Ad blocking

Ad blocking or ad filtering is a type of software (or less commonly, a computer hardware device), that can remove or alter advertising content from a webpage, website, or a mobile app. Ad blockers are available for a range of computer platforms, including desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers and smartphones. A variety of methods have been used for blocking advertisements. The benefits of this software are wide-ranging and the use of ad blocking software is increasing. However, many media owners (publishers) rely on advertising to fund the free content that they provide to users. Some have taken counter-measures against users who block ads on the sites they visit, for example Forbes.

Online advertising exists in a variety of forms, including web banners, pictures, animations, embedded audio and video, text, or pop-up windows, and can employ audio and video autoplay. All browsers offer some ways to remove or alter advertisements: either by targeting technologies that are used to deliver ads (such as embedded content delivered through browser plug-ins or via HTML5), targeting URLs that are the source of ads, or targeting behaviors characteristic to ads (such as the use of HTML5 autoplay of both audio and video).

From the standpoint of an Internet user, there are various fundamental reasons why one would want to use ad blocking, in addition to not being manipulated by brands:

Publishers and their representative trade bodies, on the other hand, argue that Internet ads provide revenue to website owners, which enable the website owners to create or otherwise purchase content for the website. Publishers claim that the prevalent use of ad blocking software and devices could adversely affect website owner revenue and thus in turn lower the availability of free content on websites.

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Wikipedia