The secret of the browser extension "Adblock Plus" that erases the advertisement

On June 21Internet Explorer compatible version of "Adblock Plus" which hides advertisements displayed on the pageHas been released and any major browser can now use "Adblock Plus".

Many people find it useful because they block advertisement banners during browsing, but behind them there is a "strategic partner" behind the Adblock Plus creators, and the producers It is clear that advertisements of related companies and companies that issued money are delivered without blocking.

Adblock Plus Undercover - Einblicke in ein mafioeses Werbenetzwerk | Mobilegeeks.de | Allgemein
http://www.mobilegeeks.de/adblock-plus-undercover-einblicke-in-ein-mafioeses-werbenetzwerk/


Speaking of Adblock Plus, one of the most successful add-ons for Firefox and Chrome. As an add-on to Firefox, it has been downloaded over 200 million times so far, and more than 15 million users are using it everyday. 30% of users are in the US, 20% are in Germany, followed by Russia, France and Poland. Millions of people use it as an extension of Chrome.

Adblock Plus - Surf the web without annoying ads!
http://adblockplus.org/en/firefox


Adblock Plus :: Statistics Dashboard :: Add-ons for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/ja/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/statistics/?last=30


◆ Producer Vladimir Paranto and Eyeo Limited Company
In 2002,Henrik Aasted SørensenMr. developed an add-on "Adblock" to block advertisements. Michael McDonald developed "Adblock Plus 0.5" in a form to fork from here. In Plus, white lists, background image blocks complemented with URLs, HTML element blocks, ad blocking on site basis, improved user interface and improved memory leak were done.

In January 2006 McDonald ceased developing Adblock Plus. The name of the add-on was taken over by Mr. Wladimir Palant (Wladimir Palant) and the code was rewritten and Adblock Plus 0.6 was released. After that, Mr. Punt was going alone by Mr. Pallant, but Mr. Palant set up Eyeo limited company together with Mr. Till Faida around September 2011, after which this Eyeo is leading the development .

Adblock Plus and (a little) more: Introducing Eyeo GmbH, the company behind Adblock Plus
http://adblockplus.org/blog/introducing-eyeo-gmbh-the-company-behind-adblock-plus


Among them, Mr. Panto said his title would be "Managing director", but as with previous practices, he expressed his will to lead development.

Established here Eyeo is headquartered in Cologne, with 15 staff enrolled. "Adblock Plus", the main product, is a free add-on, so whatever it was when Mr. Palant was personally developing, if you have a company, you have to raise profits, but on this point Mr. Panto himself in August 2010 "Good SamaritanWe have revealed that there was a capital contribution from. Until this investment is made, Mr. PantoSongbirdAlthough it worked in, it seems that it became possible to concentrate on the project of Adblock Plus for 2 years (until the summer of 2012) after coming out of the Songbird project with the appearance of this "good Samaritan".

Adblock Plus and (a little) more: Important changes coming to the Adblock Plus project
http://adblockplus.org/blog/important-changes-coming-to-the-adblock-plus-project


◆ "Acceptable Ads (acceptable ad / discreet ad)" feature installed
After this mysterious partner appeared, Adblock Plus will move forward to an innovation. In that trend the function installed around the end of 2011 is "Acceptable Ads"is. Although it is displayed as "acceptable advertisement" when translated literally, "discreet advertisement" after Japaneseization, in short it is possible to make some advertisements whitelist and display even if Adblock Plus is on Things to do.

As a condition of "discreetness"
· Static advertisement that does not animate and sounds
· It is preferable not to use conspicuous images only with text
· It is not confused with the content of the displayed page
· It is not a text ad to be inserted in a sentence
· It is not in a state where scrolling is indispensable when the user is placed at the top of the page and the user tries to see the contents
· Do not occupy 33% or more of site height (assuming 700 pixels or more)
· Do not occupy 33% or more of the site width (assuming 1000 pixels or more)
It is cited, whether it is OK even if whitelisting is OKThe Adblock Plus ForumDiscussion is being held at.

Because I do not want to display advertisements, Adblock Plus is inserted, but by default the whitelist feature was installed and turned on, some users also got doubts about Adblock Plus It was. On the other hand, Mr. Panto said, "Although we rely on advertising revenue, we can support sites that display discreet advertisements to the end, so that other sites also use discreet advertisements In the long term, the web should be easier to use for everyone, not just Adblock Plus users, and this feature also avoids the risk that Adblock Plus crushes a small site An explanation was made that "I will do.

Allowing acceptable ads in Adblock Plus
http://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads


However, at this point Adblock Plus had agreed to some sites and advertisement display.

Digital Trends has heard that companies are talking about "Adblock Plus will not block ads in exchange for a third of advertising revenue" on condition that an online publisher is anonymous .

Adblock Plus demands cash from websites to whitelist ads | Digital Trends
http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/adblock-plus-accused-of-shaking-down-websites/


According to another story, Adblock Plus said that "definition of discreet advertisement depends on total payment". Among websites that are in trouble if advertisements disappear, it seems that Adblock Plus, which has a large market share as an advertisement blocker, holds the advertisement's slaughter and takes it as a business.

◆ Suspected self-made performance evaluation against Adblock Plus and suspicion of connection to "discreet advertisement"
Till Faida is currently CEO of Eyeo Limited Company, which is in charge of developing Adblock Plus. "Adblock Plus for Chrome was developed as a non-profit project"Chromeadblock.org(http://chromeadblock.org)」(現在はAdblock PlusのChrome向けページにリダイレクトされる)というドメインはFaida氏の自宅で登録されていました。

At the same time, a website that evaluates Chrome's extensionChrome plugins(http://chrome-plugins.org/)」のドメインもFaida氏が所有。Chrome pluginsでは、Adblock PlusがChromeのNo.1拡張機能として取り上げられています。

Both "chromeadblock.org" and Chrome plugins are using WordPress, and both versions of timthumb.php, which had been found to have serious vulnerabilities, were used as they were. It is unknown whether two sites are using WordPress of the same composition and it was "coincident" that it was the same domain owner, but Mr. Faida is in a position to touch advertising related to Adblock Plus was.

Mr. Faida calls "strategic partnership opponents" by Christian Dommers, who is in charge of project management at Eyeo. He originally said "WerGehtHin?(http://www.wergehthin.de/)」というクーポンサイトの会社に所属。この会社はDommer氏がAdblock Plusに合流する1ヶ月前のBankruptcy in July 2012Did. However, the site has continued since then, as Tip of the Week in April 2013Advertisement of adblock. Behind that there is TS venture Tim Schumacher.

Mr. Schumacher is co-founder of Sedo Holdings AG and still owns 5.45% shares. Sedo is a free e-mail and shopping portal siteGMX(http://www.gmx.net/)」、同じく無料メールなどのサービスを行っている「WEB.DE(http://web.de/)」、ホスティングサービスの「1 & 1(http://www.1und1.de/)」、アフィリエイトネットワークの「Affilinet(http://www.affili.net/)」などを傘下に抱えています。

And these GMX, WEB.DE, 1 & 1, affilinet etc are all included in Adblock Plus' "discreet advertisement". This is expressed in mobilegeek as "Dommers and Schumacher have a long relationship, so it is not surprising".

Also, Mr. SchumacherYieldKit(http://yieldkit.com/)という、リンクから30％の収益を上げられるという収益システムにも関与していますが、このYieldKitもまた「控えめな広告」リストに入っています。

The story that "modest advertisement" is not fairPointed out in English version WikipediaAlthough it is,It has not been described in the German version and develops into discussion in the notebookI am doing it.

A diagram showing the movement and influence of money around here by mobilegeek is. There is a feeling that it is slightly messed up, but the era of "an add-on made by one developer for convenient browsing" has become a thing of the past.


◆ Monetizing Adblock Plus
As mentioned earlier, Adblock Plus seems to be starting to take money instead of posting it on the "discreet advertisement" list. Normally you can not see its contents, but by changing the setting the "Allow non-intrusive advertising" filter will be displayed.

How to visualize Acceptable / non-intrusive AD (discreet ad) setting of Adblock Plus 2.0 - digital clairvoyance @ abp_jp

Although this content is uploaded and can be seen, it has been confirmed that the URL related to Google has been added recently at once.

https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/exceptionrules.txt


In June, the IE version of Adblock Plus came out, but just before the release, there are such indications, and you can see that monetization of 'discreet advertisement' has finally been completed.

Adblock Plus "business permitting discreet advertisement" is completed only when IE compliant. It does not cover IE Currently there are holes in the browser share. By corresponding to the major browsers, it will become possible to promote (to sell) "allow discreet advertisement" more strongly ...

- k2jp (@abp_en)June 4, 2013

By the way, Adblock Plus automatically corrects URL mistakeURL FixerAlso, when you use this function to access the shopping site, we also automatically add Adblock Plus affiliate ID and use it for funds of Adblock Plus project. The creator of this URL fixer is also Mr. Paranto.