Adbuster

This essay is about a suggested student project in Java programming. This essay gives a rough overview of how it might work. It does not describe an actual complete program. I have no source, object, specifications, file layouts or anything else useful to implementing this project. Everything I have to say to help you with this project is written below. I am not prepared to help you implement it; I have too many other projects of my own.

I do contract work for a living, which could include writing a program such as this. However, I don’t do people’s homework for them. That just robs them of an education.

You have my full permission to implement this project any way you please.

This is a browser plug-in that gets rid of ads from the pages you browse. It could also be implemented as a filter on TCP/IP, independent of the browser. That is a simpler environment, but makes interaction with the user more difficult. How does an adbuster recognise ads?

You tell it which ads offend you by clicking on them. It remembers their URLs and suppresses loading in future.
It loads suspect frames in the background without displaying them. If they contain nothing but an animated GIF or if they contain certain ad buzzwords, they are suppressed.
Any time multiple frames pop up, The adbuster suppresses all but the last.
Marked obnoxious ads can be collected from users of an adbuster, verified and added to a database.
Sites known to dispense nothing but ads can be blacklisted in toto.
Offsite graphics can be presumed to be ads, especially banner sized ones.

The generic name for this class of program is named in honour of the work done by Adbuster magazine. After I wrote this I discovered there is a commercial program along these lines already called Adbusters.org. Surf+, Proxomitron.

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