There are webmasters out there who don’t like that the ads they’re showing on their web pages can be blocked. Which is understandable, of course – ads give them a revenue so that they can keep on doing what they do. How webmasters react to this possibility however, vary, as I learned from an article by Pallab. Here Smileygenerator.us poses as an example of a silly way to react and “solve” the problem.
The web master seems to believe that Opera and Firefox includes adblocking as part of the browser – and thus he blocks those browsers. Well – as long as they identify themselves as what they are. Also, he does it in a silly way. If you visit the link above with Opera or Firefox, you’re being redirected to a different site, smileygenerator.com. No explaination, and if you’re not observant enough, you may thing that it’s the same site, just with two different URIs. It’s silly.
Back when Environmantalchemistry blocked Opera, you were at least told that you were blocked, and after some consideration given full access to the pages that told you why. Then you could take appropriate action, if you wanted access. Not so here, at least if you happen upon the index-page. If you’re an Opera or Firefox user looking forward to spending some money at the smileygenerator, the web master may have lost some sales outright.
According to a thread on the forum there, it seems that it is possible for anyone, no matter what browser they use, to browse the paid content. But – how will Opera and Firefox users learn that, when they’re sent away before they’re told this?
But that’s just one part of it, the reactions towards two browsers due to not knowing much about them. Neither of them includes ad blocking as part of the browser. You have to go to a third party to achieve that – and if you go to a third party, there’s also lot tho choose from for IE, too. There may be more people blocking ads in IE than ther are users of Opera/Firefox together, for all I know. This of course makes the whole business of blocking the two browsers even more silly.
An example of reacting before thinking.