iOS 9 inspires lust for ad blockers
Take, for example, a recent article on The Next Web called iOS 9 content blocking will transform the mobile Web. A writer at the site put the Crystal ad blocker through its paces and came away very impressed by it.
Owen Williams reports for The Next Web:
Owen's test results and commentary didn't surprise me a bit. I use Ghostery and UBlock Origin in Safari on my Macs, and I notice a big difference in terms of browser performance when browsing in iOS on my iPad. In short, some sites are almost unusable without an ad blocker.
iOS users are lusting for ad blockers in iOS 9
Owen's article spawned a huge thread on the Apple subreddit, with more than 300 posts already in it. And the vast majority of Apple redditors seem to be very much in favor of ad blockers in iOS 9. Here's a sampling of that thread:
As you can tell from the smattering of comments above, ad blockers are going to be a big hit when iOS 9 is released next month. And that kind of sentiment is not just limited to just one Reddit thread either. I've seen similar comments in almost every article about iOS 9 ad blockers I've seen on the Web.
iOS 9 ad blockers mean change is coming
As I noted above, the browsing experience right now in iOS is pretty awful compared to OS X since it's not currently possible to block ads and trackers in mobile Safari. But once iOS 9 is rolled out, with its content blocking features, things are going to change for the better.
Sites that are reasonable with their ads will hopefully be whitelisted by those who value their content. While other sites will be mercilessly blocked by many iOS users.
In the initial phase, ad blockers in iOS 9 will probably cause some serious problems for certain publishers. But ultimately I believe it will be a very positive thing once publishers catch on to which kinds of mobile ads iOS 9 users will tolerate and which kinds they won't.
Apple is about to school publishers and the advertising industry about the need for reasonable, prudent mobile advertising. The ones that take those lessons to heart will survive and thrive, and the ones that don't will slowly fade away as the ad blockers in iOS 9 choke off their revenue stream and finally kill them.
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