Ecosia has detected an ad blocker

lindsten

I'm using the Ecosia search engine and for a while now it's been asking me to whitelist Ecosia in my ad blocker. However, as far as I know, I don't use any ad blocker. I've not installed any ad blocker plugins and my understanding is that there is no built-in ad blocker in Vivaldi (is that correct?).

Does anyone have any idea why Ecosia has detected that I run an ad blocker?

iAN CooG

All I can say is that I have uBlock Origin and it's not detected if deactivated or ecosia.org is whitelisted, otherwise ecosia warns in the search results that it's detected.
Open extensions page (ctrl-shift-E) and see if you really have no extensions, if you have, probably one of them IS an ad-blocker.

Catweazle

@lindsten said in Ecosia has detected an ad blocker:

I'm using the Ecosia search engine and for a while now it's been asking me to whitelist Ecosia in my ad blocker. However, as far as I know, I don't use any ad blocker. I've not installed any ad blocker plugins and my understanding is that there is no built-in ad blocker in Vivaldi (is that correct?).

Does anyone have any idea why Ecosia has detected that I run an ad blocker?

It must be an Ecosia thing. I imagine that, when financed by search, to finance its purpose of planting trees, it naturally includes a script that detects if something blocks this function.
If you use Windows, the same in its network properties includes blocking pop-ups, it lacks much efficiency, but perhaps enough for Ecosia to detect it as an adblocker.
It's the only explanation I can think of
Review the settings in Windows Network properties, and if this is the case, disable this option

lindsten

@iAN-CooG
The extensions page just shows "Boo… You have no extensions".

@Catweazle, @Gwen-Dragon
If ads were blocked by Windows somehow, wouldn't that affect other browsers as well? I just tried with Chrome, Opera, FireFox and Internet Explorer and Ecosia doesn't say anything about ad blockers in those browsers.

I guess I can install an ad blocker simply to to whitelist Ecosia, but it would be interesting to know what is different with Vivaldi ...

luetage

Installing an adblocker just to whitelist Ecosia is probably overdoing it. You could however install an adblocker and run a "Adblock Warning Removal List". This way you enjoy adblocking while not getting annoyed by adblock warnings ^^

Catweazle

Me neither, and I use an adblocker (Adblock Genesis, it's an improved uBlock)

Blackbird

Navigate to Settings > Search > hover over Ecosia and slide the cursor to the Edit icon (pencil on paper) that pops up to the right of the "e" shortcut letter > left click that icon. An "Edit Search Engine" box should appear, whose top line should be the following:

https://www.ecosia.org/search?tt=vivaldi&q=%s

Is that what you have?

lindsten

@Gwen-Dragon
My Vivaldi version is 1.13.1008.32 (Stable channel) (32-bit). Before I do a reset I will try with a clean install on another laptop.

@Catweazle
I think I'll maybe try with an ad blocker and see if that helps. It could be useful anyway (for certain other sites, that is).

@Blackbird
Yep, that's exactly what I have.

lindsten

Here is an update.

I haven't got around to try with a clean install yet, but I just tried installing Adblock Genesis. Unfortunately, I still get the warning from Ecosia and it doesn't matter if I have Ecosia whitelisted or not.

I'm currently running version 1.13.1008.40 (Stable channel) (32-bit).

I will try on another computer tonight.

Blackbird

@purgatori Ecosia works fine in the US on my Win10-Pro system with Vivaldi 1.13.1008.40 (Stable channel 64-bit) with cookies set to block 3rd-party cookies and which actively runs Ghostery and ScriptSafe extensions, as well as the system using the latest MVPS hosts file. Those extensions and the hosts file typically block most ad sites, as well as the JavaScripting that often invokes ad sites... yet Ecosia works fine with all of those potential blocking actions, and I have not created any Ecosia white-listing in anything.

Given that you're able to search Ecosia on other browsers on your system without the message, yet other users with Vivaldi on their systems aren't seeing the issue, the implication is that there is something unique to the Vivaldi/system/IP-connection combination of your particular system that is leading to Ecosia creating the message. The challenge is to pin down what is unique.

First, are there any particular Vivaldi settings that may be interfering somehow (proxy/VPN, cookie-blocking, Google Phishing and Malware Protection, etc) that aren't present in other browsers?

Second, what AV are you using, and does it work with Vivaldi the same as it does with other browsers in terms of allowed redirections and references to websites other than the immediate one being visited by the browser?

Third, what geographic region are you located in, and does that have an impact when Ecosia attempts to use your Vivaldi user-agent string in determining what ads to deliver to you (if any)?

lindsten

Another update.

I've finally taken the time to install Vivaldi on another laptop. With this install I get no ad blocker warning from Ecosia, so it must be something with my first installation that is broken. I won't investigate that any further. Thank you all for your help!