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Adblock Plus now sells ads

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Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#281

Post by dawnerd »

endemic wrote: post #152
Someone1234 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a HOSTS file to block things while effective, is also a very bad user experience. For example, some sites won't let you in until you unblock ads. With an extension you can use the in-browser UI to whitelist that site, with a HOSTS file you'd have to figure out exactly which domains got blocked, then update the HOSTS file, and finally restart the browser & flush the DNS Cache Resolver for it to take effect. Agai…

Even simpler solution: never visit those offending sites again, which is a great user experience ;)

And that's why I haven't seen a forbes article in a long time.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#282

Post by thesmallestcat »

M_Grey wrote: post #269
thesmallestcat wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the next step, I've done things like this before but generally only to troubleshoot outright breakage caused by some addon. Thanks!

My pleasure, I wish you the best of luck with it.

Another user recommended uMatrix as a Ghostery replacement in this thread which I was trying out, and it looks like some Ghostery/uBlock interaction was to blame. My best guess is some Ghostery resource is correctly flagged by uBlock and that the delay I experienced was a request timeout or similar, from Ghostery.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#283

Post by randomnerdiness »

sathio wrote: post #267
pythia__ wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it unethical? What ethical principle is being violated? (These are not rhetorical questions.)

it is a man in the middle changing your DOM with stuff that profits them. how can you tolerate this?

That's precisely my argument against it.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#284

Post by zouhair »

jagger27 wrote: post #115
thclark wrote: post #36

uBlock Origin it is! Extensions: Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa... Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin... Opera: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/ublock/ Microsoft Edge: https://github.com/nikrolls/uBlock-Edge#microsoft-edge

A word of warning about uBlock for those who aren't aware: uBlock Origin forked off of uBlock some time ago and left the Safari version behind. For Chrome and Firefox uBlock Origin is great, but for Safari I personally suggest Wipr[1]. 1: https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=com.giorgioc...

It's actually the other way around.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#285

Post by Jordrok »

arjie wrote: post #206
cousin_it wrote: post #114

People talk about the ad blocking arms race, but they forget that advertising itself is an arms race. Often it doesn't even benefit the advertisers! For example, everyone would buy food even if it wasn't advertised, so the food industry as a whole might well be losing money on ads. (If you're feeling nitpicky, substitute "cheap food industry" for "food industry".) It's a kind of prisoner's dilemma situation where eac…

Blanket bans on advertising favour market incumbents. It's true that some companies will prosper through word of mouth but in the early adopter stage you need to reach those early adopters. If you're small and your early adopters are distributed, you'll die before you catch on through people talking about you. I'd wager the net effect would be to entrench big brands.

I still don't see how this works out as an advantage for the little guy. At best, for every ad the new startup buys, the big incumbent buys two and you're back to more or less where you started. Worst case, the big incumbents and shady scammers buy up the majority of the advertising time, training consumers to ignore ads and making it even harder for a legitimate newcomer to get their foot in the door.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#286

Post by sliverstorm »

thr0waway1239 wrote: post #164

A missing factoid via the corresponding WSJ article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/adblock-plus-is-launching-an-ad-... "Advertisers will not be able to target ads via the Acceptable Ads Platform using the granular behavioral data many have become accustomed too, however, to preserve user privacy and security. Rather, they’ll have a limited set of information with which to target their ads, including the domain on which…

Aren't those somewhat indispensable pieces of technical info though?

- what language do they speak

- what regional market do they shop in

- what is the compatibility of their client browser to render your ad

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#287

Post by zouhair »

etatoby wrote: post #40

I, for one, agree with them. We started blocking ads because they had become 1. obnoxious, interfering with the fruition of the actual content; 2. dangerous, being a vector for malware and disrespecting our privacy; and 3. costly, for those with a slow or metered connection. Most people accept ads, if they are acceptable. They are the first company to actually push through with a plan to restore this market to sanity…

If something can survive only on ads it deserve to die.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#288

Post by libertymcateer »

Yuioup wrote: post #78

This is extortion, plain and simple. Essentially they're forcing advertisers to funnel all ad content through them. Good thing for uBlock Origin because otherwise they should be indicted to anti-competitive behavior. No, I don't like ads and I run uBlock Origin. I don't work for an advertising company and couldn't care less about ads. But what Adblock Plus is doing here is illegal.

>But what Adblock Plus is doing here is illegal.

What law are they violating?

I'm a software lawyer.

As far as I know, nothing they are doing rises to violation of any law or regulation with regard to this particular move.

Is it unethical? Maybe. That doesn't mean it is illegal. It is certainly not coercive - you can freely install or uninstall adblock, and you are free to advertise or not advertise with them. They do not have a monopoly, natural or otherwise, and their product is wholly voluntary. If Microsoft were installing ABP as a matter of course in IE and they prevented you from uninstalling it - then there is an argument that this would be anti-competitive.

An independent third party distributing totally voluntary, uninstallable software? Unlikely.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#289

Post by gravypod »

I've got a deal for any company out there. Rather then spending millions on advertising provide to me a datasheet. Hell, pay for ad space where you can show off your datasheets. I'll buy the product with the best possible features for my use case.

If companies start doing this, I'll exclusively buy provided products from them rather then from advertised companies. If the data sheet you provide lies, I'll never buy your products again, so keep that in mind.

This is a simple and transparent way to get me to buy your products and it costs you less! Isn't that great!

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#290

Post by arjie »

Jordrok wrote: post #285
arjie wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blanket bans on advertising favour market incumbents. It's true that some companies will prosper through word of mouth but in the early adopter stage you need to reach those early adopters. If you're small and your early adopters are distributed, you'll die before you catch on through people talking about you. I'd wager the net effect would be to entrench big brands.

I still don't see how this works out as an advantage for the little guy. At best, for every ad the new startup buys, the big incumbent buys two and you're back to more or less where you started. Worst case, the big incumbents and shady scammers buy up the majority of the advertising time, training consumers to ignore ads and making it even harder for a legitimate newcomer to get their foot in the door.

> At best, for every ad the new startup buys, the big incumbent buys two and you're back to more or less where you started.

Are you? Previously no one knew about the startup. Now one in three people in the targeted segment see it.

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