ADBlock日前遭未知買家收購 - 3C

原文:
http://ma19.moe/SLaNW

標題:
Adblock extension with 40 million users sells to mystery buyer, refuses to
name new owner

內文:
Adblock, a popular extension for blocking advertising in Chrome and Safari
with more than 40 million users, was quietly sold today.

The extension displayed a popup on October 1 saying that it is now allowing
EyeO’s acceptable advertising — which allows advertisers to buy their way
onto the whitelist — through the filter.

"@aahaworth Tweet:
" Was casually browsing earlier using Google Chrome, opened a new tab, and this
"popped up:
"http://i.imgur.com/jvtCLpx.png

Buried in the bottom of that message, however, was a more notable change:
Adblock has been sold.

What’s strange is that the company won’t disclose who it’s been sold to,
why it was sold, or how much it was sold for.

For the extension’s claimed 40 million users this raises an interesting
question: Can the extension continue to be trusted if the new proprietor is
entirely anonymous?

TNW contacted Adblock’s remaining staff to ask if they’d disclose the buyer
but the company refused, saying that the purchaser had specifically asked not
to be named.

The only thing the team would tell us is that the tool’s creator Michael
Gundlach will no longer have any relationship with the company — that
probably means he’s cashed out.

Adblock’s previous director, Gabriel Cubbage, is now running things under
the new owner.

Since its launch in 2009, Adblock featured a screen that pushed users to pay
for the use of the extension because it was classed as “honor-ware.” An
ironic gesture, considering its existence technically deprives others of
money.

http://i.imgur.com/BjMdePK.png

Gundlach worked full time on Adblock after he quit his job in 2011, able to
survive on the proceeds of donations from users prompted to ‘gift’ money
toward the development when installing the extension.

What’s interesting is six months ago Adblock changed its name suddenly to
BetaFish Adblocker, claiming it was an “experiment.”

BetaFish is the name of Gundlach’s holding company that owned Adblock and
around the same time had applied for a US trademark on the word ‘Adblock.’

Support staff claimed five months ago that the company was not being
purchased by someone or preparing for participation acceptable ad program,
but the move may have pre-empted today’s deal.

The name was later changed back to simply ‘Adblock’ without further
explanation.

The sale comes at an interesting time for publishers as the debate rages over
whether adblocking will become widespread, as Apple has allowed iOS user to
block ads on their mobile devices for the first time.

For users of Adblock, the uncertainty over ownership of the Adblock extension
is a reasonable concern, particularly if the new buyer has any sort of agenda
with the purchase of the extension.

Why would they keep their identity secret, if it’s a legitimate deal? It’s
possible that the new owner simply wants to sit back and let the cash roll
in, or was looking for a way to gain back some control.

We’ve contacted Michael Gundlach for further comment on the sale and
secrecy, but haven’t heard back at time of writing.

懶人包:
簡單來講就是Adblock已經賣掉了，某些網站的廣告開始不能被阻擋，而金額和買家也不清
楚，不過依他的概念和用戶數量這筆錢應該不是小數目。

這裡建議大家先把ADblock砍掉，換成開源的uBlock和MinMinGuard
https://www.ublock.org/
https://github.com/chrisaljoudi/ublock
https://github.com/chiehmin/MinMinGuard

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作者 style001 (大師) 看板 joke
標題 [耍冷] 一家烤肉萬家香
時間 Mon Sep 12 22:54:55 2011

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