Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted • Hacker News Board

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#11

Post by diggan » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 4:51 PM UTC

kevingadd wrote: post #7

As long as they're only whitelisting text ads, I don't think I mind. Even image ads that aren't animated are okay with me if they aren't offensive. The only reason I have AdBlock plus installed in the first place is the really vile shit - noisy SWFs, scantily clad women, drive-by PDF 0 day exploits, etc...

Well, what others find offensive, you find funny and what you find offensive, other people don't even notice. It's a pretty subjective thing no?

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#12

Post by SomeRandomUser » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 4:53 PM UTC

Although the ethics of paying as the method for being whitelisted can be subject to debate, IIRC Adblock states that whitelisted ads could be those that aren't animated, block access to content or distract the normal flow of browsing.

Adwords are just blocks of text. Ugly blocks of text, but they don't distract too much. And promoted search results are a fair tradeoff imo.

Anyway, disabling the display of whitelisted ads is not a complex task.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#13

Post by znowi » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 4:53 PM UTC

I think it was immoral and dishonest to sneak in a whitelist feature into AdBlock, which is in direct opposition to the core product value. Imagine a firewall that whitelists certain networks. And background updates add more networks that bought their way into your machine. Not a product I'd be willing to use.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#14

Post by leeoniya » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

time to dig around in the Adblock Plus source and see what's behind that "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" checkbox.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#15

Post by webwanderings » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:07 PM UTC

tr4656 wrote: post #10

webwanderings wrote: post #8

Just uncheck the Allow non-intrusive option and this becomes a non-issue. With recent onslaught of attack on Ghostery and Ad-block, I wonder if these two tools are doing exactly what they're supposed to do: help people.

What were the attacks on Ghostery? I seem to have missed them.

Ghostery was in news recently, there was also a big thread here on HN. Sorry, don't have links handy right now.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#16

Post by brendoncrawford » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:10 PM UTC

The whitelist also allows ads for Reddit and Amazon.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#17

Post by mknits » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:10 PM UTC

Use AdBlock Edge instead of the normal ABP, you'll have no further worries.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#18

Post by pathy » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

leeoniya wrote: post #14

time to dig around in the Adblock Plus source and see what's behind that "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" checkbox.

Right next to it, there is a link to whitelist. You won't have to do that much digging :)

https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/exceptionrules.tx...

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#19

Post by enraged_camel » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

fintler wrote: post #9

Since it seems to be a common misconception, I'd just like to point out that "Adblock" and "Adblock Plus" are two different extensions made by different people.

Yeah, for the longest time I thought the latter was an enhanced (paid?) version of the former. I can't believe naming browser extensions in a similar manner like this is allowed. It causes nothing but confusion.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#20

Post by mratzloff » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

I defined an exception for AdWords when I first installed an ad blocker. I just want to block the annoying ads, but I understand that many sites have to advertise to stay online. I can live with text ads, but not auto-start videos with sound, animated banner ads, pop-ups, etc.