stc-jamesriver.org - Symantec Knows Best

Like most Web surfers, I run from site to site to site, searching for content that I need (or want) for both professional and personal reasons. One of the nice things about the Norton Popup Ad Block tool (until NIS 2008) was that, by default, it blocked what I believed to be 98% of all obnoxious ads that clutter sites. If I wanted to see the ads on a site, I configured the tool to permit ads for that site.

Not anymore. Now, you have to go ad-by-ad-by-ad, right-clicking and blocking a particular ad image or turning off that particular Flash content. Of course, when next you visit the same site, there are different ad images and Flash content in the same locations, but the filters you set up the first time around are specific to the image or Flash object you identified then. In other words, you go through this exercise each time you visit a site.

Corner of The Curmudgeon

I am not normally a conspiracy-minded cynic. My cynicism stands on its own, unfettered by theories of conspiracies and black helicopters and secret international clubs intent on world domination. However…I wonder why Symantec stopped offering a tool against which none of their customers complained? Unless, the customers who complained are Web advertisers; those who have spent a lot of money on developers who tried to defeat the Popu Ad Block tool with little real success.

There is a point, legitimately made by some, that advertising pays for the content you get online. This is true, of course, for many commercial sites. Even small-time online bookstores and blogs sell advertising space (Google AdSense, anyone?) to boost the profitability of their sites. The thing is, no consumer is obligated to see those ads, regardless. If you don’t like ads on television, you surf channels or watch cable stations. No one threatens to remove your TV from your den because you refuse to watch ads.