Advertisers vs. ad blockers: The race to Internet armageddon

The Internet is at war with itself. An online arms race is pitting users against advertisers, publishers against the developers of ad and cookie blockers, and Apple against Google.

The war started because the classic Internet and the mobile Web are facing a crisis of advertising revenue. While the Googles, Facebooks, and Amazons are rolling in money, smaller publishers -- particularly those trying to make a living selling news and entertainment -- are desperately seeking ways to derive revenue from the expensive-to-produce content they offer.

As with most arms races, the combatants in this war tend to leapfrog each other. When users started ignoring simple display ads, advertisers developed new hard-to-ignore formats. In response, developers invented the ad blocker and eventually won the game-changing support of Apple. That got everyone’s attention, and it has accelerated the war: Last month, for example, Yahoo began (on a trial basis) to lock down the email accounts of Web users who were shielding themselves with ad blockers.

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