One Man, One Long List, No More Web Ads

Rick works as a machinist in upstate New York and maintains EasyList in his den. "People hate ads," he says.

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But if the tools' use becomes universal, he said, "it could eliminate most of the money that supports online services and content."

Moreover, the idea that a guy working in his den at night while his wife watches TV downstairs can so easily allow people to block most ads reminds some of how fragile Web profits may be. The global Internet advertising industry is estimated to bring in more than $40 billion annually.

The biggest Web companies -- Google and Yahoo -- declined to comment on the blockers' use.

Meanwhile, Web sites big and small have tried to grapple with the phenomenon -- mostly without success.

For example, Daily Kos, one of the leading political blogs, virtually pleads with people using blockers to recognize that advertising money is required to keep the site running.

"If you use ad-blocking software while viewing Daily Kos, you're getting all the benefits of our site but we're not getting any of the advertisement revenue associated with your visits," it informs visitors if it has detected they are using ad-blocking software. It urges people using ad blockers to pay for a subscription to the site even though the site is normally free.

The pro-wrestling site PWInsider.com, which claims 4 million to 10 million page views per month, sometimes attempts to block people using ad blocking software from accessing the site.

"We are three guys who have no corporate backing and need the revenue that our best-paying ads generate," said Dave Scherer, owner of the site. "We don't believe it's unreasonable to earn a living from something that we put 50- to 70-hour workweeks into. . . . For every ad that doesn't load, we don't earn the needed revenue we need to generate revenue to pay our mortgages, bills, etc."

It's not just in the United States, either.

The French Web site Virusphoto.com has told visitors using Adblock Plus to "Merci de désactiver l'extension Adblock de votre navigateur," or "Please deactivate Adblock from your browser."

It explains: "Si tous les internautes bloquaient les publicités, l'internet gratuit n'existerait pas," or "If all surfers were to block ads, the free Internet would no longer exist."

There are dozens of ad-blocking programs, and many of them can be downloaded free.