Google, Among Others, May Have Paid off Adblock Plus to Not Block its Ads

[deksman]

Heh... go figure... profit based companies cannot grab as many profits as they want.
You know what's interesting?
When individuals engage in internet marketing, they can be heavily monitored/regulated - but big companies can do various unscrupulous things to earn cash the same way without any consequences.

I can't wait for the system to finally collapse so we can get this trash done and over with.

 

[tsnor]

+1s to everyone who pointed out that seeing these ads was user choice, that the option was clearly documented and showed how to see the list of ads that count as 'acceptable'.

Suggest Tom's UPDATE the article to show this information. Without the reader comments I'd have been left with a totally wrong impression of ABP - and that's not fair to them. I trust Tom's as a fair, "not going for sensational headlines over facts just to get clicks" site, so believe they did not intend this.

 

[Kode]

For a company that aims to have an open source project to block online advertising, charging companies to be whitelisted seems to be a huge conflict of interest.

I don't see what's wrong with this. Open source does not necessarily mean free and adblock clearly states it wants annoying adds removed, not all ads. A copy paste from their page: Adblock Plus
Surf the web without annoying ads!

 

[dextermat]

Basically, adblock plus is now google little b*tch

 

[thundervore]

Netgear 3500L with DD-WRT firmware and adblocking start up script running directly on the router. My whole home network is AD free.

However when I go to the office then I have to use ABP but then again I do not visit the same sites at work that I do home that usually contain annoying ads.

 

[Cy-Kill]

I saw the following posted elsewhere, so I thought I'd post it here:

There's a similiar problem with Spybot Search & Destroy, as there are a few "allowed" pieces of spyware that SBSD ignores unless you go through the list and uncheck them so it no longer ignores them, the funny thing is, not a lot of people know it does it!

 

[kinggraves]

Cry some more, stop using it then. Good luck finding something that does a better job. While you're at it just stop using Google completely. Why stop there? Just quit using any site that runs advertising for revenue. See how far that gets you on the internet. What, you economics professors think sites should use a different revenue model? Ok, great, start paying for your content then instead of getting it for free. Because advertisers pay for your content to put stupid ads all over the place, you don't have to. Contrary to this generation's belief, everything in life is not free. Other people are not creating, uploading, and maintaining content because we all love you so much. You have to pay somehow, whether it's with cash or your valuable time.

 

[rwinches]

Learn how to edit your hosts file.

 

[g-unit1111]

Adblock Plus for the Android version of Firefox blows. The other forums I belong to - I browse on my phone all the time, and the ads get through every single time. Why even have Ad Block if it doesn't block ads?

 

[rdc85]

U can always set up custom block rules, by right mouse click..

With this, most ads i don't want to see can be blocked.

 

[rolli59]

So that will explain how they make a living.

 

[mstngs351]

I like to ensure the sites I enjoy get revenue from adds. I just don't get the mentality of people who want everything for free and want to block all types of advertising.

 

[aReefer]

For those saying we should remove the 'Allow some unobtrusive ads' option in AdBlock Plus, please note that whatever is whitelisted will presumably still be displayed - even if this option is disabled.

 

[avjguy2362]

This is an industry that shot itself in the foot a long time ago. If the advertising industry had made standards that all ads would not be animated unless the user clicked a button, all colors in that ad were coherent with each web site, and no porn (unless its relevant to the site!), advertisement blocking software never would have been such an important and necessary add on feature. It kind of makes you wonder how intelligent the advertisement business really is that they couldn't have figured that out right away. Do you really think ad blocking software came before the obnoxious ads? Personally, I wouldn't care if there were ads on either side of the reading pane, so long as they were all simple, non-distracting and relevant to the site and subject matter. I would bet I would have clicked on at least a few ads per month, if the industry had been more mature and intelligent in the first place. Instead they get ZERO!

 

[avjguy2362]

This is an industry that shot itself in the foot a long time ago. If the advertising industry had made standards that all ads would not be animated unless the user clicked a button, all colors in that ad were coherent with each web site, and no porn (unless its relevant to the site!), advertisement blocking software never would have been such an important and necessary add on feature. It kind of makes you wonder how intelligent the advertisement business really is that they couldn't have figured that out right away. Do you really think ad blocking software came before the obnoxious ads? Personally, I wouldn't care if there were ads on either side of the reading pane, so long as they were all simple, non-distracting and relevant to the site and subject matter. I would bet I would have clicked on at least a few ads per month, if the industry had been more mature and intelligent in the first place. Instead they get ZERO!

 

[damian86]

This is up to the user. if the user does not want ads then they will be blocked. Plus they cannot complain as in the last 3 month only with youtube they made 3M. Apart from all of this, in my opinion there has to be a balance between the amount of advertising on the net and the amount of money they can make out of it, which I think is ridiculously enormous.

 

[shriganesh]

This is BS! I realized ABP is useless in Chrome and switched to AdBlock!!

 

[ksio89]

To those who think turning the acceptable ads option off till will permanently prevent them from seeing ads are wrong. Even you turn it off, some time later it revert to display ads, like AdWords/AdSense in google search engine.

That's why I switched to Adblock (not Plus) on Chrome and Trueblock Edge (formerly Trueblock Plus), whose authors hasn't been bribed yet, I guess.

 

[ksio89]

To those who think turning the acceptable ads option off till will permanently prevent them from seeing ads are wrong. Even you turn it off, some time later it revert to display ads, like AdWords/AdSense in google search engine.

That's why I switched to Adblock (not Plus) on Chrome and Trueblock Edge (formerly Trueblock Plus), whose authors hasn't been bribed yet, I guess.

 

[ksio89]

To those who think turning the acceptable ads option off till will permanently prevent them from seeing ads are wrong. Even you turn it off, some time later it revert to display ads, like AdWords/AdSense in google search engine.

That's why I switched to Adblock (not Plus) on Chrome and Trueblock Edge (formerly Trueblock Plus), whose authors hasn't been bribed yet, I guess.