OPEN

Q: What’s the number one thing people want their browser to do?

February 11, 2010

A: Block ads.

Sometimes it’s worth reminding ourselves of the simple truths about online media and marketing.

Like the fact that, given the choice, a lot of people don’t want banner ads, pop-ups and other sundry promotional interruptions getting in the way of whatever they are dong.

I was reminded of this when Google kindly turned on the ability to add extensions for the Chrome browser on Macs today.

Number one on the list of things I could download to improve my browser was Ad-Block…

And down there at the bottom you can see another version. Half a million unique users that don’t see a thing…

Antony Mayfield

Public notebook

ad-blocker, advertising, chrome, extensions, google, webshadows

2 responses to “Q: What’s the number one thing people want their browser to do?”

Jane Ainsworth

February 12, 2010 at 8:09 am

If you are saying what I think you are (but it’s early, maybe I’m holding the wrong end of the stick) – are Google taking a bit of risk here? They do kind of rely on selling ad space, PPC etc. Isn’t it a bit like ITV enabling its viewers to block ads? Good for us – but commercial suicide for them?
Ifraz Mughal

February 15, 2010 at 11:14 am

Ads are annoying and intrusive especially when they bear no realtion to the user’s needs or interests. Google’s ad placements at least bear some relation to the search term used and so can be considerwed vaguely relevant.

Advertising needs to understand relevance to the user as well as perhaps getting its head around gaining permission before bombardment.

No secret that TV ad revenues have been going south for so long now – slamming in adverts without any attention paid to the viewer is outdated.A great feature on modern set-top boxes is ad blocking.