Ad Blocker Problem: Similar Experiences

[Squee]

One of my company’s sites QuikDine.com (http://quikdine.com) has been having trouble lately. Customers have been calling in confused that they were able to use the site once, but now they are no longer able to. After one of our customers realized she could once again use our site if she turned off ad-blocking in her Norton AV suite, I’ve been looking into the problem further. I am guessing at least half, if not all, of our customers with these problems are using ad-blockers with Java blocking capabilities.

This question is not really about specific code, I was just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences. The Java I believe is getting blocked isn't malicious at all and is integral to our site.

I'd love to be able to fix this, but an acceptable solution would be if I could just let a customer know if this really is the problem, because many times this kind of software is built into something else and the user doesn't even know they have it installed.

PS - It's also really hard to search for things on this subject in Google, etc. because if you search for 'ad block' you get a million sites trying to sell you ad blockers.

Any advice, help, stories, links, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

[pyro]

You won't have to worry about this, if you make your site free from it's apparent JavaScript dependence. 13% of users do not use JavaScript, so if an ad blocker is messing up your site, what do you think they are going to get?

[Squee]

Well exactly. I wish I could. But I'm not really a programmer. Maybe someday we will get it really fixed. Instead I've just opted for an informative FAQ.

I had no idea that it was as many as 13%.

Thanks for the info.

[Captlad]

I happened upon this discussion post and decided that I should add my two-cents worth. I have been studying the effects of ad-blocker on advertising. The truth is many small business owners build their own sites to save money and at the same time are cheating their advertisers. Most probably don't realize it. Here is an example: McAfee's privacy program allows the user to turn on/off ad and popups. When the feature is turned on, many banner advertisements on web pages cannot be seen by visitors to that site. When it's turned off the ads appear. But many computer users are going to ad control. Consequently, advertisers lose because many potential customers are not seeing their ads. I can see some legal actions coming from advertisers because of this. They are paying for exposure and not getting it, pure and simple.