oliverturner / ad-tracker

Inspect GPT requests

AdTracker

This is an extension for Chromium browsers. Once installed, visit any page on FT.com displaying Google Ads and open the web inspector

• Ad requests are logged to the console as they are resolved
• The most useful properties are surfaced at the top level
• Further details are available in sub-objects labelled "other"

"ad-1": {...},
"ad-2": {...},
"ad-3": {
  prev_iu_szs: "320x50",
  prev_scp: "format=stacked&image=hidden&pos=native",
  us_privacy: "1---",
  cust_params: {
      device_spoor_id: "e644be6d-cd8d-4ca6-9711-78a0b40a51f6",
      guid: "63c4feab-5de0-4eff-8742-f8a07f8e19d7",
      loggedIn: "true",
      permutive: "...",
      other: {...}
  },
  other: {...}
}

inspectSlots

A function called inspectSlots is also added. Invoking it parses the data-o-ads-* attributes on each slot:

{
  "name": "article-native",
  "init": "true",
  "targeting": {
    "format": "stacked",
    "image": "hidden",
    "pos": "native"
  },
  "label": "true",
  "formats": {
    "default": ["false"],
    "extra": ["false"],
    "large": ["PartnerContent"],
    "medium": ["PartnerContent"],
    "small": ["PartnerContent"]
  }
}

The easiest way to invoke it is via a bookmarklet. A preconfigured one that you can drag to your favourites is available at https://financial-times.github.io/advertising/.

Alternatively you can create a bookmark called "Inspect slots" and edit its address to read

javascript:window.postMessage({ type: "INSPECT_SLOTS" }, "*");

Installation

1. Copy the root directory to your machine
2. Follow these instructions for side-loading the extension:

• Edge
• Chrome

Development

1. Run npm i
2. Run npm run dev: dist/ will now be rebuilt on changes to the source files
3. Apply your updates by clicking the "reload" button in the extension's settings (you won't see any changes without doing this)

TODO

• Constrain inspection to FT.com pages
• Tie requests back to the slots that triggered them
• Support copying parsed values to the clipboard