Im a little bit new with the pi-hole, i run it an a Pi for a half year
It runs actually very good , it blocks all ads within links abs .. but
when im searching for a specific product in chrome .. mostly the first hits are ads..
When i click on them , some strick pops up.. that iyt is blocked
I know it is a ads, it should be blocked i think..
But the people in at our house , can not accept is and find it very
annoying.
So my question is , should that really be blocked .. ? because it is an action which im doing by myself(im aware of it) . and not a hidden link ..
I am assuming you are referring to search results as presented by Google.
Google is presenting a few links with payed ads somewhere in the list that look like ordinary links.
However, if you click them, Google redirects you to page like googleadservices or doubleclick before forwarding you further to the target page. These redirects won't work if the redirect host is on Pi-hole's blocklist.
Depending on your preferences, you have several options:
white-list those domains
(though that would somehow defy the very reason why you installed Pi-hole)
If you want to take that road, the forum topic How do I determine what domain an ad is coming from? has good insights on how to determine what sites to block.
switch to an alternative search engine
(e.g. www.startpage.com which is a Google search proxy without allowing Google to track you)
Certainly a good step, worth a try, but your family may still not like this, as Google's sponsored ads are missing, and some of your family members might have grown accustomed to see them, as they are based on what Google and its partners already know about them.
install a browser extension that reformats those links to take you directly to the target
(e.g. Google Search Link Fix would be such an extension (at Chrome webstore here).
This would probably imply you trust the extension's developer more than you trust Google, or you deem the risk of leaking data to Google as higher than leaking to a browser extension.
You could also go for a mix of any of those options - the choice is yours
One more option - show the family members that a few lines down in the search results the same product appears directly on the merchant's website, without the ads.
I showed this to my wife and she had no objection to using those links, particularly when I explained how the ad links were gathering data on her. We also moved to the DuckDuckGo search engine.
A search for 5W-30 motor oil results in the first few links served via Google domains, so it may not be as private as they claim. The expanded link in the screen shot has the text "grainger.com" in the displayed link, but that's not the URL.
You are right, those are similar to Google's ads, yet they are not personalised.
In fact, as Startpage (formerly ixquick) is a Google proxy, their search results and ads are served by Google. But in contrast to Google, no personal information is collected or transferred to Google in generating or displaying your search results.
Of course, that privacy ends the moment you leave the search site by clicking on a search result link - but that's true for any one search result, regardless of the search engine you use.
I like they are not hiding that ads are one of their revenue streams (among secure email subscriptions and others). Their Privacy Policy has more details on this.
Our search result pages may include a small number of clearly labeled "sponsored links," which generate revenue and cover our operational costs. Those links are retrieved from platforms such as Google AdSense. In order to enable the prevention of click fraud, some non-identifying system information is shared, but because we never share personal information or information that could uniquely identify you, the ads we display are not connected to any individual user.
I couldn't find how DuckDuck covers their operating costs.
With regards to searching, I think DuckDuckGo retrieves its results from Bing, Yahoo and others, so likely produces quite different search results.
But this is beginnig to sound like I am advertising a certain search engine (which it shouldn't!).
Generally, it's a good idea to frequent different search engines for both increased privacy and better / more thorough / different search results.
Pick your own - DuckDuckGo and Startpage are by far not the only privacy respecting search engines, and there are lots of other specialised searches out there.
Anyway, I am not seeing those sponsored ads at all, as I have disabled Javascript by default in any of my browsers (click for scrrenshot):
