Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Adblock Plus 2.3 for Firefox, Adblock Plus 1.5 for Chrome and Opera released · 2013-07-10 13:38 by Wladimir Palant
Install Adblock Plus 2.3 for Firefox
Install Adblock Plus 1.5 for Chrome
Install Adblock Plus 1.5 for Opera (Opera 15 or higher required)
This release introduces a new first-run page that is common in all three versions.
Firefox-only changes
- Removed typo correction feature
- Better localization approach
- Worked around a Firefox Mobile bug, selecting filter subscription is possible again
- Fixed issue reporter breakage in current Firefox nightlies
Adblock Plus 2.3 release candidate available · 2013-07-03 15:42 by Wladimir Palant
It took us some more time than we expected when the previous announcement was published but we now have some release candidates: Adblock Plus 2.2.5a.3667 for Firefox as well as Adblock Plus 1.4.1.944 for Chrome and Opera. The planned release date for Adblock Plus 2.3 for Firefox and Adblock Plus 1.5 for Chrome and Opera is 2013-07-09. Changes since the previous announcement:
- Better buttons on the first-run page
- Firefox only: typo correction feature has been removed (reasoning)
- Firefox only: better localization approach (won’t be visible in this build but should hopefully improve translation quality in the final release)
Known issue: in the Filter Preferences of the Firefox build, access key of the “Backup and Restore” button doesn’t work.
Typo correction feature removed · 2013-07-03 15:39 by Wladimir Palant
In November last year we started an experiment with the typo correction feature in Adblock Plus for Firefox. Now we removed that feature again, it’s already gone in the development builds and won’t be part of the next release. We will continue to maintain the URL Fixer extension however, anybody wanting that feature back can install it.
#pallengate: Warum Sascha Pallenberg bewusst lügt · 2013-07-01 08:36 by Till Faida
Am Mittwoch veröffentlichte Sascha Pallenberg einen vielbeachteten Artikel über Adblock Plus, mit dem er versucht uns zu schaden. Der Titel des Artikels: “Adblock Plus Undercover: Einblicke in eine mafiöses Werbenetzwerk”.
Herr Pallenberg ist Betreiber von mobilegeeks, einer Webseite, die sich ausschließlich durch die dort eingeblendete Werbung finanziert. Aktuell befinden sich allein auf der Startseite vier Werbebanner, davon drei (!) animierte Flash-Banner und 12 (!) Tracking-Solutions, die Daten über die Besucher der Seite sammeln und speichern. Vornehmlich also Werbung, die von Adblock geblockt wird, weil Internetnutzer sie als störend und aufdringlich empfinden.
Die "geheimen" Details von Adblock Plus · 2013-06-26 18:59 by Wladimir Palant
Note to English-speakers: Sorry about this German-language article. That’s about a German-language blog article spinning a conspiracy theory around Adblock Plus, many people apparently believed it.
Ein Blog-Artikel über Adblock Plus, auf den ich absichtlich nicht verlinken will, sorgt derzeit für Diskussionen. Wer nicht weiß, worum es geht, hat nichts verpasst: neben persönlichen Angriffen auf Leute, die an Adblock Plus beteiligt sind, werden alle möglichen (und größtenteils auch vom Projekt öffentlich kommunizierten) Fakten so zurechtgebogen, dass es irgendwie negativ klingt. Da dieser Artikel aber teilweise für investigative Recherche gehalten wird, muss ich an dieser Stelle einige Fakten richtig stellen.
Thoughts on using asm.js for performance bottlenecks in browser extensions · 2013-06-26 13:55 by Wladimir Palant
asm.js is big news right now, and for a good reason. Firefox 22 can run some JavaScript code with performance similar to that of a compiled C/C++ application — this is huge. And it got me interested: maybe asm.js can be used to improve the performance of Adblock Plus? So I spent an evening looking into asm.js and Emscripten. This post merely summarizes my thoughts for far, it isn’t meant to be an extensive overview and some of my conclusions might be wrong.
Working towards Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer · 2013-06-19 15:34 by Wladimir Palant
Remember this blog post of mine six years ago? Probably not. But you will certainly be happy to know that I was right: creating a usable ad blocker for Internet Explorer means tons of work. However, the goals of the Adblock Plus project got more ambitious since that post has been written. In order to change the web we need to provide all users with the option to run an ad blocker. This means that we could no longer ignore Internet Explorer and so a few months ago we started working on an Adblock Plus port to Internet Explorer.
Adblock Plus Creative Challenge opened up for voting · 2013-06-07 16:21 by Wladimir Palant
Two months ago we launched the first ever Adblock Plus Creative Challenge. We challenged creatives all over the world to shoot a short film somehow related to Adblock Plus and bad online advertising practices. This was also often coined as the “Anti-Advertising Ad”. It has been an incredible success and starting today, you can vote on your favorite submission.
New first-run page · 2013-05-29 22:50 by Wladimir Palant
Starting with Adblock Plus 2.2.5a.3659 for Firefox and Adblock Plus 1.4.1.942 for Chrome we have a new first-run page:
This is a further improvement from the first-run page we already had in Chrome, now we finally have the same page in the Firefox extension as well. In addition to a more concise explanation of acceptable ads, the idea was to provide an overview of what Adblock Plus can do and allow turning on optional features easily. We are still planning to tweak the buttons and a few minor things but other than that the design is final — the release is supposed to happen in two weeks.
The first-run page comes up only during the initial installation of the extension. In Firefox (unlike in Chrome) uninstalling and reinstalling the extension doesn’t remove the data and the first-run page doesn’t appear again. If you want to see it without resetting Adblock Plus you can copy chrome://adblockplus/content/ui/firstRun.html into the location bar in Firefox or chrome-extension://ldcecbkkoecffmfljeihcmifjjdoepkn/firstRun.html in Chrome (the latter works only for the development builds, the address in the release build is different).
Our thoughts on the unity of German newspapers against ad blockers · 2013-05-13 13:18 by Till Faida
This morning at 10 AM, several of the best known German online news publications (Spiegel Online, Sueddeutsche.de, Faz.net, Zeit, Golem.de and RP Online) started a joint campaign urging their readers to disable their ad blocker. Large messages alerted users of Adblock Plus and other ad blockers, explaining why the publications believe ad blockers should be deactivated on the respective page and what steps the user needs to take. See for example main page warning on Spiegel Online and the respective explanation page. The following article — in German — explains our position and why we believe we are not the problem, but the solution.