Anyone tried Google Chrome's adblock?

Discussion of topics related to ad blocking.
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gotitbro
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Anyone tried Google Chrome's adblock?

Post by gotitbro »

Has anyone tried out Google Chrome's adblocker? I think it was supposed to be released by now but I don't see it in the stable release.

I have a few questions about it:
  • Does Chrome show which ads have been blocked? (Like in the console or in the address bar)
  • Does it work along nicely with current adblockers or should it be disabled?
  • Does it block ads that adblockers can't effectively?


One thing I'd like to try it out is see if I can disable my adblocker and only use Chrome's. I did start using adblock to protect myself from malicious ads and would like to see if it does block them. Would be nice if it can block malicious popups and the like.
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Post by -Mark- »

It's located at chrome://settings/content/ads

If you don't find it in your stable release, then it isn't in your browser version.

Does it work along nicely with current adblockers or should it be disabled?
No, as in, two of them will NOT work together. If you have your blocker on, chrome itself will not do anything as your blocker will intercept and block the ads.
Does it block ads that adblockers can't effectively?
:lol:

I hope you're not serious, otherwise you're in for a major disappointment. It only blocks 9 categories of ads out of 55 types as per ABP's experiment. Just keep in mind, it's an ad filter, not an adblocker to be specific.
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Post by gotitbro »

[mention]-Mark-[/mention]
It isn't in my browser version yet.

So, if it won't do anything should it be turned off or be left as is?

I meant since it would be happening on the browser level can it block popups and the like that adblockers can't much effectively?
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Post by -Mark- »

If you want to try it out anyhow, just get the canary version. You can't turn it off technically, but you can allow ads or block them via a toggle at chrome://settings/content/ads
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Post by gotitbro »

So this is how Chrome's adblocker works:
  • Google periodically checks websites for ad violations against the Better Ads Standards and sends a notice to those who fail them.
  • If the site does not fix the ads within 30 days of receiving the notice Chrome blocks all ads on the site.
  • When a Chrome user visits a website it checks if the site has failed the Better Ads Standards. If it has, ads are blocked on it and the user is notified via a notification in Chrome's address bar (on desktop).
It seems like you can't turn Chrome's adblocker off. It uses EasyList to block ads on offending sites. Doesn't seem any better than a normal adblock to me but is probably good for Google as it would discourage adblock downloads by filtering websites with bad ads.

https://blog.chromium.org/2018/02/how-chromes-ad-filtering-works.html

You can see which sites fail the Better Ads Standards and will have their ads blocked in Chrome here
https://developers.google.com/ad-experience-report/v1/reference/rest/v1/violatingSites/list (Google API)
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Post by gotitbro »

Thanks [mention]uname[/mention] for sharing this informative article https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/chrome-adblocker.

Chrome's adblocker can be turned off but its a bit confusing. You have to choose "Allow" instead of the default "Block" on the setting "Block if site tends to show intrusive ads".

The list of sites on which ads have to be blocked is downloaded periodically along with the list of malicious websites (which Chrome and other browsers already block) from the Google Safe Browsing API.

The ads are blocked on these websites with EasyList and EasyPrivacy which are also downloaded periodically. It should be noted that all ads will be blocked (including Google's) on the list of websites that fail the Better Ads Standards but they will not be blocked on any other website.

EasyList+Easyprivacy and the list of bad ad sites will still be downloaded regardless of whether the ad blocker is enabled or not.
https://twitter.com/Aeyoun/status/965212434444312577

I guess I was somewhat right in thinking that Chrome's adblocker might be a bit more effective than normal adblockers. From the article
Google’s implementation is a bit different from how most extension ad blocking is enforced. It does it at an earlier stage in the rendering processes than extensions have access to.

Personally I would turn Chrome's adblocker off. I don't want multiple adblockers running in the browser and I should be the one to decide which ads are blocked and on which website not Google.
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Post by -Mark- »

list of bad ad sites will still be downloaded regardless of whether the ad blocker
It's a component in chrome://components/ titled Subresource Filter Rules, so you cannot disable update check.

I guess I was somewhat right in thinking that Chrome's adblocker might be a bit more effective than normal adblockers.
Anything that's blocked natively will always be faster and more effective.
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Post by gotitbro »

An interesting article on whether other browsers should use Google's Better Ads list of sites for adblocking and what entails now that Chrome has already done so.

https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/google-adblocking-competition
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Post by gotitbro »

I just noticed that I have got the "Ads (Blocked on sites that tend to show intrusive ads)" option in Chrome Version 65. It was turned on by default but I have turned it off don't want multiple adblockers running in the browser.

Remember to turn it off you have to turn the setting chrome://settings/content/ads to "On" to Allow ads

[mention]intense[/mention] Will you keep Chrome's adblock on? You've always said to not run multiple adblock extensions what do you think should be done in this case?
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Post by -Mark- »

You can keep it on, it doesn't matter. It doesn't work like other adblockers so it doesn't interfere. I have said this before. If you want to use google's implementation, then disable your blocker extension, otherwise you can keep both of them ON and only the extension will work.
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Post by intense »

As Mark said, there is no difference.
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