In the world of Internet search, ads are everywhere. Although most of us don’t like ads in general, there are some who block them out altogether. So, how can Internet ads be blocked, and what does this mean for the future of Internet advertising, and more specifically Pay-Per-Click advertising?

Adblock Plus is a Firefox browser plug-in that filters out pop-ups and banner advertisements from web pages. This plug-in is free to anyone wanting to eliminate Internet advertisements from their online browsing experience. The plug-in has become a debate topic on blogs across the Internet, and for good reason. There are a number of people who stand to lose income if blocking ads becomes an increasing & permanent trend. The ones that stand to lose the most money are Search Engines.

Search Engines like Google and Yahoo list advertisements called Sponsored Listings (a form of Pay-Per-Click advertising) as part of their Search Engine results. Pay-Per-Click advertising is currently the primary method of advertising on the Internet. These advertisements are also the primary revenue source for Search Engines, and are potentially blocked by the Adblock plug-in. This poses not only a threat to the countless advertisers, but to the Search Engines themselves. So what is being done to thwart this newest plug-in and the people trying to block out Internet advertising? Nothing.

Google and Yahoo have not issued any statements regarding Adblock. One reason is that the bulk of Internet advertising is actually textual ads. These ads show-up on Search Engine results pages and/or content websites, and are not the target of Adblock plug-ins. Internet advertisements that are affected are pop-up ads and banner ads. Although Search Engines do provide kinds of Internet advertising that are affected by this kind of plug-in, the numbers of people that have downloaded this plug-in are low enough that the Internet advertising industry is not concerned. In fact the people who are downloading this program are less likely to click on the ads anyway so the relative impact is minor, if even noticeable.

The increasing relevance of Search Engine advertising and increasing amount of money being put into Search Engine advertising points to the future growth of Internet advertising rather than a decline. Despite ad blocking, there continues to be more and more people that are finding Internet advertising to be an increasingly beneficial resource in their Internet browsing. But, the most beneficial kind of Internet advertising (Search Engine textual advertising) is not even affected by this latest plug-in.

For additional information about the Adblock Plus plug-in visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock