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Ad Block Plus may start asking you to tip the websites you visit

Ad Block Plus has announced a partnership with Swedish startup Flattr in which the firms will be blocking ads but still paying the content creators who host the adverts you are blocking.

For anybody who hasn’t heard of Flattr, it’s best described as an online tipping jar.

Users are able to load their accounts with money and then tip the creators they like who emblazon a Flattr badge on their blog or website. At the end of your month your tips are recorded and your account balance is split across the creators.

This clever service was founded in 2010 by Peter Sunde who you may recall is also the founder of the infamous torrent website, The Pirate Bay.

The collaboration between Flattr and Ad Block Plus will be called Flattr Plus. As with the original Flattr users will load their accounts with a budget but rather than pressing a button to donate money the service will split your budget among the creators you visit, automatically.

How exactly these funds will be divvied up is yet to be revealed and hopefully it isn’t based on time spent on a page because there are days when I have news stories open all day to read, “when I get to them”.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Ad Block Communications and Operations Manager, Ben Williams explained that the goal of the service for its first year to earn $500 million.

Williams goes on to say that even if creators aren’t a part of the programme, the funds they receive will be held until they sign up at which point they will be retroactively paid out.

We are somewhat apprehensive this service. On the one hand we’re quite happy to pay the websites we visit without being inundated with adverts. On the reverse of that coin we’re also a bit worried about unknowingly paying a creator that tricked us onto their blog with the promise of news.

What do you think? Would you pay to never have to see an advert again and still help your favourite websites keep food on the table? As always, leave us a comment below.

[Via – TechCrunch][Image – CC BY/2.0 Aaron Stidwell]

 

 

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