> What will happen to the web when uBlock Origin becomes prevelent enough?
If history is any indication, the ad companies will show up on the doorsteps of the uBlock Origin developers with a big old sack of money. And then the uBlock Origin developers will start talking about how what users really want are built-in, uneditable whitelists to make sure that "ethical ads" (e.g. ads from the people who showed up with the sack of money) get through unmolested.
And then some user will get frustrated and fork uBlock Origin off into uBlock Origin+++, with the first commit to the fork taking out the ad whitelisting. And the whole cycle will start over from the beginning again.
> And then some user will get frustrated and fork uBlock Origin off into uBlock Origin+++, with the first commit to the fork taking out the ad whitelisting. And the whole cycle will start over from the beginning again.
Even if this happens (and gorhill has shown no signs of being susceptible to pressure so far), the beauty of the open source system is that as long as there's one technically competent person who's more interested in developing an ad blocker than the potential industry payout, we're going to have ad blockers. There are a whole lot of people with the ability to continue the development of uBlock. It's simply not feasible for the industry to have everyone on their payroll.
If history is any indication, the ad companies will show up on the doorsteps of the uBlock Origin developers with a big old sack of money. And then the uBlock Origin developers will start talking about how what users really want are built-in, uneditable whitelists to make sure that "ethical ads" (e.g. ads from the people who showed up with the sack of money) get through unmolested.
And then some user will get frustrated and fork uBlock Origin off into uBlock Origin+++, with the first commit to the fork taking out the ad whitelisting. And the whole cycle will start over from the beginning again.