W3C_annual_most_used_survey_blocklist

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                                                      NOTICE

Google's Manifest Mv3 now allows for 15.000 dynamic filter rules. This is the reason why I am experimenting with a "World's most used" version (currently < 10.000 rules). End of July I wll delete Mv2 and "addendum to Edge/Firefox".

Host file format available at https://github.com/mikynov/kees1958-most-used-ad-hosts thanks to Mikynov

                                                      SOURCES

The blocklists are based on surveys of most used advertising and tracking technology (e.g. surveys of W3C, W3Tech and the digital marketing community itself). The online advertising industry likes to keep lists of top performing companies in the ad supply chain (including advertising exchange platforms). The list and surveys monitored are oriented on Europe and North America, this is the reason this blocklist contains mostly EU and US based advertising and tracking networks.

                            WHY USE A LIMITED ADVERTISING AND TRACKING NETWORKS BLOCK LIST? 

In advertising the number one (Google) has a marketshare of around 40 percent, Facebook the number two hits the 20 percent mark while the number three (Comscore) just has a little over 2.5% marketshare. For comparison Amazon with its huge webstore generates about the same advertising traffic on its own website. Number 100 on this list is probably used at 5000 websites of the Alexa Top 300.000 websites, while number 500 may only track you on 250 websites of the Alexa Top 10.000.000.

This study performed by the Brave browser developers supports above claim (scroll to "EasyList Applied at the Web" section): https://brave.com/the-mounting-cost-of-stale-ad-blocking-rules/ ==> "WE (Brave) FOUND THAT ONLY 201 RULES ACCOUNTED FOR 90% OF THE BLOCKING ACTIVITY"

                                              LOW UPDATE FREQUENCY

Because this list focusses on the advertising and tracking networks which place the adds on the websites you visit, this list is not subjective to a lot of changes. Simply because it takes a lot of time and money to build such a backbone (ad serving) network. Also the digital marketeers using these networks are a constraining factor, because most don't like to learn how to use new software which makes them reluctant to change to a different advertising platform when the business advantage is marginal.

                                                  SUGGESTED USAGE

Best safe for work combo is "Most Used EU+US MV3" + "URL tracking param" (the reason I started with this most used filter was because EasyList filters broke web functionality on my work laptop). Best Ad-free private surfing experience is to combine the new "World most used" with AdGuard base and Easylist optimized plus AG URL param and your language filter (AdGuard local language filters are better than EL local language filters). When you are only using one browser profile it is worth learning how to use two profiles (for instance one for working, banking and buying and one for private surfing). On chromium browser it is very easy to harden the surfing profile by setting most site permissions on block (making that profile much safer). Most Chromium browsers also allow you to use different extensions on different profiles.

                                                  ERRORS & ISSUES

Please report site breakage on github by creating an issue. https://github.com/Kees1958/W3C_annual_most_used_survey_blocklist/issues. I will try to correct errors as soon as possible.