Using Ghostery to block internet ads and other oddities

Internet ads are unavoidable for the most part. They clog up the screen space and slow down the overall experience. Now you can block internet ads altogether easily with Ghostery.

The idea of blocking internet ads needs to be approached from different angles, one being the end user who wants a safer and faster web experience and the web publisher who builds and maintains the content.

From the end-users perspective...

Blocking the ads is an overall A+ thing to do. With a simple browser plug-in you can easily block most ads and other internet oddities like spy/tracking cookies et cetera. If you want to allow some things such as 'Google gadgets' then you simply click on the option to allow gadgets to be displayed. The plug-in will notify you (on your browser) how many objects it has detected:

From the publishers perspective...

This is not really a desired action you want from your guests as this will limit the amount of income you can generate. One way to avoid forcing a user to block your ads is to make sure the ads dont overpower your visitors. If someone comes to your site and sees a page full of ads with no content they will most likely leave. If they are a regular visitor and just cant deal with "all those crappy ads" then they will most likely opt to block the ads via a plug-in like Ghostery. Please note that this is *not* a paid endorsement...I actually use and like this product.

Now, lets assume that your visitors *always* have their ad blocker on (like me)...you want to make sure your content still looks like content! Many publishers don't bother to view their content with an ad blocker installed so they have no idea how their content falls apart when viewed as such.

Below is a screenshot of our widgets domain with the ads blocked (notice that I did allow the display of Google gadgets for this screenshot):