Report : Google Paid AdBlocks To Whitelist Its Ads
If you use AdBlocks and still find some ads creeping into your webpages, don’t be surprised. Major advertisers, including Google, can pay to have some of their ads “whitelisted” — in essence, given a free pass through AdBlock Plus.
Adblock Plus’ own FAQ addresses the “feature”:
Do companies pay you for being added to the (Acceptable / Non-intrusive Ads) list?
Whitelisting is free for all small websites and blogs. However, managing this list requires significant effort on our side and this task cannot be completely taken over by volunteers as it happens with common filter lists. That’s why we are being paid by some larger properties that serve nonintrusive advertisements that want to participate in the Acceptable Ads initiative.
Adblock Plus’ goal is to eliminate annoying video ads, according to its parent company Eyeo. It defends the whitelisting practice, according to Salon, pointing out that “whitelisting is free for all small websites and blogs.”
Horizont said in a report that it’s unclear how much Google has paid Eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus, to whitelist its ads, and that it doesn’t know which other companies are doing the same
“However, managing this list requires significant effort on our side and this task cannot be completely taken over by volunteers as it happens with common filter lists.”
“That’s why we are being paid by some larger properties that serve nonintrusive advertisements that want to participate in the Acceptable Ads initiative.”
Which large companies pay to skirt the ad-blocking software remains a mystery, as does the parent company’s criteria for determining small websites and large websites that have to pay.
[Via]
