Industry spokesmen say they aren't losing sleep just yet. To counteract slowing revenue growth and declining clickthrough rates, ad shops are modifying the traditional banner ad into larger, more attention-grabbing formats recently approved by the Internet Advertising Bureau. Ad servers like Doubleclick Inc. track Web users' movements to increase the effectiveness of their ads. The company does not link Web habits with personal information without permission, and allows users to opt out of its data collection techniques. For Web surfers uncomfortable with this practice, many ad blockers allow users to block cookies and Web bugs completely, or only allow them on selected sites.
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Some ad blockers don't deny that their products could undermine the effectiveness of Internet advertising. It never worked, and it's just going from pathetic to ridiculous,'' said Jason Catlett, whose Junkbusters organization offers the Junkbusters Proxy ad filter. Ginsburg said while clickthrough rates may have declined to around 0.5 percent, the total number of clickthroughs is higher than it was a year ago as more people are online. Furthermore, the slowdown in revenue growth has hit the entire advertising industry, not just the Internet, he said. Guidescope's Matheson is pushing an alternative approach.