Ars Technica[a] is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998.

It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games.

[b] The sale was part of a purchase by Condé Nast Digital of three unaffiliated websites costing $25 million in total: Ars Technica, Webmonkey, and HotWired.

[3][8] Layoffs at Condé Nast in November 2008 affected websites owned by the company "across the board", including Ars Technica.

[9] On May 5, 2015, Ars Technica launched its United Kingdom site to expand its coverage of issues related to the UK and Europe.

[11] In September 2017, Condé Nast announced that it was significantly downsizing its Ars Technica UK arm, and laid off all but one member of its permanent editorial staff.

[12] The content of articles published by Ars Technica has generally remained the same since its creation in 1998 and is categorized by four types: news, guides, reviews, and features.

After being purchased by Condé Nast, Ars Technica began publishing more original news, investigating topics, and interviewing sources themselves.

[30] Originally handled by Federated Media Publishing, selling advertising space on the website is now managed by Condé Nast.

Subscribers are not shown advertisements, and receive benefits including the ability to see exclusive articles, post in certain areas of the Ars Technica forum, and participate in live chat rooms with notable people in the computer industry.

[32] On March 5, 2010, Ars Technica experimentally blocked readers who used Adblock Plus—one of several computer programs that stop advertisements from being displayed in a web browser—from viewing the website.

In response to increasing use of ad blockers, Ars Technica intends to[update] identify readers who filter out advertisements and ask them to support the site by several means.