Features missing, comparison to TPLs

[VanguardLH]

Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Internet Explorer 11 x64

Missing Features

Just verifying some features of ABP that appear to be missing in the Internet Explorer add-on version of ABP. Downloaded ABP add-on for IE today so brand new to it (although I recall trialing it many months ago but discarded it probably due to crashing IE).

- "Block" tab alongside Flash object in web page
In IE11, I don't see a "Block" tab or label alongside a Flash video as described in the documentation. Is this feature missing? Is this because custom filters (mentioned next) is not available in the IE version of ABP?

- Creating user-defined filters
Can't find how to do this. The browser page that appears when I right-click on the ABP status bar icon doesn't show any custom filters. Because of the absence of adding custom (user-defined) filters, I cannot, for example, block on ".youtube.com/annotations" (which might get rid of those annotations abused by so many Youtube authors). I have Avast which has a Site Block (URL filter) feature but it doesn't work on HTTPS connects, and Google uses HTTPS almost everywhere nowadays, even for their own connects to their other domains. I cannot use DNS blocking, like at OpenDNS used for my DNS provider, because that blocks on hosts or domains, not paths within those domains (DNS lookups, after all, return IP addresses for web sites and that's the same IP address for every path under that domain). I was hoping to use ABP's custom filters but that appears to be missing in the IE add-on for ABP.

- Blacklist(s) subscription
The settings window for ABP lets me pick one subscription list from a fixed list. I cannot navigate to a web page to install a blacklist not in ABP's hardcoded list. I cannot subscribe to more than one blacklist. I'd like to use both the EasyList and EasyPrivacy blacklists but I can select only 1 blacklist (plus the EasyPrivacy blacklist isn't even in the fixed subscription list). I was hoping to use EasyList+EasyPrivacy+Fanboy which is the same list that I use for TPLs but that's not an option in ABP for IE that only lets me pick one list (and Fanboy isn't even an option).

Comparison to TPLs (behavioral difference)

When I used the TPL (tracking protection list) feature in IE (available since v9, I think), I could subscribe to the EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and Google Tracking blacklists (and some others). This would give me the same blocking as ABP when using it to subscribe to the same blacklists (but in Firefox or Chrome since the IE add-on only lets me subscribe to one blacklist) -- except only for 3rd party content. That's how Microsoft designed TPLs: block unwanted off-domain content. Only if the content came from somewhere other than the domain where I was visiting would the content get blocked by TPLs. ABP looks to block content in the same domain as visited so it gets rid of more ads.

TPLs where I can subscribe to a larger number of blacklists lets me block off-domain content. ABP looks to not only block off-domain content but also on-domain content, so something like "/ads?ad_" works no matter where the source is originated. I'd like to use TPLs but that obviates blocking unwanted on-domain content. ABP for IE is lacking many features, like custom filters, so I still cannot block the unwanted on-domain content.

With TPLs, I can still visit a blacklisted web site because it is a 1st party site (i.e., their content is on-domain). If a domain is blocked in ABP (not a path but the whole domain), I'm assuming that I cannot visit that domain. Am I correct that TPLs only block off-domain content while ABP can block both off- and on-domain content?

So, with TPLs, I can subscribe to more blacklists but those only work against off-domain content. With ABP for IE, it may also block some on-domain content as well as the off-domain content but I lose the ability to use multiple blacklists.

Would ABP for IE have any conflicts with me enabling TPLs? That is, can I use both ABP for IE and the TPLs together? I wasn't sure so I disabled (not deleted) the TPLs before I installed ABP for IE.

[Gingerbread Man]

Yes, some features are missing in the Internet Explorer version. Rest assured, the developers are aware of this. Creating ABP for IE alone took a lot of effort. Since then the focus has been on supporting Enhanced Protected Mode, and fixing stability, performance and filtering issues. I'm sure the feature set will eventually be expanded once the groundwork is done, provided there are no Internet Explorer limitations getting in the way.

If you also have Adblock Plus in Firefox, you can try copying the patterns.ini file. This file stores all subscription and custom filters:

1. In Firefox, type about:support into the address bar and press Enter.
2. Click the Show Folder button.
3. In the Windows Explorer window that opened, open the adblockplus folder.
4. Right-click the patterns.ini file and choose Copy.
5. In the address bar of the Windows Explorer window, type either of the following and press Enter. The first is for Windows XP, the second is for all other versions of Windows.
   • %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Adblock Plus for IE\
   • %LocalAppData%\Adblock Plus for IE\
6. Right-click an empty area in the list of files and choose Paste. Confirm that you want to overwrite the existing patterns.ini file.

TPLs block third-party content only.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/inte ... protection
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Brows ... s/faq.html

There shouldn't be any issues with using TPLs alongside Adblock Plus. However, as usual, having too many filters could negatively impact performance.

[VanguardLH]

Thanks for replying.

As to the impact to IE, I never noticed any as I added more TPLs. I first started with just EasyList and later added EasyPrivacy, Google, and then Fanboy. With Adblock Plus (back when I had Firefox to use with it), the issues that I noticed was it would take longer for Firefox to load just by enabling the ABP add-on and load time increased with each additional blacklist to which ABP was subscribed. The memory footprint went up, too, since the blacklists were probably stored in memory for quick lookup. However, TPLs aren't as configurable as ABP since the blacklists get periodically updated which would wipe any customization that I might do while ABP has its separate user-defined blacklist. Also, as I suspected and as you confirmed, TPLs only work on 3rd party content in a web page and not on 2nd party content. Sometimes I still want to visit a site but they have some rude behavior that I'd like to eliminate.

Hopefully it won't take too long to get the user-defined blacklist incorporated into ABP for IE along with the Block tab, right-click content menu entry, or object list to let me point at objects to block (and sometimes edit to make them usable elsewhere, too). While I would always use the EasyList blacklist, I do like to add a couple others to extend the blacklist (tis a pity they don't cooperate to provide just delta lists for the differences between them to eliminate duplicate blacklisting).

I trialed ABP for IE pretty soon after it showed up. I don't recall the reasons why I removed it but several were probably the same as now. So that's 2 trials that have failed. I'll keep watching for further improvement of ABP for IE. Thanks again for replying.

By the way, back when I had Firefox with ABP, I also used the Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus add-on. It made it much easier for non-HTML wizards (i.e., common users) to create rules for objects in a web page. Any plans on incorporating that add-on into ABP (so it's just one add-on) so it would also migrate into ABP for IE? ABP and Element Hiding Helper really should be distributed as a pair of add-ons and better yet to roll them together into one add-on. You might want to contact Wladimir Palant, author of the Hiding Element Helper add-on, to see if he would okay using his code in your add-on. In fact, clicking in his home site at the Mozilla add-ons page takes me to en/elemhidehelper so ABP must be in charge of it now yet it still looks to be a separate add-on instead of incorporate to the ABP add-on. I'd really like that feature set when ABP for IE matures to include the other features it is missing now.

[Gingerbread Man]

it would take longer for Firefox to load just by enabling the ABP add-on and load time increased with each additional blacklist

What version did you have in Firefox? Firefox startup should be faster with Adblock Plus since version 2.6.
releases/adblock-plus-26-for-firefox-released

The memory footprint went up

As far as memory usage goes, it shouldn't be out of the ordinary in most circumstances, but a handful of sites are problematic. See the following blog post for details. You can also watch the following bug reports if you're interested in following any developments that closely.
blog/on-the-adblock-plus-memory-consumption
https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/521
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=988266
https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/145

Any plans on incorporating that add-on into ABP (so it's just one add-on) so it would also migrate into ABP for IE?

Incorporating the functionality of EHH into ABP is in the works, but it will have no effect on the Internet Explorer version. You can watch the following bug report for any progress.
https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/390

You might want to contact Wladimir Palant, author of the Hiding Element Helper add-on, to see if he would okay using his code in your add-on.

Wladimir Palant is the author of both Adblock Plus and Element Hiding Helper.