

Taylor (2020) mentions that the largest companies such as Linkedin, Reddit, Amazon, and Google are all coming up with ways the bypass adblockers. Large companies are paying adblockers, forcing them to show "acceptable ads". Acceptable ads sound like they are not too harmful, however acceptable ads "[do] not protect you against tracking" (Taylor 2020). Overall, adblockers allowing acceptable ads defeats the entire purpose of an adblocker.