Optimizing filter lists with Adblock Plus 0.7

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:51 pm

Because Falkag.com is only an ad serving company.

Maybe *falkag.com* is all that is needed. That would eliminated false positives for any thing with a similar name. Unless you are actually visiting falkag .com, you should have no false positives.

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:59 pm

Correction:

I just re-read the whole topic and noticed that falkag has many different addresses/directory structures.

*falkag" blocks everything but could (in a rare case) show a false-positive.

When I have more time I will find a "common ground" between them.

I'm at my job right now ... gotta work. 12PM Friday here.

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:08 pm

Rick, see above for my filters. I am using two filters for Falk AG, first I block everything with falkag.net, and then as1.falkag.de - that does the job. I haven't seen a Falk ad in years. And I've never seen a Falk or Google ad that would be proxied through the server itself.

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:19 pm

Wladimir Palant wrote:I use |http://*.falkag.net/* and |http://as1.falkag.de/* - and I think that it is better to include more text in the filter.

If that works, then I would say that is the way to go

Now that Adblock Plus 0.7 is ready, I can now make single filters into 2 or 3 different, more specific ones such as your example above to pinpoint strings and avoid any false-positives. This will be my weekend mission.

I'm still not sure about google ads NOT being served by a 3rd party site database .... I thought that I had seen that a few times before. I'll have to check that out for my own piece of mind.

Can't now

Paulfox · Post by **Paulfox** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:04 pm

I incorporate falkag (dot) net as part of an amalgamated ".net" regex. I haven't seen falkag (dot) de "get through" in the wild since it was probably caught by another filter - but just to offer (stop groaning, all of you!) - a regex solution that's simple if anyone's interested . . .

/falkag\.(de|net)/

I know, I know . . . we all "hate" regex's now . . . "boo-hoo, sniff" . . . . .

BTW, in a couple of minutes I'm posting on the "RegEx" section of the forum regarding some questions I'd like input on, especially from Rick752 and Master X regarding another topic. Cheers /p

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:45 pm

Wladimir Palant wrote: And there is one exception to the rule "a lot of non-regexp filters do not slow down the web" - these non-regexp filters should have at least 8 characters of normal text somewhere (meaning no wildcards). Adblock Plus can use this text as a shortcut then. Filters that don't have enough text like *falkag* will be treated just like regexps. It is justified in cases like */ads/* but not here - *falkag.net* would do already.

Wow

Does that mean that my simples are TOO simple for optimizing? I guess I really should add the '.com' & '.net' to the filtering.

After reading many posts, it seems that the best way would be to list a couple of variations of the offender to make a fair length string. Seems like all I would have to do is 'dot com' or/and 'dot.net' most to make them efficient. This would add more strings to the filter, but according to Wladimir, this would not present a problem in a list as AP 0.7 will be able to more efficiently parse the list.

Hmmmm .... (thinking out loud) will the longer optimization strings cancel out the simplicity of my existing filtering? It may if someone is using multiple subscriptions! Short simple filters that are treated as a regexp? Well, that's not good Maybe I will start rewriting tonite and build a second filter based on longer, more targeted strings just to have both handy.

Input anyone?

@Wladimir ps:.... yeah, we have called it a "flyout" at times (inside joke). Don't pick on the "Yank"

Master X · Post by **Master X** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:19 pm

Are the piped ("|http:") filters run first? And what does "shortcut" inside the patterns.ini mean?

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:31 pm

No, filters are run according to their shortcut. Explanations are here:
http://p2.forumforfree.com/-vp4111-adbl ... .html#4111
http://p2.forumforfree.com/-vp4548-adbl ... .html#4548

And I will try to update the FAQ today with all the necessary explanations.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:42 pm

Ah OK. I understand it now. (I had one filter, that is too short and thats becaused it is processed at the end. Another similar filter, which was after the filter, was processed first. So I was wondering about it.)

Master X · Post by **Master X** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:42 pm

Anonymous wrote:Ah OK. I understand it now. (I had one filter, that is too short and thats becaused it is processed at the end. Another similar filter, which was after the filter, was processed first. So I was wondering about it.)

This was me. Forgot to log on...

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:05 am

For everybody complaining about missing documentation: Writing Adblock Plus filters, Adblock Plus preferences

Btw, I would appreciate proofreading as usually.

Peng · Post by **Peng** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:16 am

On the preferences page, for extensions.adblockplus.defaultstatusbaraction, it says "Defines the action that should be executed when the toolbar icon is clicked." You forgot to change that to status bar.

Edit: Thanks for the cool documentation.

And for the great extension it's documenting, of course.

Master X · Post by **Master X** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:19 am

"extensions.adblockplus.linktypes" default:"image object"

But my about:config has only "image". And because I do not believe that flash, java and friens have links, objects are not needed to be checked. Or am I wrong?

This documentation is VERY nice. And again I learned a lot (e.g. pipes are also possible at the end of a filter). Thanks very much, this will help many people!

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:30 am

@Peng: Thanks, fixed.

@Master X: I changed the default back a few hours ago

That's because I noticed that you can use object tags to load images as well. It won't harm to check the objects anyway.

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:38 am

The FAQ should also be up-to-date now. I wanted to add a section on Adblock Plus internals (shortcuts and nsIAdblockPlus interface) and a feature comparison for Adblock/Adblock Plus 0.5/Adblock Plus 0.7 (people want it

) - but I don't have time now, this will have to wait. I will release Adblock Plus 0.7 now and change the screenshots.