Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Adblock Browser for Android

adblockplus.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#21

Post by nugget »

Raphmedia wrote: post #8
tiffanyh wrote: post #7

Not to be a naysayer, but why would anyone use this browser given that Adblock Plus is paid [1] by Google/Microsoft/Amazon etc to NOT block their ads? [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboo...

A lot of people will say that they don't mind ads that are quiet, targeted and relevant. It's popups for viagra that they don't want. Hell, even those that are correctly targeted by the ads end up being scammed. The extension should really more be called "malware blocker" or something like this, since they are not really against ads.

Adblock Plus whitelists Taboola and Outbrain, which not only push viagra ads but deceptive ones at that. Time to tell it like it is. The acceptable ads policy is nothing more than a narrative designed to allow them to extort ad networks for cash.

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#22

Post by ianlevesque »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #19
mcescalante wrote: post #4

I've been testing a number of Android ad blockers. Mainly because I feel like every single app under the sun is plastered with obnoxious advertisements. Tried out AdBlockPlus (not the browser) for a month - horrible experience. They actually firehose/stream all of the data your phone uses through their app to block the ads, so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as…

Or you could pay for apps so they don't have ads in them.

That's crazy. Apps materialize out of thin air and nobody needs to eat.

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#23

Post by rockdoe »

rm999 wrote: post #14
rockdoe wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we understand that having a revenue model leads to software that is maintained and developed more actively, and that taking money to do so does not mean the authors suddenly forget about their goals?

>Because we understand that having a revenue model leads to software that is maintained and developed more actively This needs a huge citation. uBlock Origin is revenue free (as far as I know) and is well-maintained and arguably far better than ABP. Anyway, most of the work is done by the maintainers of the block lists (including the community), not the software that translates those lists.

uBlock is barely 10 months old.

AdBlock Plus has been maintained for 9 years.

You might have an argument in 9 years. Right now it's just wishful thinking that developer time is free.

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#24

Post by bobajeff »

ianlevesque wrote: post #22
JohnTHaller wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could pay for apps so they don't have ads in them.

That's crazy. Apps materialize out of thin air and nobody needs to eat.

I don't think it's smart to sustain yourself on money from mobile apps considering all of the data published about that recently.

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#25

Post by rm999 »

rockdoe wrote: post #23
rm999 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Because we understand that having a revenue model leads to software that is maintained and developed more actively This needs a huge citation. uBlock Origin is revenue free (as far as I know) and is well-maintained and arguably far better than ABP. Anyway, most of the work is done by the maintainers of the block lists (including the community), not the software that translates those lists.

uBlock is barely 10 months old. AdBlock Plus has been maintained for 9 years. You might have an argument in 9 years. Right now it's just wishful thinking that developer time is free.

ABP has been whitelisting for less than three years, meaning it supported itself for most of its existence. Anyway, uBlock leapfrogged ABP, which tells me that ABP isn't really being developed too well if a newcomer can do so much better. ABP continues to exist primarily on its name - it's a lot like Bittorrent Inc.

And again, most of the work isn't done by the developers of the ad blocking software.

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#26

Post by pavel_lishin »

Raphmedia wrote: post #8
tiffanyh wrote: post #7

Not to be a naysayer, but why would anyone use this browser given that Adblock Plus is paid [1] by Google/Microsoft/Amazon etc to NOT block their ads? [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboo...

A lot of people will say that they don't mind ads that are quiet, targeted and relevant. It's popups for viagra that they don't want. Hell, even those that are correctly targeted by the ads end up being scammed. The extension should really more be called "malware blocker" or something like this, since they are not really against ads.

Yeah, I'm in principle fine with ads in general, but look at this:

http://i.imgur.com/W2xgJe5.png

Can you even spot the actual content?

Re: Adblock Browser for Android

#27

Post by gwu78 »

mcescalante wrote: post #4

I've been testing a number of Android ad blockers. Mainly because I feel like every single app under the sun is plastered with obnoxious advertisements. Tried out AdBlockPlus (not the browser) for a month - horrible experience. They actually firehose/stream all of the data your phone uses through their app to block the ads, so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as…

"It uses the hosts file to block ads..."

You could also run your own "localhost" DNS to block ads. This is a bit more flexible than the HOSTS file. Even if you are a novice, I believe once you have this setup working, you will never go back to third party DNS such as your ISP or openresolvers like Google, OpenDNS, etc. Just my personal opinion.

By using DNS you can also block ads across all your devices, at least on your home LAN. You use one device to block ads on all your devices by making the one device a gateway for the others. No need to root the devices; just change the gateway in network settings.

It all works beautifully. Maybe someone should do a startup? It seems like there is real demand for blocking ads and the current solutions leave much to be desired.

On the free side, I can package a working solution on a bootable USB stick, SD card, CD, etc. Or I can make it a userspace kernel, Xen kernel or some other virtualized format for the "container" enthusiasts.

Without expending any effort to reduce size of the bootable kernel the whole thing (with embedded filesystem) weighs in at about 20MB.

Enough configuration has already been done so all you have to do is come up with a spare computer (e.g., old laptop, PC), boot and enjoy the ad free experience.

You can also block google-analytics, mobile apps than phone home, etc. You can stop your Apple devices from being the beacons they are: they phone home to multiple domains constantly 24/7. Running your own DNS also makes redirections easier, e.g., when you are monitoring SSL traffic being sent from apps, etc. The list goes on.

Note I am not denigrating the HOSTS file. I regularly make use of the HOSTS file in tandem with DNS, but not to block ads.

Post reply on HN