Shocking!
Adblock Extension that blocks annoying online advertising has been sold...
...And more shocking, the most popular "Adblock Extension", with more than 40 million users, quietly sold their creation to an unknown buyer...
'Michael Gundlach', the creator widely used Adblock Extension refuses to disclose the name, who purchased his company and how much it was sold for, just because buyer wishes to remain anonymous.
After watching a popup message (as shown) on their browsers this week, the Adblock users are literally going crazy.
"I am selling my company, and the buyer is turning on Acceptable Ads," Gundlach said.
Holy Sh*t! NSA Buys Adblock?
The 'Anonymous buyer' conspiracy has caused concern for Adblock users and they have raised number of questions on social media sites, such as:
- Should I trust AdBlock Extension anymore?
- Who owns the Software I have installed?
- Is it NSA?
Also, reportedly, Michael Gundlach will no longer be associated with Adblock company or the Buyer's company.
AdBlock to Turn on "Acceptable Ads"
No doubt, Ad-blocking has become a huge problem for Online Publications and websites that rely on Ad Revenue...
...but now these utilities have changed their fundamental idea for making money by enabling the "Acceptable Ads" feature, which maintains a whitelist of ads that aren't blocked by default.
Until now, the company makes money either through donations or through direct payments for its software license.
However, Acceptable Ads feature will now let some advertisements through on by selected websites or by selected companies by default, if those companies pay for showing their ads.
So, Does that make any sense?
What Should you do?
However, it is too early to come to any conclusion, but AdBlock users should pay close attention to future upgrades just to be on the safer side. Or just ditch Adblock and use uBlock :)
