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Comment by smnrchrds | Hacker News Reader

Google is not an "open" company, no matter how many times they put that word in their press releases and ads. They are optimizing for revenue. They never allowed YouTube download add-ons in Chrome Web Store either. Removing AdBlock shouldn't be much of a surprise.

PS: More reason to stick to Firefox, especially since installing non-Chrome Web Store add-ons requires jumping through hoops[1] and even if you do so they won't auto-update AFAIK.

EDIT: I'm sorry. You're right. I got confused about what was removed from where. Apparently I'm not alone in this confusion because as of this edit the top comment for this thread starts with the sentence "the thing about blogspam is that it often generates confusion" and continues with an explanation of the situation[2]. Again, I apologize for my half-baked comment.

[1] http://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/bin/answer.py?hl=e...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5373795

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> and even if you do so they [non Chrome store apps] won't auto-update AFAIK.

Then you'll be pleasantly surprised to know that they CAN indeed autoupdate, and the DIY autoupdate mechanism is very lightweight to setup. And it includes security checks (i.e., will check if update is signed with the same key as the extension etc). I have a personal extension that's served out of S3 which does exactly that.

http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/autoupdate.html

"Let me wait till Google does something bad so I can jump straight in and start bashing them without even knowing what the issue is, as long as I hate them!"

Adblock for Chrome (the one you are talking about) is different from that of Android. And really, it's no big deal either, Android allows apps outside of Market to be installed without any rooting or modifications to the phone.

I think you're confused. Adblock for Android was pulled due to an agreement violation: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/03/13/breaking-google-has-...

Adblock for Chrome is still in the Webstore.

Might only be a matter of time before Adblock for Chrome is removed from the Webstore though.

I don't think so, there in an equivalent to it on other browser unlike the mobile version. And on mobile there is developer revenue to consider.

Also the way Adblock in implemented on mobile does introduce security risks: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02/13/google-has-effective...

The value proposition just isn't there for them to give ad block the boot from desktop chrome. Ad blocking functionality is a major driver of browser adoption. Google is better off with ad blocking extensions and a larger userbase to scrape data from.

Can you run adblock for chrome on android?

Chrome for Android doesn't do extensions.

Firefox Mobile has adblock. I'd recommend nightly

I recommend Adblock Edge which is available for Firefox mobile.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-edge/

"Adblock Edge is a fork of the Adblock Plus version 2.1.2 extension for blocking advertisements on the web. This fork will provide the same features as Adblock Plus 2.X and higher but without "acceptable ads" feature."

What was the violation? Just because they interpret something as a violation it doesn't make it true.

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=40506

Its probably worth noting that the first response is the following:

"As a developer for Adblock Plus I am looking forward to a resolution to this issue which indeed is a serious problem.

Here are our proposals on how to fix this security hole without compromising Adblock Plus and similar apps: (A) Add an additional permission for apps that want to act as a proxy and/or (B) Add an API to Android that is similar to Gecko's nsIContentPolicy and Chromium's WebRequest (access to this API may require the permission mentioned in (A))"

The violation is that adblockers were blocking ads in other 3rd party apps. Manipulating other apps is the violation.

This has nothing do with the blocking ads on the web like people are saying. These instead block ads in things like Angry Birds and other apps.

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