Facebook hiding ads to circumvent ad blockers, but will offer better ad control

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Ads are a necessary evil on the internet. Everybody expects content to be free, and ads are a way to be able to do that. Ads on their own aren’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, but the way that some ads are implemented makes them feel that way though. Websites have taken different routes in order to recoup the ad revenue they are missing due to ad blocking software. Wired simply won’t show you their website until you whitelist or subscribe, for example. Facebook is the most recent site to jump on the ad blocking bandwagon, though they’re offering increased control over ads in exchange for bypassing your ad blocking software.

Facebook is able to completely ignore ad blocking software because they deliver their own ads to users. Most sites use a third party advertising network, which makes it easy for ad blockers to find and omit those ads. Facebook ads will be disguised as regular Facebook content, making it significantly more difficult to sniff out and remove the ads. While it would be possible for ad blockers to get at these ads, it would likely slow down the page loading significantly, and keeping people from their news feed would likely cause backlash. Site loading speed is of interest to Facebook because of a report they commissioned from research firm Ipsos. They asked Ipsos to investigate why a reported 200 million worldwide users have ad blocking software installed.

The main reasons cited for using ad blockers include avoiding disruptive ads (69%), ads that slow down their browsing experience (58%) and security/malware risks (56%).

Site loading speed is a concern for more than half of the reported users. Over two thirds of users block ads to get rid of disruptive or intrusive ads. Facebook has an idea for that as well.

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The next time you log in to Facebook on your desktop, you should see a notification alerting you to the fact that ad blockers may no longer work. You’ll also be notified that you’ll have increased control over the ad content that you do see. You’ll be able to visit your Ad Preferences settings to tailor your ad experience to better fit your interests. From here you’ll also be able to opt-out of certain advertising categories, and block ads from certain businesses. You can get an overview of that process in the video below.

What do you think about Facebook’s new advertising rules? Tell us what you think in the comment section below, or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.

[button link=”https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/09/facebook-will-bypass-web-adblockers-but-offer-ad-targeting-opt-outs/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: TechCrunch[/button]
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