Adblock Browser for Android

[keyplyr]

Tried it out. This is a stand alone browser built on Firefox mobile framework, not an add-on for other browsers installed on your phone. Although it doesn't affect my direct advertisers, it does strip away anything Google (Adsense, Google+, etc) and I would suspect it strips the Bing ads as well.

UA: Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile; rv:40.0) Gecko/40.0 Firefox/40.0

Normal mobile headers, normal browsing behavior.

Anyone have a safe tactic for blocking (without blocking other Android UAs?)

[keyplyr]

Just a FYI - the UA is used by the normal Firefox mobile browser... no difference.

[keyplyr]

Any iPhone users care to give Adblock Browser for iPhone a test drive and post the UA?

(Probably should start a new thread with the respective title.)

[blend27]

I was going to post this in that other thread..... ;). Thanks for the link btw.

Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Tablet; rv:40.0) Gecko/40.0 Firefox/40.0

Different than what you have.

This is on Android 4.2.2(Jelly Bean) - Samsung Galaxy Note tablet, same as a regular FF Mobile on the same device.

I am going to load .apk on BlackBerry, see how that pans out...

[wilderness]

Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile;

Anyone have a safe tactic for blocking (without blocking other Android UAs?)

Wouldn't this work?
#UA Contains Android, NOt Andoris-Mobile
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Mozilla/5\.0\ \(Android;\ Mobile;
RewriteRule .* - [F]

[keyplyr]

Thanks Don

Giving this further thought... when you consider the dozens & dozens of devices that use Android OS worldwide, it's probably necessay to collect all the UA variants prior to writing a block to not create collateral damage.

[wilderness]

keyplr,
I'd suggest that those three terms in sequence and with leading parentheses (Mozilla 5, Android and Mobile (all with specific caps)) is clearly focused!
Course, opinions are like . . . .

[keyplyr]

wilderness - They occur in other Androids UAs exactly the same though. The Adblock UA in the top post is the exact same UA as the normal mobile Firefox, so you can't block using that example.

Every site has a different traffic demographic, but I get welcomed visitors from everywhere. There are all kinds of Android UA variations from different carriers, on different devices, in different parts of the world - this is not an opinion.

I wouldn't block visitors who use adblocking, I would do something else, but I need to find an efficient detection method.

[blend27]

I've loaded this browser`s .apk file on BlackBerry Z30 and it works as expected!

Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile; rv:40.0) Gecko/40.0 Firefox/40.0

The UA is different than in my previous post though, which was

Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Tablet; rv:40.0) Gecko/40.0 Firefox/40.0

I guess the browser is smart enough to change its own UA ;) and the only thing that would be obvious is that it is a FireFox on a none desktop

OT. Now we have a free open source browser for BlackBerry with builtin AdBlocker as well. I tried loading FF Mobile before and the App just crashed all the time.

[Leosghost]

I wouldn't block visitors who use adblocking, I would do something else, but I need to find an efficient detection method.

There is an efficient way..
But to borrow the recent words of blend27 posted in another thread.."if I told you.... ;)
Plus ..I'm sure due to all my time spent reading the spiders threads ( some of the most interesting threads on WebmasterWorld, along with the apache threads )..that you'll find it..

[dstiles]

There is a site zytrax.com which has loads of browser UAs including a lot of Android and other mobiles and tablets. I use it from time to time when checking new (to me) UAs. I used it to split off tablets from phones a short while back.

[wilderness]

There is an efficient way..

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Mozilla/5\.0\ \(Android;\ Mobile;
RewriteRule .* - [F]

There is a vast difference between:
Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile(followed or lead by anything)
and either
Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile; rv:40.0) Gecko/40.0 Firefox/40.0
Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Tablet; rv:40.0) Gecko/40.0 Firefox/40.0

the later (Tablet) of which my suggestion would allow in.

The versatility of visitors, UA's and IP's on my sites has always been useful, yet for for Aug and thus far Sept all I'm seeing is (none contain Mobile)
1) mobile non-Andoid
2) Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android
and
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android
All of which would get a pass as well.

[dstiles]

If it helps I have the following Phone and Tables UAs plugged into my regex parser. Remember the regex is running on IIS not linux. And yes, Lucy, I did sort out the puffing one - turned out it was a me problem. :) The final one is for W3C mobile checker. For the most part, \s was an actual space. The usual caveat applies: this works for me but may not for you. The lists were compiled with the aid of zytrax.

Phone regex list...

Profile/MIDP-
^BlackBerry
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(BlackBerry;\s
AvantGo\s3\.2
^DoCoMo/[1-3]\.
UP\.Browser/
\sUP\.Link/
^Vodafone/
Windows\sCE;
mini;\sPPC;\s240x320
Minimo/0
NetFront/
^WM5\sPIE$
^Xiino/
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(iPhone;
Mobile/.*\sSafari/
PPC;\sOpera\sMobi/
\sLinux;\sOpera\sMobi/
MIDP;\sOpera\sMini/
400x240\sLGE
MSIE\s6\.0;\sNitro\)
Mozilla/5\.0\s\(SymbianOS/
Symbian\sOS;\sNokia
PalmSource
Blazer
PalmOS[;\s]
MobileExplorer/3\.
RegKing;\s240x320
^Mozilla/4\.0\s\(compatible;\sMSIE\s6\.0;\sWindows\sCE\)$
^EPOC32-WTL/2\.0\s\(VGA\)\sSTNC-WTL/2\.0\(230\)
Novarra-Vision/
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(SAMSUNG;\sSAMSUNG-
^SAMSUNG-GT-
^SEC-SGH
ReqwirelessWeb/
^AU-MIC/
480x640\)\sOpera
^SonyEricsson
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(PLAYSTATION
^Mozilla/4\.0\s\(PSP\s\(PlayStation\sPortable\);
^LG[/-][CKU]
LGE-LG260\sPOLARIS-LG260/
Browser/Obigo
Obigo/Browser
^ZTE-C88/1\.0\sSMIT-Browser/2\.0\.0$
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sU;\sAndroid\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sAndroid\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Android;\sMobile;\srv:[2-4][0-9]\.
\s\(Android;\sOpera\sMini/
^AndroidDownloadManager$
\s\(KHTML,\slike\sGecko\)\sVersion/3\.
INQ1/R3\.[0-9]\.[0-9]\sNF-Browser
^Amoi\s8709/R14\.[0-9]\sNF-Browser
Darwin
AlienBlue/.*CFNetwork
^MobileSafari/.*\sCFNetwork/[4-9][0-9][0-9]
Microsoft\sOffice\sMobile\s/
^Dalvik/.*Android\s
\sSmartphone;
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sU;\sAndroid\s.*\sUCBrowser/
/UC\sBrowser
^UP\.Browser/
^nokia.*/ucweb
^nokia
/WAP2
Puffin/.*[AI]P$
W3C-mobileOK

And this is my regex list for tablets...

^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(iPad;
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(iPod;
\sTablet\sbrowser\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Android;\sTablet;\srv:[2-9][0-9]\.
\sOpera\sTablet/
\sFennec/
\sTablet\sPC\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sU;\sAndroid\s.*\sNexus\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(.*\sSilk/
Silk-Accelerated
^Mozilla/[45]\.0\s\(compatible;\s.*\sKindle/
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sU;\sAndroid\s.*\sIdeaTab
\sMaemo\sbrowser\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sU;\sAndroid\s.*\sSony\sTablet\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(PlayBook;\sU;\sRIM\sTablet\s
Puffin/.*[AI]T$
viewpad
TouchPad
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Nintendo\s
^Mozilla/5\.0\s\(Linux;\sU;\sAndroid\s.*;\sAT100\s

[keyplyr]

Using jQuery this JavaScript detects if the user is blocking adverts and gives a pop-up alert:

function TestPage() {
 if ($('.myTestAd').height() == 0)
 alert("Please disable Adblocking to view this page");
}

$(TestPage);

The user may then click "OK" to close the alert and view the page (sans ads) but if the page is reloaded or another page is loaded, the alert continues to display.

IMO this is a doable compromise between the interests of the webmaster & the rights of the end user. The site visitor does not get blocked & the webmaster gets the protest clearly made. I am testing this on a client's site :)

[Leosghost]

See..I knew you'd work it out / find it..
Raises glass..:)

There is more than one "it"..but that way is elegant..and efficient..

[keyplyr]

Well as I said earlier, I would never block legit users from accessing my pages and I feel it is their right to "see" things as they choose, but I, as a webmaster, also have the right to present my work in the manner I choose. After tossing this around in my head for a couple weeks, this is what I came up with.

[Leosghost]

The nice thing about the alert method ( as opposed to the document write method ) is the "alert" method allows for using cookie "notifiers" for EU traffic, as was discussed in a recent thread here..of course if the visitor has scripting set to "off" then you can send them a message to allow scripting ( so as to allow the script to fire and the "please disable adblockers" message to be shown, eventually ) within no script tags..

There are ways to "make a prettier box" using jquery to show a box as "modals" ..and you can also sniff for adblocker behaviour using a combination of php and jquery and then serve varying content in pages or different pages or redirects, depending on the presence , or not, of adblockers..works for self hosted ads and 3rd party ads..

But, I agree with you, I'd rather let visitors through than block the adblocker users ( especially as I'm one of them ) anyway, but explain to them "gently" that switching off their adblocker while on site, would help..of course in that case we have to try to make the ads as unobtrusive and lightweight as possible..

But that discussion is for other parts of the fora..:)

[keyplyr]

...if the visitor has scripting set to "off" then you can send them a message to allow scripting ( so as to allow the script to fire and the "please disable adblockers" message to be shown, eventually ) within no script tags..

I display direct ad banners across the top of pages. These are served by JS, so if the user has JS turned off they will see my NOSCRIPT tag asking them to turn JS on. Actually, I use JS quite a bit with AJAX navigation so a user who does not support JS can't really use my site. At one time I considered this a liability. That factor has now turned into as asset :)

[dstiles]

I turn off JS when viewing almost all sites - even my own - and I know I'm not alone. I used to favour it but in the past few years it has become an exploitable liability. Not that it's likely to hit me as I use linux, but still... If I get a site that insists on JS then the odds are very high that I will go elsewhere. Just my view. :)

[keyplyr]

There was a discussion at WW about the percentage of users who surfed with JS turned off. While the number was moderate among members here, stats showed it was very low for average users.

[ken_b]

According to Statcounter about 2% of my visitors have JS off.

[Leosghost]

That some people have JS off ( I'm one of them too ) is why I wrote..

and you can also sniff for adblocker behaviour using a combination of php and jquery and then serve varying content in pages or different pages or redirects, depending on the presence , or not, of adblockers..works for self hosted ads and 3rd party ads..

If your pages are built / served using PHP, and the content areas ( including ads ) are only served if JS is on, and if JS detects no "adblockers"..or "adblockers are off".. ( you can also add in a short life cookie to check that the status of the adblocker is constant "off", 3rd party ads are going to set their own cookies, which require notification to the users anyway )..the only "hitch" would be if you use a CDN..

As a technical exercise to make a "blocker blocker" it was / is interesting, ( worked on it a couple of years ago, when "blockers" first began to get interest, after reading of something that appeared to work in a similar way ) but I don't use it, for reasons given above and in other related threads..

I find the "how would you have to code ( or do something ) to make "X" happen, let me see if I can" , to be the "interesting part" of computers / webmastering..similar to creating images or sculptures or objects etc, the process is the "thing", the end result is "the reward"..and then one looks for another "challenge"..

I think that it is highly likely that ATM the percentage of "average users" that block JS is very low, and not likely to get above 5%..( this obviously does not count adblockers that are / will be included in browsers, or as "add ons" )..average users just do not care / can't be bothered, all they want is "teh shiny" [sic] , one only has to look at the permissions that they are happy to give to the apps that they install, or the malware on their computers that they have after clicking on pictures of "Irina for you".."or "funny smilies for your emails", your "invoice is attached here.pdf" or "click here to win an ipad", "watch celebrity movie", or "download photoshop for free" etc..

[dstiles]

I'm always puzzled when people say, "It's only 2%...". It's something G says a lot, also endless politicians and apologists. 2% is 2 in every hundred - that's a huge number when the total number involved is in the hundred-thousands or millions. :(

[keyplyr]

...well those millions don't come to my site (yet)

[Leosghost]

@dstiles
True ..but would you rather think of the 2% of the birds( those in the bush ) that you don't have in your hand..or the 98% of the birds that you do..;)