Microsoft Is Now Paying The Company Behind Adblock Plus Tool To Whitelist Their Ads

Adblock Plus is one of the most popular add-ons for browsers and it blocks annoying ads on the web. Adblock Plus itself has no functionality, in the sense that it does not block anything until it is “told” what to do by its filter lists. These filter lists are essentially an extensive set of rules, which tell Adblock Plus which elements of websites to block. Since there are millions of users who are using Adblock Plus, companies like Microsoft are now paying the company behind Adblock Plus to whitelist their ads. Adblock Plus is being paid by some larger properties that serve non-intrusive advertisements that want to participate in the Acceptable Ads initiative.

What are Acceptable Ads?

Adblock Plus exists to save its users from annoying ads. However, we don’t think that all ads are bad, and we are fully aware that website owners need them to survive. Therefore, we have established strict criteria to identify Acceptable Ads: unobtrusive ones that don’t need to be blocked. Websites that are willing to comply with these criteria can apply to have their ads added to the Acceptable Ads exception list, which will unblock them for most users.

Recently, Microsoft’s Bing search ads have been unblocked by Adblock Plsu and Microsoft confirmed the change with the following statement,

“Microsoft will always give consumers choice when it comes to advertisements. We are committed to working with partners who share our vision for relevant, impactful brand interaction and respect the integrity of consumer choice.”

Now, the real question is how much does Adblock Plus charge these companies?

Source: FT