Even if the allegations were completely untrue (which I doubt, since offline articles read seemed quite well and thoroughly researched), the fact that companies could buy a place on the whitelist seems the absolutely wrong approach to solve the underlying problem to me.
Edit: Highlight platform issue.
Michael Gundlach made enough money with AdBlock that he hired people to run AdBlock and don't work himself anymore. But he is way less transparent about it, than the guys from Adblock Plus. AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker, to disguise who they are and what they are doing. I have never seen that any FOSS project ever did that before.
For example have a look at ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/*/stats.js. There you find rather interesting code, that silently sends data about your configuration, environment along with a unique user id to their server.
For me AdBlock looks way more shady. While Adblock Plus just has found a business model, which might be controversial. But at least they are transparent about what they are doing.
I would expect some kind of disclosure to inform users of why this (once a day from what I gather) ping is required.
Maybe it is there and I am unable to find it though.
I also noticed a behind-the-scene connection to `https://goldenticket.disconnect.me/goldenticket/ticket/fetch...
[Citation needed]
>he hired people to run AdBlock and don't work himself anymore. But he is way less transparent about it, than the guys from Adblock Plus.
What? Just as the ABP project does outline their whitelisting process, Gundlach openly states the fact that other people get paid.
>AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker...
With the power of your search engines combined: http://code.getadblock.com/releases/
>...to disguise who they are and what they are doing.
That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact.
I already lost too much time with this reply.
It piggy-backed on the work already done for Adblock Plus (for Firefox). Adblock Plus for Google Chrome came much later.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I unblock ads when the site that chooses to display them takes full responsibility for any malware or privacy leakage those entail.
That does not happen, therefore the ads stay blocked.
There are a few sites that run their own ad networks without the privacy issues and because they're reputable. Reddit is one such site that I will not block.
My hourly rate for fixing a machine is a lot more than the few tenths of a penny that ad view is worth. I never click on ads out of principle anyways.
Further, you as the web dev don't get to decide how and what content renders on my screen. That is my decision. If your business model doesn't pay the bills, that is your problem.
It is, but IMO adblockers wouldn't have sprung up if Ads were kept at an reasonable level. I remember some sites blaring fullscreen flash ads, where the 'X'-Button did not close the ad and forwarded to wherever, but the '█' did close it. I'm not making this up. This is not even touching the security and privacy implications and incidents.
I really think the there were too much grievances with the whole internet ads.
Related: It somewhat similar to the problem with torrents, people nowadays want their dope instantly – not necessarily gratis. Imagine HBO making GoT available at the same time world-wide for a moderate price. They would be swimming in cash.
Not wedded to the combination though - is ABP a better option?
Adblock Plus also blocks tracking when you add the EasyPrivacy filter list [1]. So you won't need Ghostery anymore. But you can also use both extensions at the same time, if you want.
(http://i.imgur.com/pJ26iSr.png - screenshot of EasyList loaded)
In addition to blocking ads at the response level, GlimmerBlocker can be used block ads on mobile devices, do string replacement in requests or responses, keyword expansion, even entire page transformations w/ JavaScript.
It's not as idiot proof as ABP's "right-click and block", but nothing more complicated than anything else we see on HN. Also unlike ABP, there is no whitelist advertisers can buy into.
I set it up as a proxy for all known clients on my network, and it really makes the Internet better.
