AdNauseam and Brave

[cqx931]

Text ads from search engines are okay, but image ads are stopped by Brave's native ad blocking mechanism

They are using Ad Block engine in Rust

[cqx931]

For ad collection/clicking to work, users need to go to brave://settings/shields and disable "Trackers & ads blocking"

[cqx931]

We can't know users brave settings using extension API, but we can add a warning message for brave users and a corresponding FAQ entry if we can verify in the content script that common ads(google ads) have been blocked.

[cqx931]

@dhowe

[dhowe]

So the content-script notices that common ads are blocked and sends a message to the core which triggers the extension warning ? How to recognize that a common ad is blocked ?

[cqx931]

Brave also block ads mostly by blocking web requests. If a user uses Brave and on initial install, we could potentially test it using one of our example pages. If adnauseam can't collect any ads from this page(or a dedicated test script to check whether iframes are fully rendered or not) while other potential reasons are eliminated, we can show a warning message related to Brave's native ad blocking.

But I don't think this should be tested on every page, that would be too much work in vain.

[danielplatt]

How do I install AdNauseam for Brave? When dragging the .crx file into my browser it is automatically disabled and I see no way to enable it.

[dhowe]

@mneunomne pls test

[mneunomne]

Yes, that is indeed happening, can't turn the extension on. Not sure how it worked before, but apparently Brave is not allowing ads that are not from the store anymore:

Extensions that have not been published on the Chrome or Brave Web Store are grayed out and you won't be able to turn them back on.

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017914832-Why-am-I-seeing-the-message-extensions-disabled-by-Brave-?hl=en-GB

[dhowe]

The conclusion here appears to be that Brave no longer allows extensions from outside the Google Chrome store

Here is some discussion about it: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/2457, containing a link to the relevant Brave policy: https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017914832-Why-am-I-seeing-the-message-extensions-disabled-by-Brave-?hl=en-US

[divad42]

I was able to install AdNauseam on Brave from the unpacked zip on both Linux and Windows

[dhowe]

Excellent. @divad42 If you can you include the steps to get them both installed, we can add to our wiki...

@mneunomne we also need to add an FAQ entry (and possible a warning) re: Brave's ad blocking mechanism as described above by @cqx931

[bonecountysheriff]

The chromium zip works on linux, the .crx file doesn't (extension cannot be enabled).

[dhowe]

@mneunomne can you update our page with instructions for installing Brave here: https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on-Chrome-Without-Google's-Permission

[caseysoftware]

On Brave (v1.22.71 on Mac), the quick fix:

• Visit the Extension config screen - brave://extensions/
• In the upper right, turn on Developer Mode which will make some buttons appear directly to the left
• Click the new button "Load Unpacked"
• Choose the directory where you expanded AdNauseam

Yes, this is the same as Chrome right now.

• Assumed, not checked: You still have to keep the directory so put it somewhere to keep, not your Downloads folder
• Suspected, not checked: Brave may disable AdNauseam on upgrade. I've seen that with other no longer supported extensions.

[dhowe]

@mneunomne sounds as if we can treat brave just like chrome -- pls update docs (lets also add a note in post-release testing to check the following suspicion from @caseysoftware):

Brave may disable AdNauseam on upgrade. I've seen that with other no longer supported extensions.

We also need to add a FAQ entry (and possible a warning) re: Brave's ad blocking mechanism as described above by @cqx931

[dhowe]

status @mneunomne ?

[mneunomne]

Sorry @dhowe somehow I missed the latests updates on this issue entirely.

It seems that yes, Brave as far as we are concerned, follows the same installation pattern than chrome. This information is already present in our documentation.

Regarding the image ads blocking, seems that they are being collected collected in general at a lesser level. For them to be collected normally, the user needs to change to "allow trackers and ads" configuration:

[mneunomne]

Added this info on Brave installation segment on chromium installation wiki:

https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on-Chromium-based-browsers#optimal-configuration-for-ad-collection-on-brave