Google removes Adblock Fast app from Play Store, others to follow?

[Shawn Knight]

Samsung earlier this week added support for ad blocking via its new content blocker extension API. What that means is third-party developers can now create apps that, when installed, block ads when using Samsung Internet Browser, the company's own mobile web browser.

As you can imagine, third-party developers jumped at the opportunity and have since published ad-blocking apps on Google Play. Google, however, isn't terribly thrilled with this development and is reportedly pulling such apps from its mobile store.

One of those yanked apps is Adblock Fast from startup Rocketship Apps. The app shot up the free charts in the Productivity category, amassing more than 50,000 installs and a 4.25 star rating this week before being pulled.

Rocketship Apps CEO Brian Kennish told TechCrunch that Google said the app was removed for violating "Section 4.4" of the Android Developer Distribution Agreement. That section states that developers aren't allowed to publish apps that interfere with the operation of other services or apps.

In this case, Samsung has granted developers permission to block apps in its mobile browser but that apparently doesn't matter to Google. Of course, that's not surprising considering the bulk of Google's revenue comes from its advertising business.

Interestingly enough, similar ad blockers like Crystal for Samsung Internet and Adblock Plus (Samsung Browser) are still available on Google Play. It's unclear if they will remain live or if Google simply hasn't got around to pulling them down yet.

Lead image via AP

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/63704-google-removes-adblock-fast-app-play-store-others.html

 

[Mister_K]

Well at least its Android so the tech savvy people can still block the ads.
Samsung is bringing out the pre-installed AdBlock* in their next flag ship phones afaik anyway, so +1 there.... if it works right that is >.>

 

[cliffordcooley]

Google drive a stake in the ground, sit, spin, and wait for the buzzards.

 

[captaincranky]

More of this crap? Last week, wasn't Yahoo blaming "Ad Block Plus" for putting it out of business?

All I can say is, thank God for Firefox, and thank God I don't have a smart phone.,

 

[gobbybobby]

Love my smart phone, don't use add block, I want the people who create content for me to be paid.

 

[captaincranky]

Love my smart phone, don't use add block, I want the people who create content for me to be paid.

The people who, "create my content" on OTA TV "get paid", and I usually hit the mute button. I mean after all, I'm mind numbingly aware that buying or leasing a new Cadillac is an, "opportunity", I shouldn't pass up. But know what, I can't afford one, nor do I want one. So, am I still allowed to watch the show(s) they sponsor? When it comes right down to it, very few can afford a new Cadillac every time they see they ad. They can run it as often as they like, it doesn't even cause me to salivate any more. So much for Pavlov's car buyer,

Unless you've never seen a "Horizon Services" ad, you'll never know how snotty the kid Max is, bragging about his dad the plumber all day. Horizon Services needs to get a new advertising agency. Meh, I'll likely mute that too.

That's what "AdBlock Plus" is, a mute button for your smart phone. "To mute or not to mute, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous claims, or take arms against a sea of oppression".

Shakespeare, that's in the public domain, isn't it..?

See Bobby, Shakespeare helped me "create content for you", and he's not getting paid or complaining about it.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Love my smart phone, don't use add block, I want the people who create content for me to be paid.

You must like that 'lonely' feeling. Each to their own I suppose.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Spoilsports! Meh, I not overly concerned seeing I hardly use my mobiles (Chrome) browser anyway. As long as AdBlock works on the desktop browser, that's very important to me.

 

[Yynxs]

Actually, I have an iphone5 hand-me-down from daughter, then wife, then me. It sits in the house just irritating the wife because I left it home. I've considered buying Samsung, Nexus, literally everything on the market including the Chinese stuff only available overseas (from a buddy living there). Frankly, I can't see a use for a device specifically designed to track my curiousity and movement and apply that information to presenting me with advertising so Google (or Apple or whomever) can get richer. Oh yeah, it also makes phone calls. I would like the information I would look up, but there's always later.

This story shows exactly what motivates Google and what happens when something a customer wants is only available from the monopolist.

Wonder when we'll start seeing a fully vetted app store with certified secure apps costing slightly higher than Google store? Seems like a good startup to me.

BTW, for the people that say, they want someone who created something to get paid, I bought 'unlimited' hosting from Name.com for under 250 bucks, US per year (sorry about the web page name dropping on your web page). Still haven't figured out what I want the public to know so much, but, after researching and buying software and advice on creating a web page, I'm pretty sure anyone trying to make a presence on the web can either pay the freight or simply shut up. It just doesn't cost that much.

Advertising (and Google specifically) currently is the bane of the internet and not the savior. If you want someone to get paid, support microtransactions and pay per web page view.

 

[captaincranky]

Actually, I have an iphone5 hand-me-down from daughter, then wife, then me. It sits in the house just irritating the wife because I left it home. I've considered buying Samsung, Nexus, literally everything on the market including the Chinese stuff only available overseas (from a buddy living there). Frankly, I can't see a use for a device specifically designed to track my curiousity and movement and apply that information to presenting me with advertising so Google (or Apple or whomever) can get richer. Oh yeah, it also makes phone calls. I would like the information I would look up, but there's always later.

Well, there's mobile phones, and then there's smart phones. A mobile phone doesn't track your internet usage. But it could save your life simply allowing you to dial 911.

I've been in stores listening to people talk on mobile phones. Nothing of any import seems to be actually being said.

So, people can carp all they want about data caps, throttling, and sky high phone rates, when it comes right down to it, we're individually responsible for what we're addicted to. If you don't want a heroin habit, don't stick needles full of it in your arm. So, the same principal should attach to a smart phone. Either shut up and throw it away, or be prepared to pay the price for your habit.

*(Please keep in mind that although I quoted you, the foregoing is my impersonal impression of the situation).

As for ads, it's easier to simply cut Firefox a check once a year, and install AdBlock in your home browser. I look at it this way, if you don't buy the crap they throw at you, then you are getting a great many internet services for free. Which is a double-edged sword. Since if you don't see the ads you've blocked, you can't tell what you're screwing them with by not buying.

 

[Yynxs]

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I look at it this way, if you don't buy the crap they throw at you, then you are getting a great many internet services for free. Which is a double-edged sword. Since if you don't see the ads you've blocked, you can't tell what you're screwing them with by not buying.

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Believe I agree but don't view it that way. I've contacted numerous web sites and asked if I could pay a per view fee so if I'm wanting to read there, I can let them make something. Nada. Even here. I consider these guys pretty much the place to watch to be on top of stuff and even wife (definitely not a techie) gets their weekly deal feed. Would probably pay 25 a year, same as a good paper magazine, to read here and make sure one of them gets a burger and fries some time.

What we 'users' really need is a lost amount, e.g. how much did a web site lose by me not seeing their adverts. (hmmm, would make sense to add that to Adblock Plus, NoScript, etc. or make another addon) Most people, the "it all should be free" crowd, probably don't care. I do. I pay my freight.

 

[captaincranky]

You badly screwed up that post. Sorry, but that needed saying.

I came up with OTA TV being my only source of "content". That was free, but interspersed with ads. Now, mute buttons are an accepted form of life, and some ads get blocked, at least by me.

Television advertising is the living embodiment of the biblical adage, "wheat that fell on stony ground perished, but wheat that fell on fertile ground, became fruitful and multiplied". (Loosely worded by me perhaps). TV advertisers still accept this proverb as a business model. Guilt is incumbent to be felt by an individual, and to be as freely dispersed by the sellers. It isn't however, a responsibility on the part of the consumer to be riddled with it. You can't buy a new car each time you see an ad.

Go to YouTube everybody and their mother expects to be paid as a "content provider" regardless of the quality of said content, BTW.

Much of the most aggressive internet advertising is peddling pure crap, which either lacks quality, or is of questionable utility, and needs to be rammed down the throats of even the weak of mind. Good product sells itself, and quite honestly I don't need to see a lot of ads for the things I need in life, to entice me to buy them. OTOH, if someone is peddling garbage, I won't tolerate a guilt trip being laid on me for blocking his ad.

So to me Google isn't a demon or a God, just a path.

Of the search engines you mentioned, I simply search Wiki topics using Google, and Bing returns the best porn results. "Duckiduckgo"....So?

 

[treetops]

More of this crap? Last week, wasn't Yahoo blaming "Ad Block Plus" for putting it out of business?

All I can say is, thank God for Firefox, and thank God I don't have a smart phone.,

That's hilarious, at one point yahoo had car commercials popping up loudly in my face. For me that was the tipping point, I did some searching and found my savior, adblock plus. They got to greedy are make terrible decisions. The khardashians practically own yahoo, they have been spamming them since their inception. They must have the same guy paris hilton used. Step 1 make a sex tape Step 2 be rich Step 3 use that money along with a publicist to pay every media outlet to spam your face.

Another poor decision, they haven't made yahoo answers a mobile app? They could make so much money, lifting regulations for daily posts for money n such.

 

[gregzeng]

Firefox (Android) has adblock extensions that work very well. With Youtube, Firefox allows playing, even if the screen has lost its focus, or the display is turned off. Other web browsers either have no web browsers, and will not play videos with the video window not being on top.

On the desktop (Linux or Windows), my first preference is Opera, since it allows very many file-types to be saved into my subject-focused folder, instead of the last folder used for the particular file type.