How Does Ad Blocking Work?
Most ad blockers rely on filter lists. These lists contain rules that identify common advertising networks and tracking domains. So when your browser sees a request that matches one of those rules, it can stop the request before the advertisement gets displayed.
Some blockers also hide advertising spaces after a page loads. Others prevent tracking scripts from running. Because of that, ad blocking often does more than remove a bright banner sitting halfway through an article.
What Gets Blocked?
The exact result depends on the blocker and the website. A typical blocker might deal with things such as:
• Banner ads disappear before you have to hunt for the tiny close button.
• Video ads are sometimes blocked too, although websites are constantly changing how they serve them.
• Tracking requests can get caught in the middle, which is honestly one of the better parts of using an ad blocker.
• Pop-ups and annoying overlays, especially the ones that appear the second you touch a page.
Some advertisements won’t be blocked. A site may serve ads from the same place as its normal content, which makes them harder to separate. And websites sometimes change their code specifically to get around blockers.
Does Ad Blocking Hurt Websites?
This is where things get a little uncomfortable. Many websites rely on advertising revenue to pay writers, developers, servers, and everyone else keeping the site alive. Blocking every ad removes part of that income.
The interesting thing is that you don’t really miss the ads. You just wonder why the internet ever became so noisy in the first place.