# Adblock Plus isn't Adblock Plusing **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353 "2014-10-24T14:21:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/1 "2014-10-24T14:21:13Z")
I was very pleased that the ads disappeared from my Yahoo email inbox when I installed Adblock Plus in Safari. They’re at the top of the list and look like an email (except the cell is highlighted in purple). The last few days, the ads are back. How do I make Adblock Plus block them again? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/2 "2014-10-24T15:01:03Z")
It’s something new by Yahoo. I haven’t looked at the details of how they are doing it but they say that the ads are being served by yahoo itself which would make it very difficult for adblock to block it. Adblock can’t tell what parts of the e-mail page are e-mail related and what is an ad since it all comes from yahoo. I have used yahoo for e-mail for over 15 years now but if they keep screwing it up I’m going to switch to something else. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/3 "2014-10-24T15:03:22Z")
I just checked my Yahoo mail in Chrome and didn’t get any ads (running regular AdBlock). You might try switching browsers. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/4 "2014-10-24T15:09:43Z")
I’m not getting any ads right now either. Maybe too many people complained or something. I’m using firefox on windows right now. I was seeing them yesterday on firefox on linux. ETA: Never mind. Refreshed the page and there’s the ad. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/5 "2014-10-24T15:17:24Z")
I don’t know about Safari, but there’s a Firefox add-on “Yahoo Mail Hide Ad Panel” that gets rid of the annoying sponsored ads. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/6 "2014-10-24T15:40:12Z")
Besides some purely individual tech issue, the ad [del]panderers[/del] purveyors keep diddling the tech to get around ad-blocking, especially the simple stuff built into browsers. So you might see ads for a day or so here and there until ABP catches up. Kind of like anti-virus, but a few ads getting through won’t eat your hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/7 "2014-10-24T20:09:08Z")
In Firefox there’s an option on the adblock plus menu to “display blockable items” which will show all the images and items on the current page. You can probably figure out which ones are the ads, and add a blocking rule for them. Check out the adblock plus help page for how to create rules with wildcards so you don’t have to do this for every single ad. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/8 "2014-10-25T01:34:48Z")
I don’t know about Safari, but for Firefox you might want to check out Adblock Edge. It’s a fork (read: different program with the same start). Plus has a whitelist for “acceptable ads.” I wouldn’t accuse them of any malfeasance yet, though: [here are instructions on how to deal with it](https://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads). If you wish to keep Plus, try that, but also try Edge if available as it can quickly let you know how the ads are treated. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/9 "2014-10-26T09:29:26Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I don’t know about Safari, but for Firefox you might want to check out Adblock Edge. It’s a fork (read: different program with the same start). Plus has a whitelist for “acceptable ads.” I wouldn’t accuse them of any malfeasance yet, though: [here are instructions on how to deal with it](https://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads). If you wish to keep Plus, try that, but also try Edge if available as it can quickly let you know how the ads are treated. Problem is, Edge isn’t kept in parity with Adblock Plus, and the filters it uses are designed for Adblock Plus. It’s 2.1.5 vs 2.6.5. There’s no telling when filters will break. I don’t really see the reason not to just uncheck the option in Adblock Plus. Unless you are thinking that other ads are getting sneaked in. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/10 "2014-10-26T13:44:29Z")
Adblock Plus allows you to add your own custom block lists (I use it to block any auto playing video with audio on news sites). Click on the Adblock Plus button on the toolbar, select “Block an ad on this page”, click on the ad and then slide the slider the furthest to the right before it blocks any useful content. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/11 "2014-10-26T16:03:22Z")
I don’t have a ‘Block an ad on this page’ option. I have: [ul][li]Enabled on this site[/li][li]Block an element[/li][li]Ads blocked[/li][li]Options[/ul][/li]Options opens a new tab, and there are tabs were I can enter URLs manually. I tried ‘Block an element’. It displayed a popup, but I’ve only been awake about ten minutes and haven’t had coffee yet and the cat’s been yowling, so I couldn’t read all of what it said. I gathered I had to click on something. The popup went away and the whole page was highlighted. I clicked on the ad, and the URL was displayed. If I go to Options and select the ‘Add your own filters’ tab I see the URL in the box. When I leave the page and come back, the ad is still on the page. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/12 "2014-10-27T16:56:22Z")
I’ve never experienced any of this with Yahoo Mail. Perhaps the answer is to pay the $19.99 a year for the ad-free version? J. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/13 "2014-10-28T10:35:07Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I tried ‘Block an element’. It displayed a popup When this popup is active, moving the mouse around the target page will highlight the various elements with a red box. When you get it targeted solely on the thing you don’t like, press “s”, then “Add filter rule” I don’t see the ad, but I didn’t need to do anything. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adblock-plus-isnt-adblock-plusing/702353/14 "2014-10-28T13:46:50Z")
OK, I was going to try this. I had a new email that I wanted to delete. (Not junk; just one I regularly get and don’t need to read – yet.) I clicked Delete, and the email disappeared – and so did the ad.