Why Your Pop-Up Blocker Doesn't Work Anymore 653
An anonymous reader writes "If you've noticed that pop-up ad windows seem to have made an unwelcome return into your life, it's because they're not using the same easily blockable technology as before. The Adimpact system uses DHTML to annoy you, and there's no immediate prospect of a solution."
That's why Adblock plus exists ! (Score:4, Informative)
Popups? (Score:5, Informative)
What popups?
This mostly popup free browsing experience brought to you by the makers of Firefox and NoScript.
Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! (Score:4, Informative)
Ubuntu, NoScript and ABP. I went to the Adimpact website, no pop-up visible.
"Unblockable"...like the Titanic was unsinkable.
I hadn't noticed (Score:3, Informative)
Articles like this ... (Score:5, Informative)
... are like free endorsements for Firefox + adblock plus + NoScript + ... some other extensions.
The more they keep annoying users, the more popular the solution becomes.
What's the big deal ? (Score:4, Informative)
Use flash blocker.
Also Opera has a facility to easily block a feed. Right click, click on the offending item, click done. you're done.
How many sources does this company have? Unless they have a lot, their adds are gone.
I don't know if FF has this or not ...
Re:Popups? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Great article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Won't be long (Score:3, Informative)
It's in this (useful, but long) one:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [mvps.org]
Basics of DHTML popups (Score:5, Informative)
Check out http://dhtmlpopups.webarticles.org/ [webarticles.org] for a quick set of examples of these.
It looks like a bit of experimentation could yeild a reasonably reliable greasemonkey script to kill these when not click initated.
HOSTS file FTW! (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using a hosts file since around 2003. It blocks out all those ads, popups, spyware,adware, stops alot of virii from calling home, you name it. I scan my computer about once a month, and I haven't had any of the 'serious outbreaks' of adware like all my friends. They all swear by their software programs to block it(ultimately, they always end up reformatting when they cant quite get rid of them all) but my solution uses no resources and doesn't require 'scanning' for them regularly.
I use it on my parent's computer and only update it once a year at Christmas. Even with only updating once a year they haven't gotten any adware/spyware yet, and it's been 3 years.
I highly recommend it. Give it a try, there's nothing to lose but the crapware.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [mvps.org]
Re:Popups? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Annoying but expected (Score:5, Informative)
Or install Firefox and the Flashblock extension, which blocks ALL Flash content until explicitly allowed (which can either be once or always for a particular site). Which is better than AdBlock's version, that lets you block Flash but makes you explicitly block rather than blanket-block. (Blanket-block is better because 90% or more of Flash content encountered is ads.)
Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: (Score:5, Informative)
It is actually quite interesting to see the number of cross site scripts that are called in lots of websites. So you have complete control over that. It is not flat blocking it out...
Re:Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse (Score:2, Informative)
Then Microsoft bought them, and I thought "Mayne it won't be too bad".
"Lost" e-mails, loads of spam, unreliable delivery and receipt. These things pushed me to look at other services, but the final straw was the ads. The large, glaring, annoying, brightly colored/blinking/moving ads. It was like trying to read a book while someone points a flashlight into your eyes.
So I moved to GMail. Their are ads, but they are unobtrusive. I see them at the top of the page, and I have even clicked on a few, but they don't interfere with what I came to do - read my e-mail.
I recognize that sites need advertising dollars to support themselves, and I hate resorting to ad-blockers for this reason - but the advertising has gone too far. When half the page is flashing/moving you can't focus on the content, and content is what it is all about.
I don't know that I have a point to this message, except maybe to get MY perspective on this issue out there, but I am with you. I hope that the service providers lost enough users to come to their senses.
I do use adblock, but try to keep the bloklist to only the most annoying ads. I also use NoScript, and think it is one of the best extensions out there. Between the to, I rarely see popups. When one does sneak in there, I will usually take steps to keep it from happening again.
Re:NoScript makes the web useless. (Score:5, Informative)
Why was he moderated "FlameBait?"
I think we need more meta-moderation, and people that get unmodded ought to get fewer mod privileges (if that's not already how it works). Unbelievable.
Anyway, I don't disable it... what annoys me is every few days there's an "update" whose sole purpose, IMO, is to keep NoScript at the top of the popularity list, and then when you do upgrade, it automatically loads the NoScript page in Firefox when it finally starts up. I often just click to skip installing the upgrade, but that gets tedious, too.
I very rarely encounter pages where it's not obvious which script I need to allow, although it certainly does happen.
Re:Great article (Score:2, Informative)
Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! (Score:3, Informative)
No popup for me, but I don't allow Slashdot to run scripts!
Re:Annoying but expected (Score:4, Informative)
Or install Firefox and the Flashblock extension
No kidding... I was thinking "what popups?" when I read this. I run noscript, but same difference.
Re:Won't be long (Score:4, Informative)
Open it in notepad (or other basic text editor like EditPlus)
Under the line "127.0.0.1 localhost" add your own line that will be
127.0.0.1 porn.spam.com
Basically each new line will start with 127.0.0.1 and then tab and include the place you are want to block.
Recommendation 1: Backup the file before editing it.
Recommendation 2: Go line and look for hosts files people have put available on the web. Copy it and save it. I once had a hosts file that was about 2 megs in size. Considering it is plain text that was a LOT of sites it blocked. It was my own little slice of heaven...though I had to becareful, it blocked sites that I enjoyed (e.g. Netflix).
Re:Great article (Score:2, Informative)
I've never seen a pop-up for NetFlix. Oh, right, I forgot...
I use Firefox. :P
Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: (Score:5, Informative)
Well, for some of us it's not a case of not using Flash or Javascript, but rather *us* deciding when and where we choose to allow it. I'll happily put up with the occasional ill-loaded page requiring Javascript/Flash enabling and reload (click on noscript icon in the status area and click on the servers I wish to allow, or allow all temporarily), rather than have to put up with the hideous clutter and tracking all over the web.
I have Javascript whitelisted for a quite a number of sites I regularly visit who put it to good use. I can also put up with letting certain semi-trusted organisations have information on what I'm doing on the site as well.
Having NoScript is perfectly sensible - particularly when performing a search on Google for example, and visiting random websites who could not only have malicious Javascript code, but could indeed just have slow-loading broken code.
Most websites load a lot faster (no matter how fast your system/net connection) without having to wait for scripts to load from random third-party ad sites.
Re:Great article (Score:5, Informative)
Adblock is great for fine-grained filtering of sites. I use it fairly sparingly, since I maintain a large hosts file to kill traffic with any server I find to be suspect. NoScript works, but I just find it too intrusive to be my weapon of choice. But my combo kills nearly all traffic I don't want to see...
Re:HOSTS file FTW! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Annoying but expected (Score:2, Informative)
Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! (Score:1, Informative)
What? I see nothing but Slashdot.
FF + NS + ABP = :-D
Re:Annoying but expected (Score:2, Informative)
Re:"Unblockable" (Score:2, Informative)
I find that for example Slashdot has made big improvements thanks to it's newer JavaScript user interface. Now that I can fetch a hidden comment without having to reload the whole page, it really really improves my experience. Before I wouldn't bother reading them because I had to wait for the whole page to reload again, then once more when I hit back.
There are a lot of websites out there which make good use of Javascript, and a lot of crappy sites who seem to make up for their lack of content with Javascript eye candy and split page articles and the likes... that won't change and has not much to do with Javascript itself, if it wasn't for javascript and dhtml they'd bother you with animating gifs or flashs or whatever.
Re:NoScript makes the web useless. (Score:3, Informative)
I disagree. At first you will have to allow sites all the time, but once you set it up for the sites you commonly visit, you won't have much of a problem. Usually it's just a matter of checking the noscript button when a new site doesn't work, then enabling one or two domains once, and then never again for the site.
Don't enable per-page, that IS more annoying than it's worth. Unless you're on geocities or some other large hosting provider... but AFAIK most of those at least give you a subdomain now (googlepages) or people get their own domain names... so it's not a big problem anymore.
I also disable the notification bar, since I find it annoying, and keep NoScript confined to the status bar.
Re:NoScript makes the web useless. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Won't be long (Score:5, Informative)
Wouldn't it be better to use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1? The latter attempts to connect while the former doesn't bother.
No: [ietf.org]
While you are correct that using localhost for 'ad diversion' would hit a locally running web server, but at least you'd could have a log of your results. Just thinking of it, but wouldn't it be cool to see your own personal pictures/content instead of ads?
Re:Annoying but expected (Score:5, Informative)
I can attest personally to the power and convenience of Flashblock. It's simply a great system.
Upon installation (and a restart), Flashblock will replace all, ALL, flash components on every page with an empty, but clearly outlined box where the flash applet would have been. In this way, over all page layout is unaffected during the block.
At the center of this empty block, Flashblock puts a recognizable stylized "F" icon, which when hovered over, turns into a standard "Play" symbol. Personally, I think it should always be a play symbol, but that's just nit picking. After this icon is clicked, the flash applet, and only THAT applet, loads and begins just as it would have insisted on doing when, or even before the page was finished loading.
No more crazy ads. No more loud and obnoxious audio content. No more flash-bomb pages, slowing the system to a crawl, and/or crashing firefox. Admittedly, the crash problem still exists, but now you risk it only at your own behest. Normal use of flash, e.g. Youtube, is almost completely unaffected, and IMHO even improved by flashblock. The web page is cleanly and gracefully separated from the flash content, as it always should have been.
Flashblock is the first extension I download on any new firefox install. I highly recommend it.
Re:Great article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Great article (Score:5, Informative)
To make NoScript less intrusive, try configuration options. For example, 'temp allow top-level sites by default' is good for seeing most of what you want, without seeing what you don't (ad content from another site). Of course, more risky for users blindly following pr0n links to sites where even the top level is dangerous.
But then again, I'm sure you don't do that, eh?
While we're on the subject, Redirect Remover is worth a look too...
Re:HOSTS file FTW! (Score:3, Informative)
Note, I haven't used either of those programs in about 3 years, I have no idea if they still exist.
Re:Great article (Score:3, Informative)
You're assuming that I am a target for online advertising. Because the ads are irrelevant to me, they're better off saving bandwidth and showing them to someone else. Besides, your logic would dictate that because I press the mute button (or skip them all together!) during commercials, that I should now start having to pay for OTA transmissions.
Greasemonkey + userscripts.org (Score:3, Informative)
Netflix Ajax Remover
This script removes the ajax handlers from all of the netflix add to queue links.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4055 [userscripts.org]
Re:Annoying but expected (Score:3, Informative)
Use adblock plus element hiding helper to get rid of the floating div(you might also need to crush the background overlay div).
Then you dont need to click close ever again.
http://adblockplus.org/en/elemhidehelper [adblockplus.org]
Re:Great article (Score:3, Informative)
You have to Cancel or Allow on every site...?
I use Windows Vista, you insensitive clod! I've clicked cancel or allow so many times I can do it in my sleep now.
Re:Great article (Score:5, Informative)
Javascript IS basic functionality. Welcome to 1990.
Re:NoScript makes the web useless. (Score:3, Informative)
about:config -> noscript.firstRunRedirection -> set to false
Re:Great article (Score:1, Informative)
Before your trip, go to google.maps and print out your route and give the to the brats(don't give them a real map, or it will never be folder properly again). Teach your kids to read a map and road signs.
"I don't know. You tell me." is an amazingly effective answer.
Re:HOSTS file FTW! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Great article (Score:4, Informative)
Popups are why I hesitate to go to weather.com
If you're in the US, use weather.gov It's where weather.com and local broadcasters get their weather data from anyway.
No, they don't. Weather.com, the web presence of "The Weather Channel", has their own forecasters, and they're seldom as accurate as the NOAA. But at least they're not as bad as AccuWeather.com, which is one of the companies that sells forecasts to local TV stations.
weather.gov [weather.gov] may not be a pretty site, but it rocks in terms of usability and accuracy of the data. And I already paid for it from my taxes!
Re:Great article (Score:3, Informative)
Disabling right-clicks does not disable copy and paste. You see the menu at the top of your browser? Guess what is under "Edit" on just about every browser in existence. You can usually find View Page Source somewhere nearby as well.
Disabling right-click is stupid and annoying. It serves no purpose.