Re: Ad-blocking Software

From: Ken Jenks <MindsEye_at_tale.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 17:06:27 -0500 (CDT)

BEN CATHERS WROTE:
>Ban all browsers that use AdBlocking software

Easier said than done. There are dozens of ad blocking
software packages currently available. Here's a short list:
Ad Buster, AdEater, Ad Extinguisher, Ad Filter, AdKiller,
AdsOff!, AdWiper, AtGuard, CyberSitter, InternetVelocity,
InterQuick, www.junkbusters.com, Naviscope, Proxomitron,
Speedy Web Navigator, WebEarly and WebWasher.

And those are only the Windows versions I could get my hands
on. Others are available for different operating systems,
and some operate from an ISP's proxy server.

Here's how they work, in general. An ad blocking program
inserts itself between the user's browser and his internet
connection, usually as a proxy server running on the
localhost. The browser is configured to access Web pages
(and sometimes protocols other than HTTP) through the proxy.

The ad blocking proxy server receives HTTP requests from the
browser (and it may filter or cache the requests -- this is
how child "protection" software and some Internet speed-up
programs work) and passes them along to your server. The ad
blocking program also receives the HTTP response back from
your server and filters it before passing it to the browser.

It's this last step -- the filtering process -- which strips
out banner ads. This is usually done by detecting the banner
ad using the host name -- flycast, doubleclick, eads, etc.
-- and the path name -- /ads/, /adv/, /banners/, etc. and
even the size of the image. If you're sending a 468x60 image
from doubleclick.net, it's probably an ad and the ad
blocking software will filter it out, usually just deleting
the <IMG SRC=...> tag, but sometimes leaving the ALT text
intact, and sometimes getting rid of your <A>...</A> tags as
well. Many ad blockers also prevent some or all JavaScript
programs from operating.

So how can you detect which users are using ad blocking
software and which aren't? It's hard. The methods are messy,
finicky and unreliable, and they deny access to a
significant percentage of people who are NOT using banner ad
blocking software, just old, buggy or unusual browsers. In
addition, the same technique won't work with all banner ad
blocking software, so you must use multiple techniques at
once to defend against them all. (And even then, there are
some circumstances when you can't detect the blocker.)

Basically, you need a JavaScript program running in the
browser and a CGI program on the server, and these programs
must talk to each other in some carefully organized ways.
And if your banner ads include rich media, not just GIF and
JPEG, you're in another ballpark entirely.

I've worked out a technique to do it, but I'd hate to see my
particular electronic counter-counter-measure (ECCM)
technique become very widespread -- because then the ad
blocking software makers would discover the easy ways to
defeat my technique, and I'd need to spend a bunch more time
coming up with a better one. (But do drop by
<http://tale.com/> and try a few free stories, both with and
without banner ad blocking software. Let me know if you can
defeat my ECCM.) We provide a pay-per-view alternative for
people using banner ad blocking software or people who are
unable (or unwilling) to display graphical banners and run
JavaScript.

This is escallation in the old banner ad war. Unless ad
blocking software is really eating into your revenue, you
should probably avoid this particular arms race. The people
who write banner ad blocking software do it for idealogical
reasons, not for profit, and their programmers are cheaper
than your programmers.

BEN CATHERS CONCLUDED:
>Just my two cents.

You're getting two cents? This is just my 0.6 cents
(assuming a $10 CPM after Flycast's 40% commission).


-- Ken Jenks, Editor-in-chief, Mind's Eye Fiction
   http://tale.com/ Novels and short stories on-line
   MindsEye_at_tale.com

   Science fiction by David Brin, Michael A. Burstein, Tom Easton,
   Larry Niven, Spider Robinson, Fred Saberhagen,
   Robert Silverberg, Bud Sparhawk, Bud Webster, and many more.
   I'll give you a dollar's worth of stories for a link.
   Write for details.

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Received on Wed Jul 14 1999 - 21:17:30 CDT