ABP (AdblockPlus) sucks and I will prove it...

[Aractus]

You sure? There is in mine. Menu -> Add-ons -> Extensions. There's buttons for options, disable, and remove.

For extensions, not for plugins.

I've used only ABP. What have you observed the differences between that and Adblock are? (If you said so already, I missed it.)

ABP has a whitelist that doesn't abide by their own policy.

[Jackalope]

You sure? There is in mine. Menu -> Add-ons -> Extensions. There's buttons for options, disable, and remove.

For extensions, not for plugins.

I believe plugins are removed from Add/Remove programs.

I've used only ABP. What have you observed the differences between that and Adblock are? (If you said so already, I missed it.)

ABP has a whitelist that doesn't abide by their own policy.

Gotcha. Personally, I haven't found what they whitelist to be too bad. The Youtube BS is BS, of course. Maybe I'll take Adblock for a test drive. I hate ads, perhaps not as much as you, but still.

[Aractus]

Google 2005 (link):

- Biased results? No way. Providing great search is the core of what we do. Business partnerships will never compromise the integrity or objectivity of our search results. If a partner's page ranks high, it's because they have a good answer to your search, not because of their business relationship with us.

Broken promise.

- There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

Broken promise. Besides the example I gave you when searching for "buy windows 8.1" which brings up a huge banner of sponsored products, there are plenty of other examples too. I mean they play 45 second "unskipable" (but not unblockable) ads on Youtube! From October last year to around March this year Google ran banner ads like this one:



And finally,

Our service and our business works because of you - our users. You're important to us and something that we think about all the time -- as we build new products, negotiate deals, and think about what our future holds.

This is exactly the problem. Google does not put the customer first any more. Maybe back in 2005 they did, but not now. I've already explained how duplicating the top result as an ad is not putting the search-customer first, nor the advertising-customer first - it's only putting themselves first.

A successful business model should always be built upon the principle of putting the customer first. If they don't then they will put themselves into the same situation as Apple and have 15 years or more of evidence about their behaviour recorded and scrutinised to be forever read online:

Well, Apple called me back today and said two things:

1. They would not assist me further with the hardware faults

2. My rights were limited to the one year warranty, and the statutory warranty was not relevant

Guess it is bunk.

So I called ACCC. They said I do have rights, but they are not interested in acting on behalf of individuals. They said to go to fair trading NSW, then small claims court. They also said if enough people complain about misleading information about statutory warranties, they will act in general, but not on behalf of individuals.

The friends of mine who used to be die-hard Apple fans are now pretty much all Apple haters, and all it had to do with was how Apple treated their customers - not even abiding by Australian law and giving their customers a fair go for their statutory rights. Apple rapes and pillages and doesn't pay their taxes in Australia.

The same is true for Google. If you don't put your customers first sooner or later it catches up with you.

[jesus_wept]

OK, so I wanted to know exactly why ABP (AdblockPlus) has a whitelist enabled by default.

Sorry if I missed this but what happens if you disable it? Do you still get the ads?

[Aractus]

Yeah you can disable the setting. But as I said, if you go to http://getadblock.com/ it's never set in the first place.

http://youtu.be/wC1l4t2JHRs

http://youtu.be/MoZyIVmjJHg

Now you might say that it's not disguised as unread emails - that's a matter of opinion. So let's look at AdSense, the policy is here.

• Choose the location for your ads carefully.
  Publishers should never use tricks or deceptive practices in order to trigger accidental clicks on ads. Make sure that your ads are well-placed on your site, away from interactive elements, do not mimic the surrounding content and are not placed under misleading headings.

Okay so here's an example on Google itself:



And on startpage.com:



Now in both instances this is how they mimic the surrounding content (the genuine search results):

1. Same size and style and colour.
2. The advertising link is masked with a javascript function on mouse-over so that you can't see the advertising link.
3. The search terms are highlighted as if it's a search result.

Now to the casual eye on StartPage it looks like the first two are ads - they've got star-ratings beneath them and then the second two look like search results - but on closer inspection you can see that "scorpec computers" is indeed an ad as well, as it doesn't have the "view by ixquick proxy" link. That's a very subtle difference if you ask me. And if you're thinking "well just remember that the first result is the 4th link", think again:



Google, now they're trialling the yellow "Ad" icon is a bit better, but not by much.

[jesus_wept]

Just disable it and stop moaning about nothing. Problem solved.

[Rev. Rye]

Well, before I installed ABP, I had trouble with ads redirecting me to sites that tried to install malware on my computer. The only time I've had that problem since is when my dad decided that, since a few months had passed, perhaps the problem had gone away. It did not. I put it back on and it's worked like a charm. The only real drawback for me is that it makes Hulu videos almost unwatchable unless I whitelist it.

[LostLocke]

In "Options" there a tick box for "Allow unobtrusive ads"

I went to the page on your first post on FF. I got the exact same image as you did with those search terms.
When I unchecked that box all the ads disappeared.

[Jaysyn]

In "Options" there a tick box for "Allow unobtrusive ads"

I went to the page on your first post on FF. I got the exact same image as you did with those search terms.
When I unchecked that box all the ads disappeared.

Yeah, he knows that. He's whining cause he wants it his way & he wants it now.

[naimless]

Fuck me this is a terrible thread OP.