Samsung's online ad-blocking app, Adblock Fast, is on Google Play

Sina Technology News Beijing time on February 4th morning news, Samsung on Google Play online advertising blocking app Adblock Fast in recent days quickly jumped to the top of the Google Play Store rankings, afterGoogle.The app was removed for violating developer specifications.

AdBlock Fast is an ad-blocking plug-in developed by startup Rocket Apps for Samsung Mobile Browser. The browser also opened its API this week, allowing third-party developers to add content blocking.

Brian Kennish, of Rocketship, said Adblock Fast violated section 4.4 of the Developer Distribution Agreement by not allowing apps or plug-ins distributed through the Play Store to "interfere" or "disrupt" devices, networks or third-party services. Google confirmed that it did remove Adblock Fast. But it did not clarify why the software was still off the shelves with Samsung's public involvement.

Since Adblock Fast was dropped, two other Samsung-compatible Android app blocking plug-ins have risen sharply, including Crystal and AdBlock Plus. It's unclear whether Google hasn't noticed the two products, or whether Rocketship has taken some explicit violations of the Play Store code, which Crystal and Adblock Plus did not violate.

Adblock Plus tried to promote the company's Android ad blocker in 2013, but encountered a similar problem and was only recently allowed to re-launch, but only by binding to its own browser.

For now, Google appears to be not allowing third-party apps to block ads on other companies' products, even though the two companies have reached an agreement. Firefox allows ad blockers to be installed on its Android browser as plug-ins, but only through the browser itself. Samsung can also offer Adblock Fast through its pre-installed app store. The company declined to comment.

Since Samsung is Google's biggest partner on Android, the relationship has been strained. Simply put, here's a summary: Samsung lets its partners violate the Play Store's rules by supporting a feature that could pose a threat to Google's advertising business. This is particularly bad for Google, which recently began taking steps to cope with a decline in mobile web traffic because of relatively little revenue from the app.

Source: Sina Science and Technology Book