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Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Taboola paying to pierce AdBlock Plus

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

February 3, 2015 | 2 min read

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Taboola are among firms which have entered 'whitelist' agreements with Adblock Plus allowing ads on their sites through the software.

The tech giants have allegedly made deals with the German firm behind the ad-blocking software, according to the Financial Times. Adblock Plus, which is available on Firefox and Chrome browsers, has been downloaded over 300 million times, boasting 50 million active monthly users.

Eyeo, Adblock's owning company, said it will whitelist companies with transparent ads - allowing their content through the software’s filters as long as its “does not disrupt or distort the page content”.

The firm will unlock small sites' ads for free but companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Taboola will be set back 30 per cent of the revenue from unblocked ads.

Ad unlocking company PageFair last September dubbed ad blocking companies “the Napster of the advertising industry” due to the revenue they cost afflicted firms.

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