A few weeks ago, I was greeted by a nice surprise when I tried to log in to my bank’s online services. They had evidently switched over to using a Flash-based set of login controls, and the end-result for me was that my browser and/or computer was no longer able to remember my password for me. This was pretty annoying, but I managed to remember my user name after only a few tries and I kind of forgot about it.

Then, a few days ago, I got yet another pleasant surprise from First Tech (my bank):

It turns out not to be too big of a deal – I don’t actually have to turn off AdBlock to log in. Once I click on the “try again” link, it seems to work fine. But I’m taking this as a sign of two things. First, that companies are starting to notice the whole AdBlock thing, and second, that they are going to be able to put up a pretty decent fight. The mere fact that First Tech can tell I have AdBlock running doesn’t bode well for what’s coming. I certainly think the ad-blocking crowd will figure out how to get around this detection, but that will in all likelihood just kick off another round of give and take. I think that, at least initially, the advertising side won’t want to make the fight very public. For one thing, it’s hard to make an appeal to the public that they all need to be advertised to, but it’s also tough to do anything publicly without spreading the knowledge that ad-blocking is possible.

But anyway, maybe it’s time for a new bank. One with a location in Seattle somewhere. Any recommendations? There’s a KeyBank near my apartment; anyone have any experiences with them?