(Kinda SOLVED) URLs that cause Odyssey to redirect to "about:blank" :-(

I've noticed this a few times recently, where I open a link in a new tab, and then when I come to the tab I find it's blank & incorrectly shows the URL is about:blank . Strangely it will often happen on a handful URLs on a website, but not other URLs on the same website!

I had thought it was just the website being crap, but it's happened on at least two widely-used websites (interestingly after they've had a revamp), and now I get it on this website:

http://pixel.google.com/

Does this happen for other people? I'm suspecting a HTML5 bug in Odyssey.

@ChrisH

I experimented the same too.
Also, some links are not clickable but they are (test in another browser).

@ChrisH

Works here, (ISP is VM) shows images of a Tablet and keyboard, with an offer to sign up for emails.

@Draby
Thanks!

@all, yescop
I solved the problem! It's down to my "Conf/blocked.prefs" file (which is the latest one downloaded from http://adblock.free.fr/adblock.txt ).

After some trial & error with the "Content Blocking" Window, I found that the following line was the cause:
Quote:

Anyone got any suggestion on how to fix this, beyond just Allowing? edit: I guess it was matching "pixel.", but I guess that simply removing "pixel|" won't prevent it from randomly matching other URLs, so unless someone can make it less over-the-top in matching anything, I guess we just have to Remove or Allow it. (I recommend Remove, since otherwise it may allow adverts that would otherwise be blocked).

This looks a bit like a simple regexp pattern matching. The link you clicked probably contains some of the keywords in this line.

Maybe that's why some links just fail to work for me to in random places!

@Deniil
While I'm a master at AmigaDOS patterns, I'm completely useless at regexp patterns . Maybe you can make that pattern a little less "match everything"?

@ChrisH

Seems like a flaw in adblocker design if it disalows explicitloy clicked on links, what ever their pattern.

Perhaps now that you have identified the issue you can make simpler rules allowing certain sites explicitly, or does it only block?

@broadblues

I have recently ran into these non-links, though I didn't realize the cause was/could have been AdBlock. I'm guessing it's server side so it isn't so simple. More commonplace is the plead message "don't block our revenue".

@Thematic

Quote:

Adblockings certainly not server side. It simply blocks and request to certain url patterns from being sent in the first place, I'd guess that sites that display some please don't block message have used a CSS trick to overlay the ads on a div with the don't block message in it, so it's not seen in normal circumstances, or perhaps some client side script to detect the non loading of the ad.

I've also discovered another Content Blocking rule causing me problems:
Quote:

As it prevents me opening the following pages:
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-isnt-int ... ing-on-steam-rep-assures/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/16/iab_lean_ads/

Can anyone experienced with reg-exp work-out why the rule is blocking anything with "ad" anywhere in the URL? And fix it?