Adblock Plus is already blocking Facebook's unblockable ads

Scorpus

Scorpus

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Just two days after Facebook changed their ad delivery mechanisms to defeat ad blocking technology, Adblock Plus has begun blocking Facebook ads once again through an update to their ad filters.

This honestly isn't that surprising. Every time a company comes out and claims they have found a way to stop ad blockers, the developers of said ad blockers find a way to block ads once more. Adblock Plus has stated that "this sort of back-and-forth battle between the open-source ad-blocking community and circumventers has been going on since ad blocking was invented."

The latest update to Adblock Plus' filters removes ads from both the Facebook sidebar and the news feed. Adblock Plus company spokesperson Ben Williams says that the ad-blocking community will continue to find workarounds for any supposed ad-block blockers, even if Facebook pushes out yet another update that forces ad blockers to display ads.

Facebook is understandably annoyed that their ad-block blocker has been defeated so quickly. The company also believes that the new filter for blocking Facebook ads is removing some legitimate content, such as posts from friends and pages. In a statement, Facebook said that "this isn't a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue."

This latest saga began when Facebook introduced a change to ad signifiers, which they thought made ad content indistinguishable from regular content. However according to Williams, all Adblock Plus had to do was find "the non-standard indicators they began using" and their extension would block Facebook ads once more.

After some heated arguments this past week, some of you have asked for TechSpot's official stance on ad blocking. Knowing that ad blocking directly affects us as a business and that some of you use ad block while others have decided to whitelist us, or don't use a blocker at all. We appreciate your consideration and feedback which you can leave on this open discussion in our forums.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/65947-adblock-plus-already-blocking-facebook-unblockable-ads.html

 
stewi0001 said:
Dear Techspot,

Just don't make the ad placements annoying or interrupting. Simple as that. Really that applies to all websites that rely on ad revenue.
Click to expand...

I block their ads with extreme prejudice. But I buy stuff from their store to even things out.
 
I know it's been said before by many but I'll say it again. Advertisers have done this to themselves. Greed and a lack of common sense have caused all of this mess. A reasonable amount of unobtrusive advertising is the only thing consumers are willing to accept. That's why ad blockers are so popular. Blasting visitors with ads only annoys consumers. That's the last thing you want to do is make your customer your enemy. That's what Facebook seems to be headed towards.

I don't care how big Facebook is, when you start doing things for your clients "own good" against their will your gonna lose.

"Facebook said that "this isn't a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue."

I seriously beg to differ. Reasonable unobtrusive advertisements are the key but if I don't see any ads I think I could live with that also. Google search does wonders for people looking to spend money.

I also think YouTube does adverts really intelligently. They kinda force some ads but mostly let you skip ads you aren't interested in without forcing you to watch the entire ad. That makes the customer feel more in control of the experience.

No pop-ups, no flashing, no animations, no videos and no sound ..... make me happy. Forcing it isn't going to change a thing. Well not in a positive way anyhow. Of course this is my idea of internet surfing nirvana. The "Best-Buy" ad that animated once and stopped is tolerable I guess.
 
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I am creating a new post because I have a question that needs an answer. :D
I use Google's Chrome browser more than any other browser. All the ads at the top of TechSpot have an "AdChoice" icon somewhere on the ad's border. When a person clicks through on an ad that is labeled as an "AdChoice" advertisement who exactly gets a cut of the final sale. Is it TechSpot only, TechSpot and Google or just Google?

Are "AdChoice" advertisements exclusive to the Chrome browser or are they in all browsers?
 
"No pop-ups, no flashing, no animations, no videos and no sound " .....and NO MALWARE.

I got forbesed, I got slashdotted, I've been probed by nasties, I've been MiMed - all from lousy ad feeds.

When ALL of the above objections are removed and at least half of the page is content, I will gladly relent.

Until then, I BLOCK.
 
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In addition, ads seldomly respond correctly within the device profile {ie desktop vs tablet vs phone}. Placing the [x] [close] in upper most right corner becomes inaccessible, and as they will not scroll properly, they lodge and become anti-content (over useful content).

Another network access to the ad server consumes bandwidth and as many sites referencing the same ad provider, performance of the webpage becomes deplorable, regardless of how well the ad behaves, but this can be resolved by localizing ad content to the original website server.
 
This may very well turn into a huge pissing contest between FB the AdBlock...

I really think these huge sites like FB need to think of how their ads affect their customers. If you piss your customers off they are going to try everything to block your ads or even stop using your service completely. I don't know about everyone else but for me ads that automatically play video and/or audio really piss me off. Interactive ads are next in line, along with full screen popups... but more old school ads that are just a picture or animated GIF don't bother me too much. Not everyone wants targeted ads either you have to remember, some people don't want to be tracked.
 
I agree. When I am reading some interesting tekky news (like TechSpot..), I don't want to be distracted by auto-play videos or unsolicited audio when I am trying to concentrate. Yes, I block some ads but I understand that that is what makes the page economically possible and wish the providers would realize that to annoy a potential customer is counter-productive. Ever since I signed up with iPage hosting (a real bargain) almost any page I open has an iPage ad promoting their Web Hosting... hey, iPage, I ALREADY have your Web Hosting so why not try something else!
 
I like how some sites accuse me of using AdblockPlus when I don't. ABP is not the only adblocker out there. It's just, unfortunately, the most popular. ABP has been known to 'sellout'.

I also echo the sentiment that many sites using ads do not screen them properly for the safety of their readers/users. And this is primarily why I block. I take NO chances. One rotten apple is all you need.
 
Make ALL ads static, and I wouldn't care. What annoys me, are the page delay load times, when the page you are wanting to read, won't load because the stupid ads are pushed FIRST. Then, even more annoying is you scroll down a page to read, and you get 1/2 way down, a video ad you didn't see somewhere starts blasting out it's audio, and you have to scramble around to find out where & how to turn it off. Or, especially on a phone, a pop up ad covers the entire page, and you have to pinch/zoom around to find the SUPER TINY (x) to shut it down so you can view the rest of the page. THAT is/are the websites I use ublock & ABP on. Others, I whitelist, that are not annoying.
 
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Having adblock off was really slow and no longer worked on 4 gig or less (32 bit machines) with the addition of apple's job's brainfart html5 to replace adobe. One of the ideas of upgrading to the 8 gig mac (rather than say 6 gig) was really to stop being a freeloader and disable adblock plus. Then you told me about the brave browser which is kind of meeting us halfway; instead of adblock you get some money and WE are supposed to get some of the money for surfing and leaving ads pay you something. Thus, I use that on the mac. However, on my vista machines which brave doesn't work on, I disable adblock because tweaktown won't appear without it disabled (nor on brave.) Surprisingly, since the internet line was upgraded to 13 gig, the websites render rapidly and are almost no torment to read. Some like yahoo with it's endless articles freeze for about a minute but return. With the extra memory html5 needs, displaying your ads is high maintenance with speeds like that, although child's play to the rest of the world, where boondock america had only 3 meg as little at 2 years ago. And don't keep knocking vista which I always knew to stay with. Windows 10 with it's 3 os memory requirement needs 12 gig to play batman, if your computer works at all after the anniversary update. Few people say I'm anything, but now that I went to mac I no longer give my psychic energy (soul in italian) to windows, so it might be why it failed. Muslim saints, not that I'm one, see their sainthood before the afterlife, which I don't believe in and am not muslim. On the old ibm mainframe we had 300 people timesharing 5 meg of memory. Why not write an os in assembler like mainframe oses were?
 
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How hard it is to a company such as Facebook with so many developers to bypass adblock??. On my friend's site he has UntouchableAds (a much smaller company) adblock bypass solution and all of his users sees ads.
 
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