Snippet: Ad Blocking and the Future of the Web ☇

Jeffrey Zeldman:

Your site may soon be collateral damage in a war between Silicon Valley superpowers. By including ad blocking in iOS9, Apple isn’t trying to take down your site or mine—just like the drone program doesn’t deliberately target civilians and children. Apple is trying to hurt arch-rival Google while providing a more elegant (i.e. more Apple-like) web experience than user-hostile ad networks have previously allowed. This is a great example of acting in your own self-interest, yet smelling like a rose. Will independent sites that depend on advertising be hurt along with Google?

I’ve been playing with some content blockers and really enjoy the aspect of blocking trackers or ads that make the experience terrible on iOS (excessive data usage, full-screen and hard to dismiss), but it is a shame that many are an all-or-nothing sort of thing. Granted, tasteful ad networks like the Deck and Carbon, which SchwarzTech uses, are more the exception than the rule. It’s a shame that, like iOS apps themselves, advertising online has been a race-to-the-bottom and tacky affair. Maybe forcing a big shift is what we really need.