Webmasters I know (including myself) prefer FireFox for many reasons, but there are a growing number of FF extensions that hurt and literally ROB affiliates and webmasters of revenue. One is just like Norton and blocks all common ad servers including Commission Junction (CJ) links like qksrv.net and Linkshare affiliate links, as well as all common banner sizes. See my article on how Norton Blocks Affiliate Links and then read the description of the FF extension in the blog below and you will see the functions and the sites it blocks are almost identical.

There is even one that REPLACES Amazon links with your own. The description blatantly reads: “Exchanges Amazon affiliate ID’s with your own (claim the Amazon links on websites.)

Not an affiliate so you’re not worried? Are you a blogger? Do you show Adsense or other ads on your site? There are numerous extensions to block Adsense ads listed below as well. Sheesh. Text link ads are NOT intrusive. Just ignore them, why block them?

Azam from NowSell.com writes a great review of this problem.Webmasters, Could Firefox Be Bad For Your Health?. See a long list of troublesome FireFox extensions at his blog. He states:

Most of the scripts are fairly incouous and are designed to help users get more out of various websites… But MANY are designed soley to strip ads from pages, remove redirects and even change affilate links…

All (these Firefox scripts) are freely available for plug-and-play installation by every Firefox user. The number of scripts like this will only grow, unless people look at them in the same light as porn or warez, and put them in the same generally unacceptable bracket when it comes to providing hosting and promotion services.

What I want is a script I can put on my site that detects this sort of thing and redirects to a page saying, “ENTRY DENIED! We have detected you are blocking advertisements on our site. The creation and maintenance of this site is not free. Web hosting costs money. Our time designing, writing, editing, etc., is not free. The advertisements pay for the site. If you refuse to accept that, we refuse to accept you!”

My feeling on the whole ad blocking issue is this. People have the right to block pop ups because they are intrusive and often misused. People do not however have the right to erase, change block regular content on our sites. If they don’t like ads they can ignore them or go to another site that is ad-less - IF they can find one.

What do you think???