Filterset.G
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Filterset.G is a third-party set of filters for the popular Adblock extensions for the Mozilla Firefox web browser. The filterset contains pre-made and regularly updated filters that remove ads from many common ad providers, such as DoubleClick. The filters are based primarily on regular expressions. Unlike Adblock and Mozilla Firefox, Filterset.G is not open-source; the filters are only free for personal, non-commercial use, and redistribution of it is not permitted.
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[edit] History
Filterset.G is maintained by Graham Pierce (who usually goes by the name "Pierceive" or "G"). It was the first major filter list available for Adblock. The list grew out of a shared list of personal filters and feedback from its users. User feedback continues to be the most significant source of changes in Filterset.G.
[edit] Geocities server problems
The filterset was hosted on a GeoCities website until an unauthorized Firefox extension began continuously synchronizing its users' filters with Filterset.G. About 1400 users were estimated to have installed the extension [1], causing an endless traffic overload on that site and quickly exceeding GeoCities's connection and transfer limits.
Filterset.G is now hosted at pierceive.com, and the author urges any links from busy sites be made to the Coralized URL (using the Coral Content Distribution Network).
Approximately two months after the chaos caused by the unauthorized Firefox extension, an authorized version was released. In sharp contrast, it only checks once "every 4–7 days," which is in accordance with the Filterset.G license: "[S]oftware for personal use must be limited to check for updates no more than twice daily."
[edit] November 2006 downtime
On 31 October 2006, pierceive.com's hosting provider, Site5, blocked the domain because they believed a DDoS attack was in progress. It was actually the normal usage pattern of the site. It was clear, however, that the shared server could not take the strain of 17.8 million hits/month (regularly peaking at about 30 hits/sec), so Site5 kept the site down. On 3 November 2006, part of the site was temporarily unblocked (the section containing the filters remained down)[1], but on 6 November 2006, port 80 was blocked, once again making the site inaccessible. According to a Site5 representative, the site was under a constant load of 1500 concurrent connections.
[edit] Current hosting situation
As of Tuesday, November 14th, pierceive.com is being hosted on a dedicated-virtual server at MediaTemple, while the Filterset.G Forums remain at Site5.
[edit] Criticisms
Although Filterset.G is compatible with Adblock Plus, it is no longer recommended by the Adblock Plus maintainer. It is intentionally made not compatible with the built-in subscription model of Adblock Plus, requiring the use of the separate updater extension, it increases load times for pages compared to other subscription lists, and depends too extensively on whitelist exception rules, which can't be overridden and can actually prevent ads from being blocked.[2][3][4]
[edit] G's response
Filterset.G is intended to be compatible with all versions of Adblock. Some features specific to Adblock Plus that cannot be disabled create inconsistencies in behavior between Adblock and Adblock Plus with the same filters.[5] Tailoring rules to Adblock Plus would break functionality for users of Adblock. Whitelist rules that inadvertently prevent ads from being blocked should be reported on the Filterset.G Forums, however the Adblock Filterset.G Updater keeps deleted filters from being downloaded on subsequent updates, so users can "fix" problems without waiting for an update to Filterset.G.
[edit] Other browsers
Filterset.G is compatible with the native ad-blocking facility in KDE's Konqueror web browser from release 3.5 onwards. It is also part of Epiphany-extensions' Ad Blocker extension for GNOME's Epiphany browser.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Filterset.G @ pierceive.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.
- ^ Palant, Wladimir. Do I need to install Filterset.G Updater?. Frequently Asked Questions - Adblock Plus project. Retrieved on 2006-12-11. “No. Actually, it is recommended not to use Filterset.G with Adblock Plus. There are several reasons for this...”
- ^ Fox (October 30, 2006). Stubborn frame.... AdBlock Plus Forum. Retrieved on 2006-12-11. “About Filterset.G... Those whitelisting filters are so bad, it currently has 37 more or less bad whitelisting filters...”
- ^ http://adblockplus.org/blog/filtersetg-i-call-bullshit Adblock Plus blog "Filterset.G - I call "bullshit"
- ^ Filterset.G Forums :: View topic - FP > about.com css blocked. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
