• The New York Times, Tuesday, May 15, 2007 10:16 AM

Do the legions of ad-haters out there understand that if they want free content on the Web, they have to deal with advertising? That said, there's an entire industry full of intelligent folks who've devoted themselves to creating ad-blocking software. There is a new program developed by conceptual artist Steve Lambert that replaces display ads with contemporary artwork chosen by curators. During a demonstration, the banner and rectangle ads on the Fox News Web site were replaced with a bald eagle illustration.

Is this legal? Doesn't that inventory belong to Fox News, or does it belong to the Web user? That's yet to be decided. For now, ad-blocking software is a growing problem for advertisers. According to Forrester Research, 53% of consumers had ad-blocking software on their computers in 2006, up from just 21% in 2004.

That's a massive problem; but luckily, Lambert's free program only works with Mozilla's browser Firefox, which has just 15% of the market. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a whopping 78% of the market, but it charges developers to create browser add-ons where Firefox, an open-source program, does not. Because of Microsoft's add-on fees, users have to pay for most ad-blocking services, but you'd think that the software giant would eventually put the stop on such programs, considering its claim that Microsoft's future is heavily dependent on online advertising.

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