Hi -
I'm Amit Elisha, VP Product at Outbrain. We have recently received complaints from Adblock Plus users that the Outbrain service is being filtered by them. I was in touch with Michael Gundlach and he suggested I will contact you guys as he is using EasyList.
Outbrain provides recommended links at the footer of an article ("you might also like"). You can see it on sites like CNN, PC Magazine, USA Today and many more. Some publishers may pay for including links in the index but we *NEVER* show ads. We also hate those "whiten your teeth" ads everywhere and our solution helps publishers make some money keeping the reader as the first priority. Each and every link that goes into our system is going through editorial review to make sure that a) it's good content and b) doesn't contain ANY interstitials or popups (we will not accept good content if the whole user experience is not great).
We would appreciate if you guys can consider putting an exception for Outbrain. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have either here or by email (amit [at] outbrain [dot] com).
Thanks!
Exception from EasyList
I can open all links under "More from the web" on usatoday.com without any issues with Firefox and Chrome (Adblock Plus enabled).
Did the users mention a specific site where it does not work?
Did the users mention a specific site where it does not work?
Probably he is referring to the links hidden byfor example on http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... arbor.html.
Considering also our policy, I think that these sponsored links actually are advertisements.
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Considering also our policy, I think that these sponsored links actually are advertisements.
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- Guest
You are right. I guess the end goal of Ad Block is to block annoying ads which hurt the experience. We use the same "interestingness" algorithms in our paid links as in our organic ones. If a user clicks a related NYTimes article when reading something on another site, I wouldn't call it an ad. It's a win-win-win for all.
At the end of the day this is your product and your call. We appreciate the consideration and hope you'd do good by those users.
At the end of the day this is your product and your call. We appreciate the consideration and hope you'd do good by those users.
Gundlach does not do anything with Adblock Plus; his extension is AdBlock (for Chrome or Safari), while Adblock Plus (for Firefox or Chrome) is maintained by Wladimir Palant.Amit wrote:We have recently received complaints from Adblock Plus users.... I was in touch with Michael Gundlach....
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- Guest
Gotcha. He has suggested I will contact you guys here so here I am I truly believe we are only doing good by our readers. We do not do any advertising and we fight hard to not be in the same bucket.Gundlach does not do anything with Adblock Plus; his extension is AdBlock (for Chrome or Safari), while Adblock Plus (for Firefox or Chrome) is maintained by Wladimir Palant.
You can read about our content guidelines here:
http://www.outbrain.com/marketers/guidelines
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For me it only links to other articles on thedailybeast.com.
Exactly. Either make the hiding filter site-specific (for msnbc.msn.com in this case) or make an exception for thedailybeast.com. I'd prefer the former option.
I thought you made a filter suggestion and my filters were not updated.
Fixed https://hg.adblockplus.org/easylist/rev/c778473534a6
Fixed https://hg.adblockplus.org/easylist/rev/c778473534a6
Sorry for the confusion, MonztA!
I closely follow https://hg.adblockplus.org/. Probably way too closely...
I closely follow https://hg.adblockplus.org/. Probably way too closely...