So I covered a story about AdBlock Plus yesterday and one of my subscribers (whose primary source of revenue is from ad banners) reacted rather acerbically toward them.

Unfortunately, we now live in an online world run by social behaviors that naturally work toward a tipping point and there is little you can do to stop Adblock Plus’ proliferation except at the policy level.

If you are for it, you don’t need to rally support because people are being recommended the plug-in upon installation of Firefox 3.0 and its immediate benefits to the user seems to justify their action. However, if the Internet is not monetized through online advertising, users won’t be able to get content for free anymore. Somebody has to pay for it and that person will likely be the user. There’s no such thing as a free meal and ad dollars keep websites running and content creators paid.

Still, that is not going to change the fact that people hate banner ads and will block them to create some mental peace and quiet. So, how can we all win?

You’ll have to wait for my next post to read about how I would work around this problem.

Whatever your position, here are more leads to other people who are discussing about the Adblock Plus.

Firefox and AdBlock Plus
Jason Dunn, JasonDunn.com, June 24th, 2008

Drugs and Adblock Plus shouldn’t be in the hands of everyone else
Andrew Brown, The Guardian.co.uk May 1st, 2008

AdBlock Plus can quietly kill ads – and perhaps the internet economy
Nick Carr, Guardian.co.uk – Sept 20th, 2007

Who blocks the (ad) blockers?
Chris Soghoian, CNET News.com Sept 11, 2007

Whiting Out the Ads, but at What Cost?
Noam Cohen, NYTimes.com Sept 3rd, 2007

Adblock Plus threatens the online revenue model
Noam Cohen, International Herald Tribune Sept 2nd, 2007

Feel free to let me know what you think.