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Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

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Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#111

Post by paranoiacblack »

coldtea wrote: post #92
smsm42 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing different from any other extension, so what you're saying nobody should be using extensions in their browsers. Good luck with convincing people not to do it.

Well, I for one don't use any extensions with Chrome. And not even from security concerns. Just from lack of any interest to do so. Why should I? For some marginal utility? I'd take it more average people don't use extensions either -- if they know what they are in the first place.

> For some marginal utility?

Yes, this is the point of extensions. Extensions are help you and others do things with the browser that the vendor shouldn't really spend time on. Approaching them with the idea that they're useless doesn't really help your argument.

For example, I once wrote a browser extension that extracts class calendar info from the school website and automatically syncs it to the calendar application of your choosing. It turned my class scheduling process from an error-prone 2 hour process to a 3-click 10 minute step. You can label that as a useless, marginal utility, but that's being facetious at best.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#113

Post by RyanZAG »

I was thinking about this further, and while it comes off as fairly irrelevant to start with, it's actually an extremely bad thing.

In essence, this has set up two tiers of advertising: those we have paid for white list privileges, and those who haven't. This is heavily in Google's interests as they are the only advertiser powerful enough to get by with only text adverts - nobody else has a platform like Google search where text only adverts are enough to overcome costs and provide viability.

By using Adblock Plus as a weapon against non-Google adverts, Google is removing the ability for other players to compete on level footing. It's very similar to the idea of paying AT&T for prioritization for Google traffic, and it destroys a lot of the foundations that the web is built on. It definitely crosses into 'evil' territory for me, in the same way as paying AT&T to slow down access to Bing would be.

While it's just an add on, it's a bad precedent to set.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#114

Post by wallunit »

Karunamon wrote: post #101
wallunit wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just noted that Adblock Edge is still based on version 2.0.4 of Adblock Plus, which is outdated for a while. It seems that Adblock Edge isn't maintained anymore and probably never was. So Adblock Edge will probably get incompatible with future versions of Firefox, anyway. And if there are security issues in the code, it is rather unlikely that they will get fixed, as fast as in upstream Adblock Plus, if at all. On…

Few companies take money to help bypass the function of their product! This is analogous to an antivirus vendor taking money from malware authors to avoid detecting the worm of the day, the only difference being that a text ad isn't as likely to frag your computer. But hey, in both cases, they're getting money to "maintain and improve the product".

This comparison implies that everybody can get their ads on that white list, for money. But that isn't true. There are guidelines that define what is acceptable ad and what not. [1] Everybody that gets on the white list has to conform to that guidelines.

So it would be rather like an AV software that lets by default, installers still change your default home page (or stuff like that), if the installer is fair enough to ask for, but would still block any real malware.

[1] http://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#115

Post by jmharvey »

downandout wrote: post #108

I was always curious as to how they made money. He used to ask for donations. Asking for money in exchange for not taking actions that will harm another person's business (i.e. blocking their ads) seeing seems awfully close to extortion. Yelp was sued for extortion, and their conduct was far less egregious than this. Google probably couldn't handle the PR hit after the NSA stuff, but I'll bet their first inclination…

Adblock and Adblock Plus are different.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#117

Post by downandout »

jmharvey wrote: post #115
downandout wrote: post #108

I was always curious as to how they made money. He used to ask for donations. Asking for money in exchange for not taking actions that will harm another person's business (i.e. blocking their ads) seeing seems awfully close to extortion. Yelp was sued for extortion, and their conduct was far less egregious than this. Google probably couldn't handle the PR hit after the NSA stuff, but I'll bet their first inclination…

Adblock and Adblock Plus are different.

I changed it to "they". It doesn't change the fact that someone managed to extort money from Google.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#118

Post by StacyC »

adPothier wrote: post #72
jpdoctor wrote: post #6

Quick ref to get rid of Google Ads (and some others too) on Adblock Plus: FOR CHROME: Go to "Settings" Find Extensions in the list on the left Find AdBlock, select "Options" Click the tab "Filter Lists" Uncheck: "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" FOR FIREFOX: Go to the Firefox menu in the upper left corner Select "Add-ons" Select "Extensions" Find Adblock Plus, select Options. Find the "Filter Preferences" Button…

Combined with AdBlock, I use Ghostery[1], which is a nice add-on (Chrome/FF/Safari/Opera/IE) : it blocks any javascript from ads networks, but also from analytics, trackers, socials plugins (and more) , and also cookies from the same trackers. Everything is configurable per-tracker and per-website. It's quite a must-have if you don't want to be the product on the Internet. And a good failover over Ad-block. [1]. http…

Agreed on Ghostery. I have been using it for quite a while and it seems to work well.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#119

Post by wallunit »

tr4656 wrote: post #104
wallunit wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that you have any reason to feel disappointed, unless you have donated a significant amount of money to Adblock Plus. And even then, just disable that feature. After all that's the way Adblock Plus makes most of its money, needed to develop the browser extension, port it to new platforms, maintaining and hosting the filter lists (which by the way are also used by every other ad blocker). I doubt that if…

By disabling that feature, he would block all ads. However, he did say that he wants to support sites who rely on ad revenue. I don't think supporting Adblock Plus was what he was really concerned about.

I might got his message slightly wrong. However white listing is is a feature in the filter list format itself, that is used ever since by every ad blocker. So you can include third-party white lists or maintain your own with every ad blocker, already before Adblock Plus introduced "Acceptable Ads" and its own white list.

Re: Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted

#120

Post by amalter »

calbear81 wrote: post #32
mratzloff wrote: post #20

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.

It doesn't help a site if you show text blocks from AdSense since they get paid only when there's a qualified click.

The first step in getting a click is gettin an impression.

On the other extreme, I've actually found myself right clicking into an organic search because I feel bad for charging UPS for my laziness.

(Yes I do realize how ridiculous this is on so many levels. However, do not assume that well plassed text ads do not get click thrus)

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