Google is again allowing Ad Blocker apps to be published in its Store

Google is probably the biggest software company right now having the presence in almost every part of the tech industry. But, the majority of its incomes are still coming from ads making Google (sorry, it's Alphabet now) basically the biggest ad agency in the world and its ad network probably the richest data mine (along Facebook) right now. So when Google started blocking ad blocker apps on Play store and suspending their updates, that wasn't really a surprising move. But what's really surprising is that, apparently, Google enabled ad blocker apps again.

Ad blocker technology saw a tremendous rise in popularity in recent years, with Adblock (plus) extension for web browsers being the most popular among users. But the market is changing, with more and more online activity being moved to mobile platforms. The problem is that installing a simple extension on your web browser wasn't possible on mobile OS, like Android and iOS. But with time we got ad block extensions support for Firefox mobile or Dolphin browser, and Adblock Plus browser that has built-in ad-blocking features was the first browser to have this option integrated into the app. Even Apple introduced ad blocking support in iOS 9, allowing developers to build third party apps that will work with Safari's ad blocking API.

And while Apple allowed third party developers to publish apps that will integrate with Safari and allow users ad-free browsing experience, Google denied it, at first. When Samsung released a new version of its Samsung Internet Browser it supported third party apps that could be installed on your device, and then work with the browser to enable you ad blocking and faster browsing. Developers quickly started to publish ad blocking apps and soon after that many of them noticed that their apps couldn't be updated, or were simply rejected from Google Play.

One of those apps, Adblock Fast, quickly became extremely popular and after the app was pulled from the Play Store developers of the app, Rocketship Apps filed a complaint to Google. In response, Google told them that they were violating "section 4.4" that can be found in the Android Developer Distribution Agreement. The section reads that developers are forbidden from releasing apps that hamper with "the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third-party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator."

Other apps like Crystal and Adblock Plus (Samsung browser) had only been declined for updates.

But after a couple of days, it seems that appealing worked and that Adblock fast is again allowed to be in the Play Store, Google has reapproved and published the app again on Google Play, even allowing the app to be updated. Crystal also got its update to be accepted by Google.

While this could've been another show of force by Google, it ended up as a big victory for independent developers and for the ad block software in general as well. We are just hoping that this decision won't be changed and that people will retain the option of surfing on the ad-free web if they want to.