Adblock Plus to start trading ‘acceptable’ ads

Eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus, is starting an Acceptable Ads Platform. This ad marketplace allows website administrators to place ads on their sites that Eyeo believes are “acceptable” and can therefore be shown to Adblock Plus users.

Only ads that meet Eyeo’s criteria in terms of size, placement, appearance and labeling will be traded on the Acceptable Ads Platform. In order to circumvent the blockade of Adblock Plus, the entire infrastructure of the platform has been whitelisted, Eyeo writes. Users who nevertheless do not want to see the company-approved ads can disable the Acceptable Ads functionality by unchecking the ‘Allow some nonintrusive advertising’ option.

It is currently a beta of Eyeo, with which publishers and advertisers can test the platform. The final introduction should take place in the fall. Adblock Plus started its Acceptable Ads initiative in 2011. Publishers who adhere to the company’s guidelines can be whitelisted with this, but larger companies like Google must also pay for this. This is Eyeo’s main source of income. Advertisements from about seven hundred companies would meet the conditions and seventy companies would pay for letting their advertisements through.

For the marketplace, the German company is collaborating with ComboTag, a company that develops advertising technology. Google and AppNexus will trade the space Eyeo offers through the platform on their own marketplaces. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Adblock Plus ad exchange has been in testing for a month and that ad prices have skyrocketed as advertisers want to be able to target users “who are tech-savvy and block advertisers.”