[FEATURE] - Add option to make ads obvious instead of hiding them

[threadsleep]

Background

For many of us, the problem with ads are not necessarily that they are there, but that they are carefully designed to look like normal page content. The worst examples are the ads on download pages, since all the ads seem to display legitimate-looking download buttons.

What to change

It would be awesome to add an option that, instead of removing the ad from the page entirely, simply highlights it, marks it, or adds other emphasis to indicate that the element is an ad. This allows ads to show and sites to earn ad revenue, while protecting the unsuspecting from clicking camouflaged ads unaware

ex.

[threadsleep]

The element-highlighter that is used in the block element utility might be a good style to pursue for this

[sebastian]

Note that we already allow ​Acceptable Ads. One of the criteria for such ads, which aren't blocked by default with Adblock Plus, is that they must be clearly labeled as ads and must be distinguishable from page content.

However, automatically marking those elements as ads is problematic. The injected label may overlap with page content, or interfere in another way with the website. Also in quite a few cases (e.g. when blocking the script initializing the ads) Adblock Plus don't even know the actual element showing the ad.