Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Few words from the first employee · 2011-12-15 20:27 by Andrey Novikov
Thank you for the warm welcome. I am very glad to join the great team developing the world’s most popular plug-in. As Wladimir mentioned my first task is to refine user interface of Adblock Plus for Chrome.
Better "Add filter" dialog · 2011-11-05 00:50 by Wladimir Palant
Adblock Plus for Google Chrome 1.1.4.719 features an improved “Add filters” dialog that webpage can no longer mess with. This allowed implementing two long-standing requests:
- Filters can be modified before adding.
- The dialog buttons can be triggered with Enter and Esc keys (use Shift-Enter to insert a newline into the list).
Dragging the window around is still somewhat awkward (displayed mouse cursor doesn’t match the action, window sometimes won’t follow) but other than that it seems to work fine.
In other news:
- If Adblock Plus fails to “remember” your filter subscriptions, that’s Chrome issue 103018. Removing the directory “LOCALAPPDATA\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\File System\Origins” restores normal functionality. Current development builds will automatically re-add default subscriptions on data loss (a lame workaround but the only one possible it seems).
- Support for
abp:links has been added yesterday so that the “Subscribe” links on the subscriptions page can be used now.
Improved data format in Chrome · 2011-10-26 10:21 by Wladimir Palant
Note: The changes described here caused a critical regression in the non-experimental builds (blocking essentially disabled), sorry about that. This issue has been fixed in Adblock Plus 1.1.4.708.
Adblock Plus for Google Chrome 1.1.4.705 underwent a major rearchitecturing effort. Main goal was to use the same data format as Adblock Plus in Firefox, a number of other areas have been touched as well. The expected changes:
- Google Chrome 9 and above is required now (previously Google Chrome 6 was still supported, at least theoretically).
- Local Storage now only contains options, the actual filter data is stored in files on disk. One side-effect of this change is that quota-related errors should be gone. Locating the files on disk isn’t trivial but they can be viewed under
filesystem:chrome-extension://ldcecbkkoecffmfljeihcmifjjdoepkn/persistent/in the browser (filesystem:chrome-extension://cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb/persistent/for the release version). File format is identical topatterns.iniin Firefox. - There should no longer be hangs when some user interface features are used. If you still see a hang after some button is clicked or similar please let us know.
- Downloading of filter subscriptions works the same as in Firefox now. This means among other things that EasyList downloads will be distributed to the various mirrors instead of being limited to the main download mirror. Only limitation: filter subscriptions that change location by means of an HTTP redirect (301) cannot be recognized.
- Some improvements to the Options user interface have been implemented. This is most noticeable in “Filter lists” tab: it now only displays the subscriptions that have been added. More subscriptions can be added by clicking “Add filter subscription” – this works same as in Firefox now, also the list of recommendations is identical (recommendations matching browser’s user interface locale are highlighted).
- Messaging around “Easy create filter” feature has been simplified. There should be no visible effects of this change.
If you notice that something doesn’t work as expected please let us know.
Do-Not-Track support in the experimental builds · 2011-10-04 20:50 by Wladimir Palant
Starting with Adblock Plus for Chrome 1.1.4.698 the experimental builds come with Do Not Track support that works the same as in Firefox. The current implementation isn’t the most efficient, this will be improved later.
Improved experimental builds · 2011-09-29 11:50 by Wladimir Palant
The experimental development builds starting with Adblock Plus for Google Chrome 1.1.4.694 will disable the “old” blocking functionality now, only the new webRequest API will be used for blocking. This improves performance and memory use, it also makes sure that issues with dynamically loaded images no longer happen. I can only see one side-effect: blocked images are no longer collapsed, instead you will see a “broken image” placeholder.
Also, experimental builds will now appear as “Adblock Plus for Google Chrome (Beta) experimental build” in the extensions list, this way you can always check whether you are running the experimental or the “normal” build.
Experimental Adblock Plus for Chrome builds available with better blocking · 2011-09-28 19:20 by Wladimir Palant
Starting with Adblock Plus for Google Chrome 1.1.4.685 there are two development builds — the “standard” version and the experimental version. The experimental version uses the new webRequest API that allows Adblock Plus to block requests better. Unfortunately, this API isn’t stable yet which means that you need to go to chrome://flags and activate “Experimental Extension APIs” option. Then you will be able to install the experimental build and it will update to new experimental versions automatically.
What you should expect in this build:
- All ads blocked, no matter how fast the page loads.
- Background images and in-video ads will be blocked (feel free to uncheck “Block ads inside YouTube videos” option, it should no longer be required).
Known issues:
- Issues with sites loading images dynamically are not resolved yet, the old blocking mechanism is still active in these builds.
- Some false positives possible because Chrome doesn’t distinguish between objects and object subrequests.
Let us know if you see more issues with these builds.
Google Chrome image loading bug finally fixed · 2011-09-16 09:52 by Wladimir Palant
One of the most persistent issues that Adblock Plus is facing in Google Chrome is WebKit bug 45586. It breaks tons of websites, mostly the ones providing image zoom functionality. In short, if Adblock Plus is active this bug prevents the websites from getting the correct image size. And there is absolutely no viable work-around.
Adblock Plus for Google Chrome™ (Beta) 1.1.4 released · 2011-08-17 12:55 by Wladimir Palant
Install Adblock Plus for Google Chrome™
Changes
- Fixed a minor security issue (reported by Nicholas Carlini from UC Berkley, severity: low)
- New extension icon (forum topic)
- Added Latvian translation, updated Korean translation
- Made icon appear sooner (forum topic)
- Fixed “QUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR” error if too many filters are used (forum topic)
- Added more websites to the list of workarounds for WebKit bug 45586
Details on the resolved Adblock Plus for Chrome security issue · 2011-08-17 12:55 by Wladimir Palant
Adblock Plus 1.1.4 for Google Chrome has been released today and fixes a minor security issue. This blog post provides some details.
Adblock Plus for Google Chrome™ (Beta) 1.1.3 released · 2011-05-06 16:51 by Wladimir Palant
Install Adblock Plus for Google Chrome™
Changes
- Worked around Chrome issue 81530 (was breaking videos on Amazon)
- Improved blocking of page backgrounds (forum topic)
- Added more websites to the list of workarounds for WebKit bug 45586
- Made extension name localizable
- Improved extension description
- Fixed: Adblock Plus still triggers WebKit bug 45586 even when disabled (bug 23774)