Monday, April 30, 2001

SaveTheFreeWeb.com "is a web site that provides information on and a forum for discussion of the future of ad-supported content with an emphasis on the impact of ad-blocking software."

I tried Naviscope a few months ago to see how it worked. Some sites such as Imdb take the trouble to block its users, but I guess most content sites just lose banner impressions because of them. I'm not sure it's the main problem with ad-supported business models, since many sites can't sell all of their inventory and sustain a decent CPM anyway, and resort to filling up with auto-promotion and bartered banners. But that doesn't excuse irresponsible people who won't even accept banner ads in exchange of free content. SaveTheFreeWeb comes with a sensible proposal to make ads more acceptable (similar to Yahoo guidelines).

01/08/02 update: well, Yahoo! is a lot less strict now regarding intrusive ads, they now support many different formats.