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How We Detect Adblock

blog.pagefair.com

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Re: How We Detect Adblock

#31

Post by PhasmaFelis »

wingspan wrote: post #21
ToastyMallows wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webdevs reading this: it does work. I whitelist all sites that have responsible ads on their pages, reddit being a prime example. They have ads in a couple predetermined spots on their pages, and they're never intrusive. I've actually clicked on a couple (something I never do). Be responsible and open about your ad policy and I'll listen.

This brings up another case for detecting AdBlock: if you think your users are receptive to whitelisting non-annoying ads, you could detect the plugin and let them know that you strive to incorporate ads in a non-intrusive way and kindly ask them to disable AdBlock. Edit: sounds like this is what reddit does. Props to them!

Agreed. I was the original complainer in this thread, and I've whitelisted several sites that asked nicely and promised non-intrusive ads.

I believe they all used https://www.projectwonderful.com/ as their ad provider, by the way. I haven't really inspected them, but if you want inoffensive ads on your page, that might be a good place to start looking.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#32

Post by James_Duval »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #14

So has anybody ever tried to address the root cause of adblocker use, i.e. ads are really fucking annoying? I don't like ads in general, nobody does, but that alone wouldn't be enough to make me bother to install and maintain AdBlock. What does it is strobing "YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON" and animated "one weird trick" scams and softcore porn. This shit is everywhere , even on allegedly respectable news sites. If you wa…

I imagine most web devs don't mind about AdBlock if they run that kind of advert -- I mean, it's a self-selecting filter.

The people who are savvy enough to use AdBlock (and I'm sorry for my condescension here, I really am) are generally not going to be the people who convert from a YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON WEIRD TRICKS advert. Generally.

So the point of stuff like this for most web devs should not be ultimately to circumvent AdBlock, or to try to encourage/guilty AdBlocker users into quitting, but to make sure that you don't count AdBlock views as ad views.

I'm not saying that's what the article is arguing, but it's the useful information web devs should take from the article in my opinion.

And of course running ads which are well-made and unintrusive should absolutely be the goal of any site owner who relies on ads for income.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#33

Post by pdenya »

swanson wrote: post #19

Is it really worth potentially breaking your site for innocent, non-adblock folks in order to serve ads to a user who has explicitly and deliberately taken steps to not be served ads? Take the reddit approach: put a humanizing message kindly asking users to disable it and then don't make offensive/hostile ads. And then make some percentage of the ads a "thanks for whitelisting us, we really appreciate it" message.

What potential break are you referring to? They're not recommending disabling functionality for users with ad block on.

It's nice that they're discussing these techniques, hopefully other sites will do it better. I browse with click-to-play for plugins and it's often mistaken for ad block.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#34

Post by npsimons »

wingspan wrote: post #10
anon1385 wrote: post #6

>We then carefully observe what happens when a page loads. onLoad and onError events tell us if they’re successfully retrieved or if requests have been blocked Unfortunately for them many Adblock users also use Noscript or Javascript Blocker. Circumventing Adblock this way will just drive more people to prevent untrusted websites running code on their machines. A net win for web security but probably not the intended…

Can anyone else confirm this? Personally, I've always used AdBlock, but never used a Javascript blocker because it is substantially more effort and I am lazy. I do use Disconnect, though, to block that certain flavor of JS.

The first two things I install on any fresh browser is NoScript and AdBlock. I then make a point of permanently blocking JS from any domain looking like it might be used only for ads. I'll selectively turn on JS for one (very constrained!) domain at a time if I need to do something (like login to purchase or comment), but if I'm just browsing and a site no-worky-without-js? Tab closed, no second thoughts. There's a certain blogging platform site (can't remember what it's called) that gets linked here a lot that doesn't work with JS off; I've never read anything posted there.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#35

Post by codva »

wingspan wrote: post #21
ToastyMallows wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webdevs reading this: it does work. I whitelist all sites that have responsible ads on their pages, reddit being a prime example. They have ads in a couple predetermined spots on their pages, and they're never intrusive. I've actually clicked on a couple (something I never do). Be responsible and open about your ad policy and I'll listen.

This brings up another case for detecting AdBlock: if you think your users are receptive to whitelisting non-annoying ads, you could detect the plugin and let them know that you strive to incorporate ads in a non-intrusive way and kindly ask them to disable AdBlock. Edit: sounds like this is what reddit does. Props to them!

Fark does that. If they detect an ad blocker you get a little message at the top of the page asking you to allow ads to support the site. Their ads don't get in the way so I did it.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

debacle wrote: post #15
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

You guys should take a look at piracy and how well that worked out for content creators. They still get paid, but it'll always be whack-a-mole. I have a comfy six figure IT job, and I'd still spend a few hours for fun just to figure out how to work around your javascript. Now think about how much time someone determined will spend on it. Pivot and go do something with a higher possible success rate.

I agree. Google's business model doesn't seem sustainable and I doubt they'll ever be profitable. \s

Show me a business who serves ads as unobtrusively as Google while providing the same immense amount of value (Search, Gmail, Chrome, etc).

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#37

Post by eli »

anon1385 wrote: post #6

>We then carefully observe what happens when a page loads. onLoad and onError events tell us if they’re successfully retrieved or if requests have been blocked Unfortunately for them many Adblock users also use Noscript or Javascript Blocker. Circumventing Adblock this way will just drive more people to prevent untrusted websites running code on their machines. A net win for web security but probably not the intended…

Extremely non-scientific survey:

https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/noscript/ has 2MM users and https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/... has 17MM

IMHO, NoScript is too annoying to be practical for most users. It's not the sort of thing you can set it and forget it.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#38

Post by eli »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #14

So has anybody ever tried to address the root cause of adblocker use, i.e. ads are really fucking annoying? I don't like ads in general, nobody does, but that alone wouldn't be enough to make me bother to install and maintain AdBlock. What does it is strobing "YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON" and animated "one weird trick" scams and softcore porn. This shit is everywhere , even on allegedly respectable news sites. If you wa…

AdBlock Plus already has a system for exempting "acceptable" ads. Though the implementation is pretty controversial.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/02/the_internets_next_victim_ad...

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#39

Post by jamesbritt »

pagefair wrote: post #4
philjackson wrote: post #2

Is there somewhere I can go to see an example of Pagefair in action?

You can check out this article on Destructoid to see how they used the tool (fyi- we used to be called "Block Metrics") http://www.destructoid.com/half-of-destructoid-s-readers-blo...

I'm curious if Destructoid paid a licensing fee to use Hopper's art. I'm skeptical that adding another figure (sad Keanu or not) qualifies this for "fair use" in this particular case.

And if they're skipping out on that payment then calling out people who block ads makes me think of a certain kettle and pot.

If they are paying for that content then props to them for practicing what they preach.

Re: How We Detect Adblock

#40

Post by r00fus »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #14

So has anybody ever tried to address the root cause of adblocker use, i.e. ads are really fucking annoying? I don't like ads in general, nobody does, but that alone wouldn't be enough to make me bother to install and maintain AdBlock. What does it is strobing "YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON" and animated "one weird trick" scams and softcore porn. This shit is everywhere , even on allegedly respectable news sites. If you wa…

Wasn't that Google's big schtick 8 years ago? That their text ads were as effective but not annoying as hell?

Then they bought doubleclick and the animated display ads came right back...

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