Most Downloaded Browser Add-on of All Time; Open-Source Tool Gives Users Control Over Ad Displays
COLOGNE, Germany – Adblock Plus, a web browser software add-on designed to block obnoxious online ads, announced that it has surpassed 200 million downloads and secured its official position as the #1 most downloaded browser add-on of all time.
“Rather, an open-source community decides in a public forum the merits of each ad, and our software empowers individual users to control their browsing experience and the amount and type of ads they are willing to accept.”
Adblock Plus is a free ad-blocking tool that plugs into any Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Android browser and lets users choose the amount and type of ads they are willing to accept.
What started as a one-person project in 2002 has gained collaborators over the years and has become a worldwide effort, and by downloading the Adblock Plus add-on 200 million times the Internet community has spoken loudly about its perception of online advertising.
“Ad publishers often misunderstand our motives. Adblock Plus doesn’t judge what is a good ad and what is a bad one, and we don’t automatically block ads either,” said Till Faida, managing director of Adblock Plus. “Rather, an open-source community decides in a public forum the merits of each ad, and our software empowers individual users to control their browsing experience and the amount and type of ads they are willing to accept.”
The sheer volume of Adblock Plus users on the Internet has now created a form of marketplace incentive that encourages advertising that is done appropriately: Adblock Plus’s Acceptable Ads guidelines—which are also determined by users themselves in a public forum—allow polite and informative ads to be whitelisted for Adblock Plus users.
“We can strike a balance between a totally ad-free web experience and one where legitimate sites can sustain themselves with ads — but with ones that are polite and informative so that users don’t need to block them in the first place,” Faida added.
Links:
- Adblock Plus download statistics for Mozilla/Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/statistics/?last=365
- Download Adblock Plus for Chrome, Firefox & Opera: www.adblockplus.org
- Download the latest Adblock Plus for Android: https://adblockplus.org/en/android
About Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus has been the most downloaded and the most used extension almost continuously since November 2006. PC World rated Adblock Plus as a top innovation in its 100 Best Products of 2007 list, and in March 2010 the project collected the Linux New Media award for the Best Open Source Firefox Extension.
Follow AdBlock Plus on Twitter at @AdBlockPlus and read our blogs at http://adblockplus.org/blog/
