Hi Drake,

You're thinking of Adblock Plus (ABP), an unrelated product developed by a different company.

ABP started the Acceptable Ads program a few years ago. It includes a whitelist that large companies can pay to join as long as their ads meet the criteria for non-intrusive advertising. (Their fees subsidize smaller companies, which can join the whitelist for free, again as long as their ads meet the criteria). AdBlock agreed to participate in the program when ABP agreed to move control of the whitelist to an independent board, which they did earlier this year.

Unlike other ad blockers, AdBlock and ABP don't take a "scorched earth" approach to blocking ads. The web simply isn't sustainable under that model. It's a balancing act, and we find that most folks don't mind seeing a few unobtrusive ads that help to pay for content they like.

Rhana Cassidy
AdBlock Community Manager