AdBlock.org

If you’re reading this after seeing the above graphic on a website, the following information expresses the views of the owner of that site.

As an Internet user, as much as anybody, I get annoyed by aggressive advertising. Ads that jiggle, move, flash, and otherwise scream (sometimes literally) for attention, detract from my experience on the Internet. From that perspective, I fully understand why adblocking software has been developed and is used willingly by many Internet users.

As a webmaster and website owner, I rely on advertising to pay for the time and effort it takes to develop and maintain my website. For some, it’s a living. Adblocking software that prevents my ads from being viewed eliminates my opportunity to be compensated for my work.
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Thank you for visiting AdBlock.org, a website promoting responsible use and development of AdBlocking software.

We acknowledge that you are developing adblocking software based on user demand and we do believe in user choice. We feel this demand is fueled by a large amount of annoying and distracting advertisements on the Internet and while these advertisers have surely been overzealous and careless in their actions, the same problem is possible on the other side, in development of AdBlocking software that goes too far in its actions.

Therefore, we respectfully suggest the following guidelines in developing AdBlock software.
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Norton Internet Security 2004 has ad blocking turned on by default. One of the ways that NIS attempts to block ads is that they block link tags that contain text that matches any entry in a long list of targeted text and words. for example, NIS will block any link that has contains the text “/ads/”. This blocking is indiscriminate and will block any html that contains the text in this adblock list. All of this is done invisibly and without the user actively choosing this behavior.

Update 2004-Sept-10: There have been no major changes to the default block list with the exception of one item marked below. (and frankly, we may have just missed it from the last list). There appear to have been a number of changes to the exception list though, again, nothing notable. We may start tracking that list as well.
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We’ve had a large number of new visitors from various webmaster boards. If you’re one of them, welcome! Thanks for spreading the word.

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According to the Symantec website, starting this fall, Norton will be making their new line of Internet security products available. On August 18, 2004, this press release states that pre-orders are available as of the end of August. Elsewhere on the website is indication that the software will be available on October 1, 2004.

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Why does adblocking software exist at all? After all, advertising not something that’s so loathsome or unheard of in other media. We all put up with advertising on television, print media, billboards, even blimps and banner-towing airplaines.

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Masking Links
A technique to avoid the effect of adblock software is to mask the information that the software is looking for. Any URL is susceptible to blocking by adblock software, whether it is is an image url, Javascript, or a click URL.

A simple technique is to use a server side programming language to handle every url through your own server with a redirect.

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An interesting approach to adblocking is that of broadbandreports.com’s webmaster with this page on adblocking. If you register with the site, you can choose to browser with no ads. Or, to try it out, you can turn off ads for an hour.

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The popularity of adblocking software has resulted in a very large number of adblocking software packages. We’re not necessarily against the concept of adblocking software, but we feel that it is important that the software is well designed, configurable, and installed deliberately by the computer user.

There are a large number of ad-blocking software packages available, some are much better designed than others. We recommend that you take a good look at what’s available before deciding which software to use. If you must use adblocking software, we’d recommend that you find one that is very configurable and is visible in its operation so you know when a website has been modified by the software.
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The AdBlock detection script will notify your users of the impact that they have on your, the website owner, by using AdBlocking software.
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