According to Mediapost Publications one in five households enjoys “bloop blooping” through television commercials, cackling with the power magically granted to them by Tivo and other DVRs. Consequently, ad spending on broadcast TV is experiencing significant half-year declines-- decreases from 3.6% to $11.84 billion worth of expenditures on the networks even more on syndicated TV.

Meet the Tivo of the Internet: Adblock Plus. Its site persuades users to install the software by asking, “Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page?” This software is a pop up blocker on steroids, allowing users to disable banners, eradicate advertisements sponsored by search engines, and virtually eliminate all commercial communication.

This may sound great to the everyday impatient web browser, but The New York Times called it “potential for extreme menace to the online-advertising business model.” Adblock Plus removes the exchange of free websites for advertisement revenues, which proves especially detrimental for small website owners who rely on ad revenues to stay afloat. In response, site owners have blocked users with Adblock Plus. When Adblock made their software undetectable some sites decided to block all Firefox users. This site owner accuses the software developer of "direct intent to defraud web site owners of their rights."

Meanwhile, larger websites, such as Google, are currently avoiding the phenomenon trying to avoid drawing any extra attention to the software which is currently flying under the radar at 2.5 million registered users. Will the technology eventually disable the online advertising model? Or will marketers develop a new method for monetizing online eyeballs? Pop-up blockers led to banner ads, and TiVo's bringing about a rebirth of the paid product placement, so we'll just have to wait and see!