The actions of some site owners in blocking all users of Firefox simply because there is a chance that they may be using an ad blocking plugin such as Adblock Plus has certainly aroused a good deal of controversy, particularly among the blogging community.

Much of this has been provoked by comments on the site WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com, which has alleged that viewing websites that have an advertising-based business model while using an ad blocking plugin is “theft” – although the site does not specify whether it means ad blocking is theft in a moral or a legal sense.

As well as the outrage that blocking Firefox has caused, site owners risk alienating a growing sector of the internet: Firefox users. Although it is still a minority application, the number of people using Firefox is growing month-on-month. The growing popularity of Firefox may reach a point where advertisers may have to come up with more sophisticated counter-measures to deal with ad blocking technologies.

Finally, the popularity of ad blocking plugins such as Adblock Plus among Firefox users suggests that there exists a significant desire among web users to reduce their experience of online advertising. In this respect, site owners attempting to counter-block users of ad blocking software may be fighting against the market.

At the moment, online advertising is one of the major models for business operating on the internet. Although the presence of plugins such as Ad Blocker may not be a major, immediate threat, it is an indication of the way web users’ preferences are heading and should be factored into long-term business plans.