# Ad blocking

Who doesn't feel a bit creeped out when the product they mentioned to their friend follows them from website to website? As discussed by Marti in his article ["Targeted advertising considered harmful,"](https://zgp.org/targeted-advertising-considered-harmful/) using targeting or retargeting bothers consumers and works against the very goal of online advertising.

While it's clear to see the benefits of advertisements for sellers, I find it interesting to see the genuine benefits of advertisements for buyers. I like to think that I'm not all that influenced by a commercial on the TV or a banner on a webpage, as I will rarely impulse buy from them, but Marti discussed the role that advertisements play in signaling quality to consumers. This is one digital workaround to the issue of information asymmetry in online purchases, serving a similar purpose to reviews in helping guide consumer behavior and informing decisions. However, I do question both reviews and advertisements for the credibility of the information they provide. Despite what Marti claims, just because a company can afford a billboard doesn't mean their product is quality; it's just one indicator that it could be.

However, the benefits of advertisements are distorted when applied to online advertising and the overuse of targeting, which decreases the value of online ads even when compared to those in print! This means that targeting hurts the publisher, the advertiser, and the consumer. But similar to the prisoner's dilemma, the most profitable, dominant strategy for advertising is to target consumers with custom ads, as long as other advertisers have that option as well.

One solution that Marti suggests will solve this mutual problem is installing a tracking protection tool, so I thought I'd try it out. First, I added the [UBlock Origin Chrome extension](https://ublockorigin.com/). Then, I went to the citation generator webpage I use regularly, which is typically inundated with advertisements like in the image below.

**Before:**


After turning on the ad blocking software, all of these images, banners, and videos disappeared! I love that UBlock Origin tells you how many ads it is blocking for you at a given time, as that easily quantifies the difference.

**After:**


I see no reason to remove this ad blocker and look forward to seeing how many more ads it can save me from. Should it start to mess with the functionality of certain websites, maybe I'll reconsider this Chrome extension or just turn it off as needed.

Sadly, even this seemingly simple solution comes with more questions for the advertising industry. [Kastrenakes](https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/13/12890050/adblock-plus-now-sells-ads) explains that one particular ad blocker, "Adblock Plus," is charging consumers to replace "bad" ads with "good" ones. He examines the negative reaction publishers have had to this proposed solution and justifies that this does limit the types of ads that publishers can use. However, I was disappointed that he didn't examine the consumer reaction to this proposal! I might be a special case, as I have never cared enough about ads to download a blocker until now, but if I was paying for an ad block service I would expect it to *block* not just replace the ads on web pages. This seems like a good compromise, just not for a fee.

On a lighter note, I found that my new ad blocker made a world of difference when used on Kastrenakes' article on Adblock Plus, catching 212 advertisements. Ironic.