Many websites are silently deploying anti-ad blocking measures

[p51d007]

As others have said above, a lot of this effort is on the wrong side of the war. People who tend to use adblockers are the ones who don't "click-through" / impulse-buy no matter what. And the kind of people who do, don't use adblockers, so trying to force ads to those least responsive is naturally backward by design vs how marketing is supposed to work. The most effective adverts are the ones I ask for ("Items on your wishlist are on sale", "New game releases this week" opt-in alert emails).

Anti-adblock features which rely on yet another script being loaded slow down the web even further for everyone, and ad-blockers will respond with counter-anti-adblock features / drive people to use "The Nuclear Option" (NoScript + whitelist) which amusingly blocks client-side scripts designed to detect ad-blocking. Server side detection (usually based on the server monitoring "If this IP address hasn't also accessed the related advert files within 5 seconds of grabbing the main content, then Adblock = 1") relies on detecting adblockers not loading the ad files and can be fooled by adblockers going back to the "pretend to load then hide" method. All this does though is increases wasted bandwidth and page load times for everyone because the person in question won't be seeing the ads either way. A router block list / "PiHole" is another option.

The real absurdity of "surely ads aren't that bad" is this link:-

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/10-ad-blocking-extensions-tested-for-best-performance/

Page load time increases over base content due to ads:-

- Airliners.net = +443% Bloat (8.7s No-Adblock vs 1.6s UBlock Origin)

- Moviemistakes.com = +392% bloat (12.3s No-Adblock vs 2.5s uBlock Origin)

- Sourceforge.net = +266% bloat (5.5s No-Adblock vs 1.5s uBlock Origin)

- Tomshardware.com = +400% bloat. (22.2s No-Adblock vs 4.4s uBlock Origin)

^ Literally, 70-80% of what the CPU spends time on rendering modern web pages are adverts or tracking scripts (even if the ads themselves are "unobtrusive"). Just like the fallout (ad-skipping PVR's) from TV advert breaks increasing from 1-2 min decades ago to 5-8mins today - it's ironically the advertising industry's "saturation" and marketing industry's obsession with "Total Information Awareness" (and zero sense of self-awareness in knowing when to stop), that's the bottom line that created this stuff in the first place...

I use adguard on my smartphone. In one month, it is EASY to save 4-8GB of data bandwith. Since service providers don't "give away" bandwith, it can really save you money on overage.

 

[MonsterZero]

An accurate look at our future... https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/idiocracy.jpg

Extra Big *** Fries!

 

[DelJo63]

Didn't "SpybotSD do this for you? I thought the "Immunization" feature loaded additions to the hosts file when it was updated.

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5-spybot-search-and-destroy.html

As the last line in the file reads

# End of entries inserted by Spybot​

you are correct. I've moved to a more static process and MVPS is sufficient for me.

Proxy (Privoxy) + AdGuard + ScriptSafe + Ghostery + uBlock Orgin + Privacy Badger + Tamermonkey = Ad FREE.

unless all those are added directly into the Proxy, the chain to finally reach the ISP is enormous and response time is terrible compared to a host file filter.

 

[ShagnWagn]

If ads somehow do get through (especially in FB), I simply make a mental note NOT to buy any of that advertiser's products. This goes for annoying billboards, too. Their conniving ways backfire. If I am interested in buying <product>, then I will research and buy accordingly barring who I have boycotted. :/

 

[Indigo5]

Block ads on your router. I use Untangle NG Firewall as my router, added all the ad domains and now ad's just show up as an empty white box in my browser. No ad block extension needed. Also sites with this ad bock detection tech do not give me the pop-up to ask me to whitelist. No annoyances. All win.

I just started doing this. Still playing around with the whitelist for the most effective solution, but I like that it also blocks ads on my phone and tablet.

 

[Polycount]

The most effective adverts are the ones I ask for ("Items on your wishlist are on sale", "New game releases this week" opt-in alert emails).

Just wanted to say that I absolutely agree with this point. I don't know enough about advertising to say what does and doesn't work on a larger scale (Not something I look into much), but I absolutely love the way platforms like Steam and GoG handle their "advertisements." I want to be informed when stuff I actually want goes on sale, I want to be informed when a developer I love is making a new game, etc...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I use ad guard and ad blocker plus and ghostery's and firefox normal popup blocker and it works very well

Geez man. You're not worried about them eating up a ton of resources? Couldn't UBlock Origin just replace all of those?

No, because I have a PC built with parts from this decade.

ublock does not do everything those other apps do. It could replace ad guard and ad blocker, but not the pop up blocker or ghostery.

 

[Jibberish18]

No, because I have a PC built with parts from this decade.

ublock does not do everything those other apps do. It could replace ad guard and ad blocker, but not the pop up blocker or ghostery.

Do tell.

 

[wiyosaya]

If ALL sites, were PASSIVE with their ads, I would never use an ad blocker, but when you go to a website,
start reading and scrolling down, and 30-45 seconds later a video ad launches with VERY LOUD sound and it makes you jump out of your chair, then have to scroll back up to find it, to turn it off, THAT is the reason I use multiple ad blockers!

If you are using firefox:

type

about:config

into the navigation bar and press enter, and if prompted, OK to 'I accept the risks'

then type

media

into the search bar

among the settings, find

media.autoplay.enabled

make sure it says that the above setting is "false" by double-clicking on the entry

and then among the same settings find

media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground

make sure this setting is set to "true" by double-clicking on the entry

With these settings, no videos, and I suspect any media, will autoplay. In fact, you have to start any media manually by clicking on it.

 

[Impudicus]

Ads on websites have gotten so rediulous I just refuse to go to those sites anymore. To many websites have a click bait title and content that doesn't cover more than a paragraph but it's split over 12 pages each with multiple pop up full page ads.

If ads weren't so forced and predatory we wouldn't have looked to ad blocking. What was their response? More aggressive advertising followed by our response of more aggressive ad blocking. Make a site I want to use that I don't NEED ad blocking on. Whatever happened to banners to the side? Now many websites are unusable.


And now, once I see the message ad blocker detected, I hit the back button and go somewhere else.

exactly. Sites that have an overwhelming amount of ads in my mind are just adware. Quickly click back never to return.

 

[taraconnor777]

Block ads on your router. I use Untangle NG Firewall as my router, added all the ad domains and now ad's just show up as an empty white box in my browser. No ad block extension needed. Also sites with this ad bock detection tech do not give me the pop-up to ask me to whitelist. No annoyances. All win.

Say, Wow, is that hard for we non-techies to do? I guess I could look that up,and just follow the instructions. thank you!!(HMMM... I used to do "volunteer advertising work" and we found that more entertaining,engaging,even funny, ads,that didn't SEEM LIKE ADS, could work better.The viewer automatically mutes a loud ad.---TOO LOUD,turn it down.so getting yer ad automatically turned off,is a high percentage.But story-ads,that had the product,but weren't knocking you over the head with it,did get past the viewers' mutes.How many of you think the ADFLAC duck is funny? even trying to do yoga?Or the lizard? (as long as he's more subtle)Comedy-story-ads don't murder the viewer, they're entertaining at least.--cause the consumer is SICK OF LOUD ADS, We decided a lot of those ads, never got thru to anyone.--and popups,ect, are the same,you just wanta block them.

 

[captaincranky]

Speaking of comical ads, here's one on "PooPourri:

 

[axiomatic13]

Say, Wow, is that hard for we non-techies to do? I guess I could look that up,and just follow the instructions. thank you!!(HMMM... I used to do "volunteer advertising work" and we found that more entertaining,engaging,even funny, ads,that didn't SEEM LIKE ADS, could work better.The viewer automatically mutes a loud ad.---TOO LOUD,turn it down.so getting yer ad automatically turned off,is a high percentage.But story-ads,that had the product,but weren't knocking you over the head with it,did get past the viewers' mutes.How many of you think the ADFLAC duck is funny? even trying to do yoga?Or the lizard? (as long as he's more subtle)Comedy-story-ads don't murder the viewer, they're entertaining at least.--cause the consumer is SICK OF LOUD ADS, We decided a lot of those ads, never got thru to anyone.--and popups,ect, are the same,you just wanta block them.

Why all the sarcasm bud? You could have just replied and said "more info?" and I would have gladly helped.