The folks behind the popular Adblock Plus service are hoping to make a deal with advertisers to come up with a criteria for acceptable ads.
Acceptable ads would be be permitted through Adblock Plus’s filters and be displayed to users of Adblock.
Last year, Eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus, announced plans for a new Acceptable Ads Committee that would develop the guidelines that prevent advertising from being blocked. The developers of Adblock Plus say they are working hard on new technology that would sort acceptable ads from non-acceptable ads and they are even sharing that technology with their competitors to help establish an industry-wide standard for advertising.
According to Eyeo, the goal of the committee is to “Define and continually evolve the criteria for what constitutes an acceptable ad, and thereby govern the Acceptable Ads initiative by creating standards for ads that users of ad-blocking software will deem acceptable and that bring value to publishers and advertisers.”
The committee would be composed of advertisers, ad-tech companies, content creators, publishers, consumer groups and browser, ad blocker and extensions developers.
Adblock Plus is also reaching out to advertisers, a plan they call Camp David, named after the Israeli-Egyptian peace accords negotiated at the the Presidential retreat back in the late 1970s.
So far, meetings with ad publishers have been held in New York and London.
Things have been tense between ad publishers and the company. It’s estimated that $22 billion in ad revenue has been lost due to blocking.
To make Adblock’s so-called “white-list” advertisers have to meet strict standards provided by Eyeo or pay a expensive fee not to be blocked. Among sites who have handed over the cash to Eyeo are Amazon and Google.
Other publishers refuse, saying that it amounts to extortion. A large number of websites are completely ad-supported and depend on the revenue from ad placement and the clicks on those ads to stay in business. I know many of you have said that since you already pay for Internet service, why should you be subjected to advertising. But remember, none of what you pay to your ISP goes to those websites. It doesn’t work like cable or satellite where the fees are divided up and distributed among content providers.
So far, Eyeo says the meetings have gone well and the company has announced some changes in their policies including adding a monetization section to their website to show which companies have to pay to have ads white listed and how much they pay. Although specific information about exactly which companies pay is buried in a user forum.
Although, there are signs that the meetings may not be gong that well, Adblock was uninvited to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s leadership summit, even though they attended last year and had purchased tickets for this year’s conference.
It doesn’t look as if the path to establishing an acceptable ad criteria will be an easy one.
So what exactly is considered an acceptable ad? Beside one offered up by a company that pays a fee to Adblock Plus?
We’ll check that out tomorrow.
Should Adblock Plus charge advertisers not to block their advertising? Let us know what you think in the comments.
~ Cynthia
What’s wrong with just having the ads on the right side of a website like that which is already being done? There’s no need for the flashing on-off bright light/screen blocking ads!!
Personally, I don’t want to see ANY ads of any sort. That’s not the reason I surf the web or have a pc. Quit targeting me with any and all ads, simply not interested. TV commercials are annoying enough without looking at ads while on the laptop.
Ad block means just that, ADBLOCK
Ads are annoying and I don’t like in-the-background tracking, which doesn’t meet my needs; it’s frightening. It’s all about selling so no ads please. I pay for an expensive internet connection that force my view of ads over whatever I want to do online. The carrier is the largest in the country and seemingly offers little in return.