When TiVo was first launched in 1998, advertisers everywhere scrambled to make sense of their new opponent. They quickly realized that in order to survive they had to evolve and find new ways to connect with consumers. This primarily entailed moving their activities to the Internet, which has since become the fastest-growing sector in the field with $5 billion being spent on the medium in the first quarter of 2007 alone. However, just as advertisers have started to successfully combat the foe known as TiVo, another enemy has appeared on the horizon.

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	Mozilla, the software development tools provider best known for the web browser Firefox and the email software Thunderbird, has refined one of its content-filtering extensions to the detriment of advertisers.

Mozilla, the software development tools provider best known for the web browser Firefox and the email software Thunderbird, has refined one of its content-filtering extensions to the detriment of advertisers. The most recent plug-in, Adblock Plus, will allow users to block unwanted messages from advertisers on the Internet, including banner ads and flash or rich-media messages.

While this is the second version of the extension—the first version was released five years ago—this edition is much more effective than the first and extremely easy to use. As Wladamir Palant, creator of Adblock Plus explains on the Mozilla website, "right-click on a banner and choose 'Adblock' from the context menu—the banner won't be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or you can select a filter subscription when Adblock Plus starts up the first time; then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically." Advertisers beware. This is TiVo for the online space.

Palant elaborates, "Adblock is definitely important because there are still too many ads, ones that make sounds and others that are animated, float in the middle of the screen obscuring text, and do just about anything else to grab your attention."

In addition to blocking ads or messages that present themselves while one is surfing the web, Mozilla's Firefox has created TubeStop to block the ads that accompany YouTube videos.

Thus far, little has been done by advertisers to combat this ad-blocking software. A major cause of this inaction is directly related to the company that provides it. Comparatively speaking, Firefox controls only a small percentage of the browser market. For instance, Firefox accounts for only 17.4%, while Internet Explorer accounts for 64%.

More importantly, though, ad-blocking software has seldom been utilized even when made available by well-known browsers such as Internet Explorer. So, at least at this point, not enough people are using the software for it to have a significant impact on the advertising world. Still, if such programs become popular with online users, they will pose serious problems for advertisers.

As Ilya Vedrashko, an emerging-media strategist at Hill Holiday, Boston, says, "I wouldn't overestimate the importance of the business impact of this application."

If online ad-blocking programs do become widespread, advertisers will be forced to create ads that are valuable to the user, as well as ones that are able to engage them and motivate action. Essentially, technologies such as Adblock are forcing advertisers to modify their approach and take users' interests into account like never before. Instead of creating ads that are humorous or appealing to the eye, they must make advertisements that are, above all else, effective.

However, no matter how inventive an advertisement is or how effective it could be, none of that will matter if it is prevented from reaching the online user-which is exactly what Adblock has the potential to do. Not surprisingly, then, organizations such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau will lobby software companies in hopes of discouraging the use of ad-blocking software.

On the net:

Mozilla
www.mozilla.org

Adblock
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock

Internet Explorer
www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx

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