Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Element Hiding Helper integration with Inspector restored · 2014-04-15 16:26 by Wladimir Palant
When Firefox 10 introduced the Inspector tool we promptly started using it in Element Hiding Helper. Selecting elements with the Inspector tool is easier than with Element Hiding Helper and one only has to click the EHH button in the Inspector toolbar to hide it then. Unfortunately, the developer tools API wasn’t quite as stable as expected and changes to it broke the integration again. Sorry that it took us so long but starting with Element Hiding Helper 1.2.4a.458 everything should be working again. Element Hiding Helper 1.3 is currently scheduled to be released next Tuesday (April 22nd).
Adblock Plus 2.6 for Firefox release candidate available · 2014-04-15 11:51 by Wladimir Palant
Adblock Plus 2.5.1.3795 development build is a release candidate for Adblock Plus 2.6, the release is currently scheduled for next Tuesday (April 22nd). The list of changes in this release:
- Made sure Adblock Plus initialization doesn’t delay Firefox startup (issue 117).
- Switched to a faster way to access Adblock Plus data on disk (issue 153).
- Fixed regression in Adblock Plus 2.5.1: Adblock Plus initialization takes longer for each new window opened (issue 238).
- Fixed: Firefox Sync integration sometimes won’t work (issue 261).
- Fixed: Filter search in Filter Preferences was broken in newer Firefox versions.
- Fixed: Wrong button type displayed for Adblock Plus immediately after customizing toolbar in Firefox 29 and above (bug 981543).
- Fixed: Homepage link is displayed in Filter Preference even if the subscription doesn’t define a homepage (issue 48).
- Various code cleanup tasks (issue 137, issue 301).
Sign our Acceptable Ads Manifesto · 2014-04-04 16:05 by Jessica Ciesielski
Yesterday we launched, together with PageFair, Reddit, Customer Commons and the Anti-Advertising Agency our Acceptable Ads Manifesto. The manifesto aims to collect signatures from organizations and internet users who want to make the internet a better place for everyone.
Adblock Plus 1.2.1 for Android released · 2014-04-03 11:22 by Wladimir Palant
Install Adblock Plus for Android
If you already have Adblock Plus for Android, it should notify you about the update shortly and download it automatically.
Important note: We strongly encourage you to install this release as soon as possible, it fixes a security issue present in all previous Adblock Plus for Android versions.
In addition to that, this fixes a bug in the previous version that caused development builds to be offered as updates for the release version. Because of that issue most Adblock Plus for Android users are using development builds now so this release will be offered as an update for development builds as well. This unfortunately also includes users who explicitly chose to install development builds — if that’s true for you please install Adblock Plus 1.2.1.319 for Android manually to get back to the development build channel.
Manifesto URL not working? Here's a temporary alternate · 2014-04-02 17:27 by Job Plas
Today, with four other organizations, we released our Acceptable Ads Manifesto. We’re doing so in order to make our stance on advertising clear and to encourage individuals and organizations to join us in this stance. The five key tenets of it are listed below.
New approach to hard drive access · 2014-03-21 19:14 by Wladimir Palant
Starting with Adblock Plus 2.5.1.3785 we switched to a new way to access the hard drive. Ideally there shouldn’t be any visible changes, Adblock Plus simply won’t cause occasional delays in Firefox on hard drive access. It might also fix the startup delays some people are still reporting despite our previous changes. The required functionality is only available starting with Firefox 19 which is why this development build and future Adblock Plus releases will no longer install in older Firefox versions.
Technical details: Adblock Plus now uses OS.File API to make sure the hard drive is never being accessed on the main thread. Previously Adblock Plus was using rather weird hacks to achieve the same goal, that worked only for reading and writing files however — not for renaming files for example.
Switching default blocking lists for Chinese users · 2014-03-21 12:35 by Job Plas
We have stopped using ChinaList as the default filter list for Chinese and Taiwanese Adblock Plus users. Instead, we will offer a new list called EasyList China as the default choice. The new lists will be markedly better, providing our Chinese-speaking users with a great user experience.
Faster Firefox startup · 2014-03-14 22:54 by Wladimir Palant
We’ve received lots of complains over time about Adblock Plus slowing down Firefox startup considerably. It’s not that we didn’t listen but this is really a tricky problem. However, Brian Nicholson from Mozilla pointed out that there is a relatively simple solution and this solution has been implemented now. Starting with Adblock Plus 2.5.1.3778 Firefox seems to start up almost as fast with Adblock Plus as it does without. The only disadvantage should be that Adblock Plus is ready a bit later and the first page loading might still have ads.
Now to the scary part: in theory, this change might cause data corruption. So if your filters suddenly get corrupted (only some filter/filter lists load), please let us know.
Fixing data corruptions in Adblock Plus for Safari · 2014-03-13 09:50 by Sebastian Noack
When we ported Adblock Plus from Chrome to Safari, and realized that there was no fileSystem API, we moved to localStorage for storing filter lists. Short after it turned out that we can’t store more than about 1 MB in localStorage on Safari. So we moved to a WebSQL database for the filter lists, while sticking to localStorage for other persistent data.
After we released Adblock Plus for Safari Beta, users began to complain that settings were automatically reset. The reason therefore was that both localStorage and WebSQL data are cleared when Safari cleans up browsing data.
Then we became aware of Safari’s settings API. Safari doesn’t reset settings when clearing browsing data, nor do they seem to have a limit of size. So we will soon migrate to hidden settings for storing persistent data including filter lists.
Extension security 101 · 2014-02-24 17:42 by Felix Dahlke
We’ve received a couple of questions from users worried that Adblock Plus might be compromised lately. Don’t worry, it’s not. But that alone doesn’t warrant a blog post, does it? So here’s me talking about extension security a bit:
Any software you install, browser extensions are no exception, can do things against your will and without your knowledge. That’s commonly called malware or spyware. It’s a real problem, which is why there’s a filter list that blocks sites known for distributing malware.
But the most important thing is to be careful about the software you install. It’s ultimately your decision, and you should make it based on whether you trust the person or site you got it from.