One of the big innovations of iOS 9 was the ability for Safari users to download and take advantage of content blockers.
According to a new report, however, ads may not be the only content that is blocked by apps like Crystal. Online retailers such as Walmart, Sears and Lululemon are also seeing their e-commerce sites negatively affected by adblockers — with some crucial features failing to work as before.
“This upcoming holiday season, the vast majority of e-commerce dollars will come through mobile devices,” said Chris Mason, CEO of Branding Brand, a company that powers various mobile commerce sites and apps.
“But content-blockers are going to cause a lot of problems. First, the experience for customers will be lessened. Lots of sites will be missing content, have broken links or customers won’t be able to add certain items to their shopping carts. They’ll probably just think the site is broken, but it’s really their content blocker. Second, retailers will be data-blind, or at least data-dark. It will really impact their ability to make quick judgments.”
Examples like the above image show what can happen to sites when they are viewed on an ad-blocked iPhone. In other cases, ad blockers make it impossible for customers (or would-be customers) to add products to shopping carts, while also hampering the effectiveness of Google Analytics and Adobe’s Omniture, which retailers use for real-time insights about customer behavior.
Personally, from a user experience, I’m all for ad blockers provided they work properly — despite what it potentially means for sites like this one, which rely on ad revenue to keep going.
It seems there’s still a way to go until all the glitches get ironed out, though.
Update: As a number of readers have pointed out, a long press on the refresh button will allow users to reload pages without the ad blocker. That’s obviously not an ideal solution compared to finding a way to properly discern between advertisement and useful chunks of content, but it is at least a temporary workaround.
Source: Fortune
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
15 responses to “iOS 9 ad blockers could ruin your online shopping experience”
I found Crystal to be heavy handed in blocking and a lot of sites showed up blank. But Blockr has done great for me. I think I’ve only encountered one blank site, which I could add to a white list if I wanted. The problem is the abusers of advertising, especially on mobile, are many. And not everyone wants to have their browsing preferences tracked. If the companies *honored* cookie settings, didn’t use evercookies, didn’t disrupt the mobile experience with full page ads you have to click to get rid of, didn’t autoplay videos, etc. there would be less of a problem.
Just to add, the article should mention that pressing and holding the refresh in Safari can easily bring up a site without blocking. Problem solved for blank site access.
Thanks all. I’ve updated the story with this point.
I couldn’t agree more. If companies stopped using full page ads that required a click or a “wait 10 seconds” period, flash ads, and ads that play sound I would not even use an ad blocker. Until they reign in what an “acceptable” ad is, I will continue to block their ads.
Also, it would be nice to see a content blocker that was smart about what type of ad gets blocked. A static, unobtrusive, silent ad on the side of the page should be allowed to show through, while all the obnoxious ads are blocked. This would give companies incentive to make better – cleaner – ads.
I agree with this. In an ideal world, ads would be something you don’t want to block because they provide useful information. We need to work out how to get there. Blunt force trauma advertising, where it’s massive banners for movies you don’t want to see, games you don’t want to play, or whatever else, belongs in a previous decade.
You know the funny thing about this type of ad? I don’t even look at it, watch it, or read it. If a website throws an ad like that, I simply close the tab or focus on the countdown until I can click through. They’re wasting their money, and my time.
“If the companies *honored* cookie settings, didn’t use evercookies, didn’t disrupt the mobile experience with full page ads you have to click to get rid of, didn’t autoplay videos, etc. there would be less of a problem.”
That is the key here. I am tired of being visually abused, stalked, tracked, etc. This site alone uses 10 trackers, advertisers, beacons, etc. Sometimes, and CoM is probably in this category, legit sites get sucked up into adblockers. Neowin used to be reputable on their advertising, now they are in the borderline malicious area. It is so much easier for me as an end user to block it all and not deal with it, then figure out how well a site is behaving and judge.
If the site is broken on adblocker and it is the only spot I can buy it, then I will unblock it to make the purchase and then block it again. Usually though, I can get what I want from somewhere else without issues though.
No it won’t if you don’t do online shopping. With the businesses getting hacked and you almost hear about one a week why would you even think about on-line shopping and potentially having your personal and financial records ripped off.
For many, its a necessary risk. Unless you live in a megacity, like NYC or London, you can’t buy 75 percent of the stuff you might want especially if you love electronics and gadgets.
That is the dumbest comment I have ever heard.
You apparently didn’t understand his comment because your response has to be the dumbest thing I have read in the last hour.
Do you mean the original comment or the reply to the original? Because the reply is definitely true. You must have never lived in a small town where all stores are local stores and chain stores/restaurants don’t exist.
I think this highly depends on how the ad-blocker is programmed. Using “BlockBear” (from the people who created the TunneBear VPN) the Sears page mentioned above is displayed correctly.
And btw, a long press on the refresh button (iOS9) allows you to reload the page without ad-blocker.
Then companies/sites need to stop creating an experience where its customers feel the need to use ad blockers.
While I don’t love ads while viewing sites on my Mac, I can handle it. They’re *usually* along the sides, top and more recently, a large bar along the bottom which kind of sucks when you are on a smaller screen. BUT, on a Mac, they’re somewhat easier to navigate, close or otherwise ignore.
So often, I get ads on sites while on my phone that completely block the article, product, whatever I’m trying to look at and can’t seem to scroll/move the screen to be able to close it.
I will most definitely be using it and if sites can no longer exist without their ad revenue, then unfortunately they will no longer exist. That is not at the fault of the user.
Couldn’t agree more. The only victim in all of this is the user who has been powerless, until now, to deal with the increasing hostile advertising tactics that retailers have been using. Now that we have the power, retailers want to cry about the consequences of their actions. Too bad.
Sears may be a bit of a bad example. I am on 8.4, on a 5S, and Sears mobile sites and apps have been down for me since Monday. No ios 9.0, no adblockers. https://twitter.com/HBTonly/status/646009530086637568