What is Ad blocker / Adblock?
Definition
Adblock is software which blocks any ad on a webpage.
Meaning explained
Adblock technology, either on desktop or mobile devices, blocks and hides adevertisement on a webpage based on the use of precompiled “allowlist” and “blocklist“ types of lists. In general, many adblocks provide additionals functions and features, such as privacy protection and security issues solutions.
More specifically, ad blockers in general are programs that via various methods identify advertisement in webpages’ code and prevent it from display after webpage rendering. Some ad blockers also aim to provide additional features such as ad tracker blocking, personal data protection and privacy issues solutions. Most ad blockers are based on filter lists, which are maintained by volunteers under open source licenses. Several adblock extensions still display some formats of ads to a degree under the condition that a publisher follows Acceptable Ads Standards.
Adblockers also very often disable various forms of ad tracking, which can increase personal data privacy and malware protection. However, that indirectly leads to the increased amount of personal data required, for example, for account creation. When not enough data about webpage visitors and customers can be gathered, for example, through advertising cookies, webpage owners and publishers have to find other sources for customer preferences analytics.
Types of adblockers:
- Browser Features – Browsers, especially most popular ones (such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, Safari), already contain several ad blocking features, which focus primarily on ad tracking and advertising cookies. Some of them, for example Google Chrome, also contain an incorporated feature for Better Ads Standards detection. Therefore, ads that violate those standards might get hidden and ads that do follow the standards might be displayed despite other additional adblock software.
- Browser Extensions – The most typical and popular form of adblock software is a browser extension. There are several developers, such as Adblock Plus, that are based on different filter lists, rules, and possibly Acceptable Ads Standards programs, which are used to determine in what way page rendering would be changed.
- Desktop Applications – Some developers provide users not only with browser extensions, but with entire browsers that contain several ad blocking, privacy and malware protection features, and other possible functions. Among the most popular ones is, for example, Avast Secure Browser.
- VPN’s with Adblockers
- DNS Level Adblocking
Links
Publishers, who wish to find out more information on adblock usage by country, device and browser, can use gs.statcounter.com
Publishers, who to wish to recover adblock revenue and increase monetization of their websites, can use the services of antiadblock.com