AdBlock is a Chrome extension that blocks internet advertising from sites you are viewing. Now, in an unusual turn of events the company is crowd sourcing for donations so it can run its own advertising campaign to raise awareness of the tool. As it says on the campaign site, ‘We’re going to use ads to get rid of ads.’
AdBlock is founded on the idea that advertisements are annoying, and the Chrome extension apparently has 15 million users. While some users do find ads annoying, it is those ads that keep most sites running, and available for free. There has yet to be a viable alternative to this model for websites, and if everyone used AdBlock, most sites would probably cease to exist.
AdBlock’s competitor, AdBlock Plus (they are not related), takes a slightly more subtle approach, with its ‘acceptable ads’ feature. AdBlock Plus sees that there are annoying, intrusive ads, and acceptable ones. They have a ‘whitelist’ of sites that meet their criteria of acceptable ads.
AdBlock’s advertising goals include a Times Square billboard if they reach $50,000, a New York Times full page ad at $150,000 and right at the top, the unlikely goal of $4.2 million for a Superbowl 2014 ad.
[Source: TheNextWeb]