Linked List: September 19, 2015

Saturday, 19 September 2015

Khoi Vinh:

I’ve been kind of neutral on all of the hubbub around Apple’s new ad blocking technology in iOS 9. But then just this morning I tried to read this New York Times article on my iPad — not just any article, but one that’s specifically about reactions to Apple’s introduction of ad blocking in iOS 9.

In maybe the sweetest bit of irony that ad blocking advocates could ever hope for, the article itself, as it was served to me, was so beset by a crippling ad position across the top of the page that I could not scroll it.

You can’t make this stuff up.

NYT: ‘Enabling of Ad Blocking in Apple’s iOS 9 Prompts Backlash’ ★

Katie Benner and Sydney Ember, reporting for the NYT:

The potential toll of ad blocking has become particularly apparent over the last few days, when several website publishers got caught in the dragnet after Apple enabled ad-blocking apps. John Gruber, a technology blogger who publishes on his site Daring Fireball, posted on Twitter that “it’s wrong” if an ad blocker stops all types of ads.

“The ad network I’m a part of, The Deck, only serves ads that are fast to load and don’t track you,” Mr. Gruber said. “In my opinion, they’re good-looking ads for high-quality products and services. Why block that?”

If you want to block all advertising, I don’t understand you, but I won’t argue with you either. No one’s going to stop you. But most people just want to block garbage — privacy-invasive trackers, JavaScript that slows our devices and drains our batteries, obtrusive ads that cover the content we’re trying to read.

Are we fighting ads, or are we fighting garbage?