Many Yahoo mail users reported that they were blocked by company from accessing their Yahoo mail account just because they use adblocker. And Yahoo seems to be pretty serious about this. Yesterday, many such users complained about this on Twitter. One user reported to receive pop-up saying “Turn off your ad blocker, or forget about getting to your email.”
On asking, Yahoo confirmed to block users from accessing emails if they are using adblocker but denied to confirm the number of users affected with this change.
“At Yahoo, we are continually developing and testing new product experiences,” a Yahoo rep explains. “This is a test we’re running for a small number of Yahoo Mail users in the U.S.”
Here, you will ask why only for Mail and not for other content Yahoo server. Basically email is the important thing and is unique to a user. If Yahoo will block users from accessing other content, users will find the same content including news, weather and others on various other alternate websites. But Mail is unique and important, so users will most likely end up disabling adblocking software. In my opinion, this is a very wrong way company selected. Most of the Yahoo mail users will try to move
Affected users can use email clients to access emails without turning on the adblocked. Configure your email account on email software on your desktop or use any web based email client.
This move came after Yahoo posted disappointing revenue in the third quarter and company is struggling under the Marissa Mayer’s leadership.
This move started the debate about adblocker again. While Apple allowed ad blockers in iOS 9, company like Yahoo is not allowing users from accessing their emails. Yes, it is true that ad blockers are costing web publishers a lot and there should be something for help, but treating users in this way is wrong.
What do you think about this step taken by Yahoo? Share your views with us via comments.
