Are Firefox Users Robbing You?
Via Slashdot:
A website is aiming at blocking Firefox users. This because a fraction of the Firefox users installed an Ad Blocker and are therefore ’stealing money’ from website owners that use ads. They recommend using IE, Opera or IE tab. From the site: ‘Demographics have shown that not only are FireFox users a somewhat small percentage of the internet, they actually are even smaller in terms of online spending, therefore blocking FireFox seems to have only minimal financial drawbacks, whereas ending resource theft has tremendous financial rewards for honest, hard-working website owners and developers.’
Now, can you tell me why this is oh-so-stupid on oh-so-many levels?
(And, these high-minded fighters for truth, justice and the Web way might also want to do something about Google allowing ads for – um – ad blockers.)
P.S. I’m a Firefox user – don’t have Ad Blocker. I just use the good old-fashioned approach – I ignore ads.
P.P.S. Here’s a wacky idea – instead of yelling “We wuz robbed!” – mebbe the focus should be producing better ads (and web sites).
Tags: advertising, ad blockers, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, Firefox, , web advertising
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Oh my…they truly don’t understand the nature of advertising!
I sat through a meeting with the local radio station on Thursday aft. in which I hoped to get a good ad rate for some small business customers. Knowing I’m a “web guy” they kept coming back to pitching me on “Keyword Banner Ads” on their website. After telling them a few times “I am not interested in advertising on your website, but you can throw it in for free if you need to fill your inventory,” they got the idea…
Firefox is theft? Great guys…you probably won’t have to worry about all those pesky users soon…
Ha! This gets me on four levels:
1. *Long* time firefox user. Was using firefox before it became firefox.
2. I do run adblock-plus and another plugin for updating ad blocking filters.
3. I run principally on Linux. Not Windows. I’m a Unix sysadmin by trade, so it’s just easier. I mention this as it seems I’m, apparently, from an even smaller freeloading minority. Or so we are often portrayed.
4. I would spend maybe $10’s of K online per year. When you spend so much time online for your job, it’s just *easier*. Living in a smaller city means you get access to “stuff” that is nigh impossible to physically/locally find as well.
As mentioned in 4, I spend vast quantities of time online. Researching problems, learning new things etc etc etc. All the irritating flashing YUK gets *very* annoying. So I switch it off. I still see ads – in google or gmail for example, but they’re not intrusive – and I do read them now and then too! Particularly on searches for “stuff”.
Now the real stupidity of these… people you reference, is that I can get another plugin that will allow firefox to “lie” as to which type of browser it is. It’s not in widespread use, last I looked, but it’s trivial to use, and essentially undetectable serverside. Or even with Javascript, which is “serverside” in this case too.
It was very useful to use this in the earlier days when sites were coded with “MSIE only” gumpf. Pretend to be IE, site lets me in. Sigh.
Now even with adblock there are some sites that I simply won’t go near any more. I refer to them as “Ad Hell”. I’m sure we know the type.
Cheers!
PS: Mary: long time lurker, 3rd time commenter, keep up the great writing! I’ve learnt heaps. Hugely appreciated.
PPS. Despite the obvious predilection to Sci-Fi, I’ve never been able to get with the new Battlestar Galactica. Too fond of the original, possibly. Sorry.
Steve,
Always great to hear from a lurker! (now, that reads welrd, doesn’t it?)
I’m with you re the Ad Hell sites – they’re just not worth it. I can find whatever somewhere else. The only time I will stay on such a site is when I’m doing research for one of their competitors…and dissecting the lousy web site for that competitor (ah-yahhhh).
As for BSG, it took me until well into the second year. You might want to give it a second chance – and try to think of it as totally separate from the original. It’s a whole different type of show than the original (which was, I admit, fun.)
I wonder if any of these sites have RSS feeds. Imagine how p***ed off they’ll be if they find out there are other ways to get content.
OMG, did you check out the other links on the page? They’re a scream – like the one abuot “firefox myths” that epxlains that yes, it’s capitalized incorrectly on the main page, or the one that complains that it’s not “100% IE compatible” (because you know, Microsoft owns the web). Scary stupid.
John,
Ah, but nobody knows you’re stupid on the Web…uh no, wait a minute…no that’s not right…uh…oh dear…
It is truly amazing what people will put there isn’t it? No wonder my small biz clients are so frequently perplexed by all this “web stuff.”
Ike – shhhhh….don’t tell ‘em about the RSS “leaks”
Mark – and why do we continue to be amazed at the lack of advertising (or marketing, or web) intelligence out there? Maybe we’re the dumb ones!
It seems dumb to block people who could potentially be customers because I’m sure only a few use the filters and blockers so therefore they write all Firefox users off as “robbers” and those who won’t buy online and who block ads. You may find this leadership coaching blog insightful.