• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, August 9, 2016

Well, we all knew this was going to happen, right? On Tuesday, Facebook updated its desktop site in a way that is said to block ad blockers -- although personally, I have seen no change with the ad blocker I use. Yes, I write about advertising and I use an ad blocker.  

In addition to rolling out an ad blocker blocker, Facebook also updated its ad preferences section to allow users to opt out of certain types of ads. Of the changes, Facebook VP of Ads Andrew Bosworth said: "When we asked people about why they used ad blocking software, the primary reason we heard was to stop annoying, disruptive ads. As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software." 

And on the pay-for-play agreement that exists between advertisers and ad-blocking companies, Bosworth noted: "Rather than paying ad-blocking companies to unblock the ads we show, as some of these companies have invited us to do in the past, we're putting control in people's hands with our updated ad preferences and our other advertising controls." 

According to a recent IAB study, two-thirds of Americans said they could be convinced to uninstall their ad blocker if given the ability to have some control over the types of ads they see. It would appear, Facebook acted quickly on these findings and hopes that providing the ability to adjust which ads are seen will minimize the anger over ad blockers being disabled. 

Right now, 69.8 million Americans use an ad blocker, according to eMarketer -- and that figure is expected to jump upwards to 86.6 million in the next year.