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# System prepended metadata

title: Online Ads & Blockers

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# Online Ads & Blockers

For this reading response, we were required to install an ad blocker and view how our webpages changed. I installed Ublock Origin and searched for "espresso machines" in Google. Here is what the search page originally looked like:

![](https://i.imgur.com/iB8ql62.png)

After turning the ad blocker on, the search page changed to this:

![](https://i.imgur.com/sHB9bWh.png)

As you can see, the sponsored ads at the top of the page disappeared. In this specific context, I would not prefer to have these ads blocked. I am searching for good quality, well-priced espresso machines and these ads show me items that I may consider. However, from Marti's article, it is interesting to consider information asymmetry and how it affects searches for items I want. When I look at these results again, I noticed that the espresso machines are being sold by companies that I'm not familiar with, excluding Bed Bath & Beyond and Target. While these companies are not inherently unreliable due my lack of knowledge, it brings about thoughts of potential deception and if I engaged further, I would check to see that these sellers are reliable. As Marti describes, signaling indicates reliable selling, especially through advertising. I would like to note, I am less skeptical of these results compared to ads on a Facebook page trying to sell to me. This reflects the peak advertising effect that Marti discusses due to Facebook being a medium that is consistently "noisy". 

I also noticed that some ads, such as those from Rakuten, were still displayed on my search page after activating my ad blocker. It's interesting to see that ad blockers don't just exclude all the ads that are shown on the page, but instead seem to initially select a few when activated. This reflects Taylor's discussion of ad blocker companies earning money for not blocking ads from specific advertisers. Furthermore, Sharma's article on the recent incident of GIMP.org leaving malware via a lookalike site reinforces the fear and avoidance of advertisements. If it was so easy to become the top result on a Google search page and lead people to a site serving malware, how could we trust any advertisements we see?

