Make VigLink Work with AdBlock Plus and Other Ad Blocking Software

Most ad blocking software like AdBlock Plus rely on blacklists to decide what to filter out. Big ad providers get blocked explicitly and others by common URL patterns. This all relies on the URL of the resources being retrieved by the browser. To get around the blocking you just have to switch the URL to something that would not normally be blocked. A lot of sites serve ads off their own domains to help avoid getting blocked and with VigLink it is just a matter of linking to a local copy of the JavaScript include.

The process goes something like this:

1. Create PHP or any server-side script that pulls the JavaScript file from VigLink and writes the contents to a .js file
2. Create cronjob to run that script every night in case VigLink pushes out an update
3. Remove the part of the original VigLink snippet that writes out the <script> include, leaving the API URL and key values
4. Add a <script> tag with the src pointing at the .js file created in step 1

Browsers with AdBlock Plus will now happily pull the JavaScript file from your server because you aren’t on the blacklist (if you are then good luck with that). I’ve left out details because there are so many variables. If you want some help implementing this on your site then send a donation my way or buy something at Amazon (you should see VigLink’s tag as a test of this workaround) and then contact me.