Allowing acceptable ads in Adblock Plus

What is this about?

Starting with Adblock Plus 2.0 you can allow some of the advertising that is considered not annoying. By doing this you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way. And you give these websites an advantage over their competition which encourages other websites to use non-intrusive advertising as well. In the long term the web will become a better place for everybody, not only Adblock Plus users. Without this feature we run the danger that increasing Adblock Plus usage will make small websites unsustainable.

Why is this feature enabled by default?

Because that's unfortunately the only way to reach the goals outlined above. If we ask users to enable this feature then most of them won't do it — simply because they never change any settings unless absolutely necessary. However, advertisers will only be interested in switching to better ways of advertising if the majority of Adblock Plus users has this feature enabled.

But I hate all ads!

No problem, you can disable this feature at any time. Click the Adblock Plus icon and choose "Filter Preferences" from the menu. Uncheck "Allow non-intrusive advertising" and you are done.

Which ads are "acceptable"?

We currently have the following requirements:

• Static advertisements only (no animations, sounds or similar)
• Preferably text only, no attention-grabbing images
• Ad placement:
  • Ads should never obscure page content (e.g. require user to click a button to close the ad before viewing the page).
  • For pages featuring a text that the user will be reading, the ads should not be placed in the middle of the text where they interrupt the reading flow. Instead, they can be placed above the text content, below it or on the sides. Same rule applies to search result pages, paid search results cannot be mixed with organic results.
  • When ads are placed above main page content they should not require the user to scroll down. The available vertical space can be expected to be at least 700 pixels, advertising should not occupy more than 1/3 of that height. Paid search results on search pages are allowed to occupy more space but there should never be more paid search results than organic results.
  • When placed on the side the ads should leave enough space for the main content. The available horizontal space can be expected to be at least 1000 pixels, advertising should not occupy more than 1/3 of that width.
• Advertising should be clearly marked as such with the word "Advertising" or its equivalent, it should be distinguishable from the page content (via a border and/or different background color).
• Marking and placement requirements do not apply for hyperlinks with affiliate referrer IDs embedded in the content of the page. Additional criteria for hyperlinks with affiliate referrer IDs:
  • Redirects originating from the hyperlink should not present any other webpage than the destination page.
  • In texts, not more than 2% of the words can be hyperlinked for monetization purposes.
  • Hyperlinks should not be formatted or behave differently than other links.
  • Hyperlinks should not be misleading, in both content and placement.

These criteria are not final, we are working on improving them. In particular, we want to require that user's privacy is respected (mandatory Do Not Track support). However, we are not yet in a position to enforce that requirement.

Will all "acceptable" ads be unblocked?

No. Unfortunately, it isn't technically possible to recognize "acceptable" ads automatically. We have agreements with some websites and advertisers that only advertising matching our criteria will be used, their ads will be unblocked then. We hope to grow our list significantly over time.

What if an ad is allowed that doesn't meet the requirements?

Please report it as you usually would. If an advertiser abuses his placement on the exception list we can always remove him from the list.

How can I see what you are allowing?

The "Allow non-intrusive advertising" checkbox simply adds one more filter subscription to your list. You can view the filters here. Also, the special treatment of this filter subscription (which was added for reasons of usability) can be disabled by going to about:config and changing extensions.adblockplus.subscriptions_exceptionscheckbox preference to false. This will allow you to view the filters for this subscription as usual.

Do you have questions or suggestions concerning this list? Feel free to contact us.

How can I get my website whitelisted?

If your website has ads that comply with the Acceptable Ads criteria, simply fill out this form (english) to get it approved by the Adblock Plus community.

Are you stupid? Nobody wants this!

The results of our user survey say something different. Only 25% of the Adblock Plus users seem to be strictly against any advertising. They will disable this feature and that's fine. The other users replied that they would accept some kinds of advertising to help websites. Some users are even asking for a way to enable Adblock Plus on some websites only.