Mechanism for Identifying Ads on a Webpage [Specifically AdBlock] [closed]

Question

I am currently doing a research project and I am attempting to figure out a good way to identify ads given access to the html of a webpage.

I thought it might be a good idea to start with AdBlock. AdBlock is a program that prevents ads from being displayed to the user, so presumably it has a mechanism for identifying things as ads.

I downloaded the source code for AdBlockPlus, but I find myself completely lost in all of the files. I am not sure where to start looking for this detection mechanism, so I was wondering if anyone had any advice on where to start. Alternatively if you have dealt with AdBlock before and are familiar with it, I would appreciate any extra information.

For example, if the webpage needs to be rendered in a real browser to use Adblock, there are programs that will automate the loading of a webpage so this wouldn't be a problem but I am not sure how to figure out if this is what AdBlock does in the first place.

Note: AdBlock is written in Python and Perl :)

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would advise you to first have a look at writing adblock filter rules.

Then, once you get an idea of this, you can start parsing adblock lists available in various languages to suit your needs.