Firefox users typically ignore online ads when compared to IE users.
CNET reports that a German maketing company Adtech, found that during October and November, only 0.11 percent of Firefox users ever clicked on an ad, compared with around 0.5 percent of IE users. The percentage of IE users clicking on ads varied depending on which version of the browser was being used, the company said: from 0.44 percent of version 6.x users to 0.53 percent of version 5.5 users. The survey was based on 1,000 Web sites in Europe that use Adtech's ad server.
Dirk Freytag, the chief operations officer of Adtech, said in a statement that the reason for this trend is probably the different surfing habits of Firefox and IE users, plus the inclusion of an integrated pop-up ad blocker in Firefox. Among IE users, only those who have version 6 and who have installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 have an integrated pop-up blocker, although IE users can also choose to install a third-party pop-up blocker.
Firefox is more popular among more technical users (or geeks) who are less likely to clicks ads by mistake as they are generally more aware of the site structure and can easily spot adcontent. They will never click a flashing banner that says "Click here to win a $50000 lotto" or "Click here to tune-up your PC". Also, Firefox comes with a built-in image blocker and advanced users can get more control using Adblock extension which is more robust and more precise. Adblock allows the user to specify filters, which remove unwanted content based on the source-address. All Macromedia Flash content, a very popular form of online advertising, can be blocked with just a right click and even makes surfing faster as when the site loads again, the bulks swf file would not be downloaded. Here are some example of using adblock filters:
* Blocking all gif-images: .gif
* Blocking all content served from Doubleclick: doubleclick.net
* Blocking the contents of an ad-directory: http://example.com/ads/
It is also possible to block Google Adboxes by blocking the page http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js which serves the Google ads but it is not recommended as it distorts the layout of the webpage in most of the cases. Also, Google Adsense is popular for serving only relevant ads related to the content of the webpage. They are easily distinguishable and look like ads and not system dialogs.
Adtech's findings could have significant implications for the online-advertising market. It may be bad news for sites that rely on online advertising, because as the number of Firefox users grows, those sites may get lower click-through rates. In some cases, Web surfers would be well-advised to stay clear of banner ads. Last month, ZDNet UK reported that hackers have attacked ad servers and have modified the banner ads so that they redirect users to Web sites that download malicious code.
There may be 101 reasons to use Firefox over IE but for this one single reason, website owners will really wish to have more IE users than Firefox users.
CNET reports that a German maketing company Adtech, found that during October and November, only 0.11 percent of Firefox users ever clicked on an ad, compared with around 0.5 percent of IE users. The percentage of IE users clicking on ads varied depending on which version of the browser was being used, the company said: from 0.44 percent of version 6.x users to 0.53 percent of version 5.5 users. The survey was based on 1,000 Web sites in Europe that use Adtech's ad server.
Dirk Freytag, the chief operations officer of Adtech, said in a statement that the reason for this trend is probably the different surfing habits of Firefox and IE users, plus the inclusion of an integrated pop-up ad blocker in Firefox. Among IE users, only those who have version 6 and who have installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 have an integrated pop-up blocker, although IE users can also choose to install a third-party pop-up blocker.
Firefox is more popular among more technical users (or geeks) who are less likely to clicks ads by mistake as they are generally more aware of the site structure and can easily spot adcontent. They will never click a flashing banner that says "Click here to win a $50000 lotto" or "Click here to tune-up your PC". Also, Firefox comes with a built-in image blocker and advanced users can get more control using Adblock extension which is more robust and more precise. Adblock allows the user to specify filters, which remove unwanted content based on the source-address. All Macromedia Flash content, a very popular form of online advertising, can be blocked with just a right click and even makes surfing faster as when the site loads again, the bulks swf file would not be downloaded. Here are some example of using adblock filters:
* Blocking all gif-images: .gif
* Blocking all content served from Doubleclick: doubleclick.net
* Blocking the contents of an ad-directory: http://example.com/ads/
It is also possible to block Google Adboxes by blocking the page http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js which serves the Google ads but it is not recommended as it distorts the layout of the webpage in most of the cases. Also, Google Adsense is popular for serving only relevant ads related to the content of the webpage. They are easily distinguishable and look like ads and not system dialogs.
Adtech's findings could have significant implications for the online-advertising market. It may be bad news for sites that rely on online advertising, because as the number of Firefox users grows, those sites may get lower click-through rates. In some cases, Web surfers would be well-advised to stay clear of banner ads. Last month, ZDNet UK reported that hackers have attacked ad servers and have modified the banner ads so that they redirect users to Web sites that download malicious code.
There may be 101 reasons to use Firefox over IE but for this one single reason, website owners will really wish to have more IE users than Firefox users.