14 DAY TRIAL // Ads served by Microsoft and Google are no longer blocked by popular browser add-on Adblock Plus after the two tech giants agreed to pay a fee to avoid the filters.
A report published by the Financial Times reveals, via unofficial sources, that Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are the latest three large companies that decided to work with Eyeo, the company behind the popular Adblock Plus ad-blocking solution, to be placed on a whitelist that lets ads slip through its filters.
This whitelisting program, which is free for small websites, calls for large companies to pay for avoiding the filters, but only if their ads are non-intrusive and do not affect the browsing experience in any way.
In a FAQ page on its website, Eyeo says that “we have agreement with some websites and advertisers” and their “ads will be unblocked, i.e. added to the Acceptable Ads exception list which is enabled per default.”
While the company doesn't reveal the name of the companies that are currently whitelisted, Microsoft's Bing ads now seem to be displayed when running Adblock Plus. The aforementioned report also cites a Microsoft spokesperson as saying that “we are committed to working with partners who share our vision for relevant, impactful brand interaction and respect the integrity of consumer choice.”
Available on most popular browsers
Adblock Plus is offered in the form of an extension that currently works on the most popular browsers on the web, including Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. According to stats provided by the parent company, no less than 50 million users are running Adblock Plus on their computers right now, so it's easy to see how whitelisting ads has become a multi-million online business.
However, this strategy is criticized by several organizations worldwide and a group of French publishers have recently decided to file a legal complaint against the Adblock Plus creator.
Surprisingly, Microsoft and Google are two of the companies that are members of the group pursuing legal action against Eyeo, pointing out that the browser ad-block solution has caused a 40 percent loss in online advertising.