Who is going to complain ?
Like someone else mentioned I too have seen the internet change so much from an information heaven to a glorified advertising medium that makes it almost impossible to remain sane using it.
In the UK (to inform people from the USA and elsewhere) we have a several free to view TV channels (we all have to pay a TV license if we want to watch TV) of which some are have no adverts called the BBC and other channels which do have adverts. The BBC channels are great for watching movies as no adverts interrupting your enjoyment of watching a movie, but the bad side is that very few of the latest and greatest movies are shown and they tend to repeat the movies they have acquired over the years - very annoying ! Also another caveat is that no one wants to pay this TV license of £145.50 per year !
This is now becoming a problem as people watching TV programs online do not require a TV license so more and more people are opting out and watching TV online rather than live. So if this trend continues, the only way they can continue this business model is to increase the TV license fee so encouraging more people to opt out and eventually this will mean either they won't be able to provide a TV service or they will have to earn revenue via adverts and/or go the pay per view route !
With the internet users have to pay to access this medium either at home with broadband or on phones using a data allowance, with home as its tends to be reasonable quick and usually unlimited data (although not everyone has this) adverts are not usually an issue except the malware ones, but for mobile internet being quite slow compared to home broadband and there isn't as far as I know an unlimited data usage plan available at a reasonable price adverts do two bad things, they reduce your data allowance and slow down your mobile internet experience.
Now I have heard arguments for both sides, although most arguments in favour of allowing adverts were sarcastically done. The question to be resolved is whether adverts at least for the moment should be allowed on mobile networks, like Three are proposing to eliminate. The advertising companies are not going to lose to much sleep over losing customers on the Three network, its only if other networks like Vodafone etc follow suit and why wouldn't they if the Three network had a better internet experience then people would flock to Three, so it's a given that all mobile network operators would do the same as Three and then this could also go worldwide !
Ok, lets think about the El Reg, I would be surprised if their only income is from Advertising alone, surely they get monies for reviewing products, maybe they could have a link at the bottom of a review, maybe with a small discount by using it to go straight to the seller, this way El Reg readers get their discount and the seller knows who has pointed a customer to their site and if a sale has happened then El Reg should get a payment !
As long as El Reg gives a 100% unbias review then they keep their good rep and El Reg readers continue to use the site.
For companies like Intel and AMD etc, Article and reviews or whatever concerning their products won't directly give them a sale, but I'm sure that they would want a review on a good site like this rather than no review, so monies could possibly be gathered. General IT news is what gets El Reg readers using this site so the rest of the content would continue.
Now lets be honest here, not all websites would be directly effected, Government sites won't for a start, most sites providing car's won't directly, except that they won't be advertising on thousands of others sites !
Mind you Google would possible go tit's up !
But jokes aside I think the Internet would be a nicer place for mobile internet users !
But I think home broadband usage should stay as it is, some will use adblockers but not everybody, just make sure you have a good AV software installed against malware !
Sorry to everyone for going on so long !
Biting the hand that feeds IT
