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efindel · 01-06-2012, 11:51 AM

Okay, mini-rant time.

I'm new to the Kindle community, but it mystifies me why so many people seem to be looking for some way to turn off the ads on the ad-supported Kindles. The ads aren't badly intrusive -- if it popped up ads while you were reading a book, say, I could see people wanting to remove it, or if a quarter of the screen were taken up with ads in the home page. But removing the ads just lets you use a different screensaver and adds space for one additional book to be listed on the home screen.

I could also see it if the ads were forced on you, and you didn't have the choice of buying a version with no ads. But you do. And even if you bought the version with ads, any time you want, you can pay the $40 difference and get rid of them.

If you bought a Kindle Touch, you already paid $99. Are the ads so bad for these people that they really can't live with them for a month or two to save up another $40 and pay to have them removed? Do people not know that they can remove the ads later? (I know I was surprised to find out that you could -- Amazon doesn't really seem to publicize that.)

Don't get me wrong. I don't like ads. I run an ad-blocker on my web browser... but that's because most sites don't give me the option to remove ads, and some have ads that are extremely intrusive (e.g., popouts that want to suddenly cover most of the page just because you happened to move your mouse pointer over them). I've removed ads from software before, but only when the ads were intrusive (I remember one "free trial" e-reader for the Palm I used that popped up an ad for the full version about every 30 seconds, while you were reading. I wound up finding a way to remove the ads just so I could properly try out the software... and I did eventually register my copy). But the ads on the Kindles don't seem that intrusive, and they do give you a way to get rid of them.

01-06-2012, 11:51 AM	#56
efindel Member Posts: 20 Karma: 62828 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Kindle Touch	Okay, mini-rant time. I'm new to the Kindle community, but it mystifies me why so many people seem to be looking for some way to turn off the ads on the ad-supported Kindles. The ads aren't badly intrusive -- if it popped up ads while you were reading a book, say, I could see people wanting to remove it, or if a quarter of the screen were taken up with ads in the home page. But removing the ads just lets you use a different screensaver and adds space for one additional book to be listed on the home screen. I could also see it if the ads were forced on you, and you didn't have the choice of buying a version with no ads. But you do. And even if you bought the version with ads, any time you want, you can pay the $40 difference and get rid of them. If you bought a Kindle Touch, you already paid $99. Are the ads so bad for these people that they really can't live with them for a month or two to save up another $40 and pay to have them removed? Do people not know that they can remove the ads later? (I know I was surprised to find out that you could -- Amazon doesn't really seem to publicize that.) Don't get me wrong. I don't like ads. I run an ad-blocker on my web browser... but that's because most sites don't give me the option to remove ads, and some have ads that are extremely intrusive (e.g., popouts that want to suddenly cover most of the page just because you happened to move your mouse pointer over them). I've removed ads from software before, but only when the ads were intrusive (I remember one "free trial" e-reader for the Palm I used that popped up an ad for the full version about every 30 seconds, while you were reading. I wound up finding a way to remove the ads just so I could properly try out the software... and I did eventually register my copy). But the ads on the Kindles don't seem that intrusive, and they do give you a way to get rid of them.