Adblock Plus is Going to Sell Ads via its Acceptable Ads Platform

In a move that will bring more brickbats than roses to them, Adblock Plus announced that they will go ahead with the ‘Acceptable Ads’ platform (AAP) and sell non-obtrusive ads. The aim is to reduce the number of ads that a user sees, rather than getting rid of them completely. Adblock did clarify that only non-intrusive ads will be added to this whitelist.

Adblock Now Sells Ads
Are some ads better than none? Adblock seems to think so | Shutterstock

Cause and Effect

The way this platform will work is quite simple. If a user who has Adblock Plus installed visits a website, only the whitelisted ads will be displayed for him, rather than all the ads. The whitelisting part will be the domain of an ‘independent committee that will take control of the Acceptable Ads initiative’, making the process transparent.

This platform is part of the marketplace that Adblock has been running since 2011, and their operations and communications director, Ben Williams, observed –

The AAP will offer a feedback mechanism embedded in each ad, which will let you say whether you thought that particular ad was great, good, bad or complete shit.

But even since 2011, the program has not had the best effect. Why? Because publishers and ad networks need to work with Adblock Plus and get their non-obtrusive ads whitelisted. It’s a time-consuming process and it puts Adblock in a position of a self-proclaimed gatekeeper.

Currently in Beta

The platform is now in its Beta stage and hopes to be friendly to publishers. However, publishers get to keep 80% of the revenue generated from marketplace ads with the remaining 20% divided between various parties involved with serving these ads. Adblock Plus themselves will make 6% of the total revenue.

This concept isn’t entirely new and we’ve already heard that Mozilla’s new Brave browser will also have its own ad-based network integrated into it.

Don’t Like it? Opt Out

The one good thing about this is that you can opt-out of the process, if you so wish. Click on the ABP extension icon and then under Options, uncheck the box Allow some non-intrusive advertising.

Opt Out E1473840122599

Again, this isn’t a new feature that is added, but has been there for a while now. However, this feature will not help you in bypassing adblock detecting websites. For that, you can read our article on bypassing adblock detection on websites that bombard you with ads.

ALSO READ: How to Have as Safe a Browsing Experience as Possible

Last updated on 03 February, 2022

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