Ad-Blocking Software - geek/talk: Signature-free discourse for serious web publishers

david11982 · 04-15-2002, 05:31 AM

I'm not sure if this is news to anyone but me, but I was just browsing through amazon.com when I noticed something a little odd in the review for Norton Internet Security 2002. The writer of the review (Roger Gann, of Amazon.uk.co) states that "the ad-blocking feature removes banner ads from online sites, noticeably speeding up page downloads." I'm not sure how to give you the correct link to this page, as I don't want to pass along a page with an affiliates code in the URL. Just go to amazon.com and search for "Norton Internet Security 2002".

Does anyone out there know how this software can block ads? Are there any legal issues involved with making software that alters the original design of a webpage? I am very concerned that people are going to use this to block all banner ads on pages that they visit, thus putting a significant dent in internet advertising revenue.

Or maybe I'm just getting paranoid over nothing and nobody will use this software. I'd just like to hear your thoughts.

jkcity · 04-15-2002, 06:32 AM

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...755686-1868046

sadly this is not news the software has been around for a while and it saddends me to see it distributed with a product that many people will buy.

they block the ads by using filters on the page, and various over methods and they are pretty impossible to detect.

here is quite a nice article on it about user take up.
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/arti...920241,00.html

They usually all block cokkies as well making text links which are usually cpa useless.

you get softwarethat you install on your machine, or you can just edit your hosts file with a list that will block calls to any adserver.

The university I goto blocks all the banners probabbly through soem kind of http server, I went and complained to the computer admin guys and they told me it was right because we where stealing there bandwidth nothing much you can say to people who are in that mind frame.

here is a a thread I was just reading on geekvillage about the same subject more or less.

http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/sh...threadid=16198

JP Sauve · 04-15-2002, 09:59 AM

Someone should develop some reverse software. Put it on the server and it checks to see if the banner can be downloaded. If it cannot (because of blocking software on the PC), the surfer is redirected to a "Sorry! You blocked my ads, I block you from my content." page.

david11982 · 04-15-2002, 11:04 AM

How can your university claim that you are "stealing" their bandwidth? Isn't a quality connection to the internet considered part of room and board? And aren't the servers set up for the sole purpose of allowing students access to the internet? I can't believe a place of higher education could be so ignorant. They don't realize that the internet lives on advertising and product/service sales, and they are trying to destroy that.

darnell · 04-15-2002, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by suave
Someone should develop some reverse software. Put it on the server and it checks to see if the banner can be downloaded. If it cannot (because of blocking software on the PC), the surfer is redirected to a "Sorry! You blocked my ads, I block you from my content." page.

Already being done. See
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/99...idg/index.html

and

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/interne...idg/index.html

Zeras · 04-17-2002, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by suave
Someone should develop some reverse software. Put it on the server and it checks to see if the banner can be downloaded. If it cannot (because of blocking software on the PC), the surfer is redirected to a "Sorry! You blocked my ads, I block you from my content." page.

Actually, this isn't very hard to do if you know web programming.

Casale Media · 04-17-2002, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by suave
Someone should develop some reverse software. Put it on the server and it checks to see if the banner can be downloaded. If it cannot (because of blocking software on the PC), the surfer is redirected to a "Sorry! You blocked my ads, I block you from my content." page.

Now that's the right attitude!

People listen to ads on the radio, see them in TV, read them in magazines, why should internet websites be any different.

funtoon · 04-17-2002, 08:28 PM

Well if your server supports PHP here is a simple scripts that detects if your users are using any ad-blocking agents or strippers

You can find the code at http://www.phpbuddy.com/report.php?d...article.php~20

darnell · 04-17-2002, 09:28 PM

See this old thread for other ways to do this.

These methods only work if the "Agent" is named as Ad-Blocking software. Most of these packages can now "spoof" the agent name to be IE or in some cases whatever the user wants.

The best way to go would be to detect the size of an ad that is displayed to ensure it is displayed. This only works with graphical ads on the page, but it would be a way to ensure if the ad shows that content shows also.

Basically, the first page would have to send the size of an ad to whatever other page the user tried to go to. So if the user clicked a link from page 1 to page 2, page 1 would have to send the ad size to page 2 and if page 2 found that the size was not correct, then send the user to a page telling them that ads must be shown.
This method is currently being used by some sites, but I've never seen someone code this and make the code generally available. It it not very hard to do though.

04-15-2002, 05:31 AM	#1
david11982 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 236	Ad-Blocking Software I'm not sure if this is news to anyone but me, but I was just browsing through amazon.com when I noticed something a little odd in the review for Norton Internet Security 2002. The writer of the review (Roger Gann, of Amazon.uk.co) states that "the ad-blocking feature removes banner ads from online sites, noticeably speeding up page downloads." I'm not sure how to give you the correct link to this page, as I don't want to pass along a page with an affiliates code in the URL. Just go to amazon.com and search for "Norton Internet Security 2002". Does anyone out there know how this software can block ads? Are there any legal issues involved with making software that alters the original design of a webpage? I am very concerned that people are going to use this to block all banner ads on pages that they visit, thus putting a significant dent in internet advertising revenue. Or maybe I'm just getting paranoid over nothing and nobody will use this software. I'd just like to hear your thoughts.

04-15-2002, 06:32 AM	#2
jkcity Registered User Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: England Posts: 427	http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...755686-1868046 sadly this is not news the software has been around for a while and it saddends me to see it distributed with a product that many people will buy. they block the ads by using filters on the page, and various over methods and they are pretty impossible to detect. here is quite a nice article on it about user take up. http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/arti...920241,00.html They usually all block cokkies as well making text links which are usually cpa useless. you get softwarethat you install on your machine, or you can just edit your hosts file with a list that will block calls to any adserver. The university I goto blocks all the banners probabbly through soem kind of http server, I went and complained to the computer admin guys and they told me it was right because we where stealing there bandwidth nothing much you can say to people who are in that mind frame. here is a a thread I was just reading on geekvillage about the same subject more or less. http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/sh...threadid=16198 Last edited by jkcity; 04-15-2002 at 06:38 AM.

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04-15-2002, 09:59 AM	#3
JP Sauve Member. Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 757	Someone should develop some reverse software. Put it on the server and it checks to see if the banner can be downloaded. If it cannot (because of blocking software on the PC), the surfer is redirected to a "Sorry! You blocked my ads, I block you from my content." page.

04-15-2002, 11:04 AM	#4
david11982 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 236	How can your university claim that you are "stealing" their bandwidth? Isn't a quality connection to the internet considered part of room and board? And aren't the servers set up for the sole purpose of allowing students access to the internet? I can't believe a place of higher education could be so ignorant. They don't realize that the internet lives on advertising and product/service sales, and they are trying to destroy that.

04-17-2002, 08:28 PM	#8
funtoon Registered User Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: India Posts: 402	Well if your server supports PHP here is a simple scripts that detects if your users are using any ad-blocking agents or strippers You can find the code at http://www.phpbuddy.com/report.php?d...article.php~20

04-17-2002, 09:28 PM	#9
darnell Registered User Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Suwanee, GA, USA Posts: 704	See this old thread for other ways to do this. These methods only work if the "Agent" is named as Ad-Blocking software. Most of these packages can now "spoof" the agent name to be IE or in some cases whatever the user wants. The best way to go would be to detect the size of an ad that is displayed to ensure it is displayed. This only works with graphical ads on the page, but it would be a way to ensure if the ad shows that content shows also. Basically, the first page would have to send the size of an ad to whatever other page the user tried to go to. So if the user clicked a link from page 1 to page 2, page 1 would have to send the ad size to page 2 and if page 2 found that the size was not correct, then send the user to a page telling them that ads must be shown. This method is currently being used by some sites, but I've never seen someone code this and make the code generally available. It it not very hard to do though.