How to collect and optimize filters

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mcm
Posts: 359
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:36 am

How to collect and optimize filters

Post by mcm »

You can see a nice flash tutorial covering some of the help here:
http://www.help2go.com/article234.html

If you want to start building up your own set of filters then the best way to start is by right clicking on the ad and choosing Adblock from the context menu. Usually you will get something like this:

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http://www.inklineglobal.com/adsales/ads/468_106.gif
http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N296.Wired.com/B1598278.2...2090446492?
Choose the keyword or domain name and remove the rest like this:

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adsales
ad.doubleclick.net
Now after you have build up a number of sites you can start optimizing your filters. For example take:

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adsales.com
adtext.net
adblog.com
adclick.net
adframe
Note how they all start with "ad". Normally Adblock has to check all five filters but if you create a regexp filter by starting and ending with '/' you can group them together into one filter like this:

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/ad(sales|text|blog|click|frame)/
This means if the link doesn't start with ad Adblock will only have to check one filter now. For a complete list of Regexp expressions see the link under Adblock's help menu.
Guest

Post by Guest »

OK, here's a question: This is one of G's (I think): Broken with "return" key so I don't widen the forum page

/[\W]ad(bureau|bot|client|council|frame|gif|graph|image|info|log|rotator
|server|banners?|click|flow|frame|ima?g(es?)?|log|serv(er|e)?|stream|type
|view|vert(ising|isements?)?|js|trix|v|xchange)[\W\d]/

Mcm_ham's:
/ad(sales|text|blog|click|frame)/

I notice you've got a couple not in first filter, and the 1st filter contains (obvioiusly) more than yours. What is best "procedure?" -- add elements of yours to the first one, or REMOVE your elements from first one and create 2nd filter? Just curious!
g

Post by g »

Not one of mine.
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mcm
Posts: 359
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:36 am

Post by mcm »

That filter you quoted is one of the default filters that comes with Adblock Plus and is by no means complete. This is just an example to help create your own, ideally you would start from scratch and just add the ones you see on the sites you visit creating a unique filterset that works best for you. But if you are happy with the default list, then it is a good place to start and alter them adding keywords for ads you see. But if you're interested in an exhaustive list then G's filterset is the way to go, but will contain a lot of filters you will probably never use.
User avatar
mcm
Posts: 359
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:36 am

Post by mcm »

Found one of Rue's old posts that may be also helpful:
http://aasted.org/adblock/viewtopic.php?t=143
Adblock Fan

Post by Adblock Fan »

If you want to optimize your filters automatically check out this fantastic site:

http://adblock.free.fr/optimize/
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