![]() ![]() Not, that is, until iOS 9, the latest iteration of the operating system, which does allow for selective-content-blocking extensions. It also doesn't exist at all on Apple's iPhones and other iOS devices, because you can't use browser extensions on Apple's mobile Safari. But desktop browser makers have not chosen to do this to block all ads - so while ad blocking software is popular among some power users, it's a decidedly niche marketplace. That led to the creation of pop-up blockers eventually, pop-up blocking became a stock feature on most modern web browsers. Once upon a time, the internet advertising landscape was littered with "pop-up" ads that would automatically spawn a new window when you browsed to a site. Indeed, that's already happened once in the past. In principle, the makers of these browsers could include ad-blocking functionality out of the box - and even enable it by default. One popular class of extensions: various forms of "ad blockers," which attempt to sift through the code of the sites you are browsing and prevent the ads from loading. ![]() Apple's iOS 9 will allow ad blockers on mobile Safariĭesktop web browsers - Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer - have long made it possible to install browser extensions that give your browser additional capabilities. And it's something you'll be hearing more and more about if you read things online, because it touches on something very near and dear to every online writer's heart - whether we can make money publishing on the internet, and the sneaking suspicion that the reasonably journalist-friendly economic climate of the past two or three years may be a mirage. It's a discussion that's been running for a long time, but has kicked into overdrive because of Apple's release of a new operating system for iPhones and the launch of new services like Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. Specifically about "extensions" that can be added to (some) web browsers and about JavaScript that runs as part of (some) web ads. The genre that reached its apogee in Casey Johnston's ad blocker thinkpiece for The Awl - which was, in turn, inspired by things like Marco Arment's commentary on the ethics of ad blocking, Matthew Ingram's publisher-blaming commentary, an ongoing series of articles on the subject by Jean Louis-Gassé that has been published at his Monday Note blog for months now, Ben Thompson's " Why Web Pages Suck," and Nilay Patel's " The Mobile Web Sucks" (and even more ominously "Welcome to Hell"). The internet is suddenly awash in commentary about ad blocking and ad blockers. ![]()
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