"Pop Under" Advestising Filtering? 21
Mansing asks: "It has finally happened. A good number of the mainstream web sites my users access (NY Times, CNN) have gone to using "Pop Under" advertising. For those who have missed this delightful advertising approach, the content provider places a small Javascript script in their web page that opens a 700 by 420 pixel window with the advertiser's content. (See FastClick for details about 'Pop Unders') The first advertiser I noticed was X10.com. As mentioned previously on Slashdot, that particular advertiser has an "opt out" page that will remove the advertisement for thirty days. (Which doesn't exactly work correctly) There have always been small, unobtrusive pop up Javascript windows to promote something from the site, but normally these windows were features of the site, not an advertisement. " It all boils down to immature use of Javascript's window.open() call. There are a few browsers out there that have implemented the beginnings of a solution, though. Konqueror, for example, can tailor the use of Javascript by site domain and can globally disable the use of window.open(). Now if the two features could be combined somehow, in browsers like Konqueror and Mozilla, we'd have an effective tool against such behavior.
"The quick solution is to disable Javascript in the browser. However, this is unacceptable to the users. Another solution is to boycott those sites that use "Pop Under" advertising. This solution is becoming more untenable as the spread of this advertising format has infected so many popular sites. Boycotting the advertiser is effective, but is doesn't remove the advertisements.
Surely in the Slashdot community there must be a technical solution for these bandwidth burning advertisements. Has anyone implemented a solution to this, or are we Internet users stuck being abused by marketing droids who don't realize how quickly they are annoying the very markets they seek?"
Mozilla (Score:2)
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/compon
Opt Out of X10 Forever (Score:2)
-Waldo
This is such obvious stuff (Score:2)
1) disable the javascript open window command, globally or by domain
2) passable page rendering
3) support for the downloadable Java plugin from Sun. No need to reinvent the wheel.
4) Comes with the Boehm garbage collector built in.
5) No core dumps
If those features were supported, I'd switch browsers. Why don't people think of these things? They are so obvious.
Turning off Javascript is not a Problem (Score:3)
Re:And the big deal is.... (Score:1)
Re:This is such obvious stuff (Score:1)
3 works or should work (haven't tried lately).
4 -- ummm ok, sure. Mozilla does build with Boehm, but it is only used to track down problems. Garbage collected systems typically use more memory and are slower than explicit memory management -- why is Boehm a show stopper for you?
As for 5, try 'ulimit -c 0'; thats about as good as it gets.
proxies (Score:1)
Also makes a good
Re:Omniweb has the right idea (Score:1)
The OmniWeb browser on Mac OSX (I don't know if they make it for other platforms) has an option that says "Scripts are allowed to open new windows only in response to being clicked."
Once this browser gets a little more stable it may become my main OSX browser because of this one feature. It is such an elegant solution I'm almost worried the Omni Group are going to patent it. Hmm... if they do, maybe they can take a serious run at IE's market share?
Re:And the big deal is.... (Score:2)
...until people ignore or filter pop-unders the way they ignore or filter banner ads. So ad designers will find another, more intrusive and annoying way to attempt to program your buying habits, and so it goes, round and round, until no physical or virtual surface, or audio channel, is free of a pitch for something.
Or...we can stop the "advertizing arms race", and agree to limit the place and manner of ads so that ad space becomes a valuable resource (good for content producers), and we are not so constantly bombarded with consumption-oriented memes that our perceptions have to dull in self-defense (good for us).
IM ever so HO, a good way to work towards such an agreement is to develop ad blocking technology.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
The Ingerent Problem (Score:1)
Would you rather the site you are viewing goes bankrupt from lack of advertising revenue? Or charge you to view the site?
discussion at plastic (Score:1)
Re:Turning off Javascript is not a Problem (Score:2)
But if that's not enough - just firewall out the offending domain.
My first experience with pop-unders was on clicktv.com, a TV listings site. In order to see what episode of Star Drek is being aired, you need Javashit enabled. Unfortunately, this also cranks up the popunders.
A glance at the HTML source reveals that the page with the TV listings comes from http://www.clicktv.com, but the Pop-under comes from http://media.fastclick.net. (Clever pigfux0rz, they even thought to dc.write ('<scr'+'ipt language=Javashit' to dodge proxies that filter out the string script language="Javashit")
So I said "fuck 'em", and stuck media.fastclick.net into my C:\WINDOWS\HOSTS, /etc/hosts or Junkbuster proxy file depending on my platform or whether I was running Junkbuster, and the problem went away.
General solution: treat the source of pop-ups and pop-unders the way you would Doubleclick. Firewall 'em. Most of the time, it's an HTTP transaction to a tracker that loads the offending Javashit. Firewall the tracker and the Javashit doesn't show up. If the Javashit can't load, the window don't pop.
Re:This is such obvious stuff (Score:1)
Omniweb has the right idea (Score:3)
This is probably the best solution to this that I have seen. It keeps the useful Javascript and you don't get the pop-up ads.
It also keeps tons of windows from popping up when I'm umm...doing anatomical research.
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Re:And the big deal is.... (Score:2)
No doubt. Flash is becomming more and more a necessity for browsing some sites, and the ads can't be turned off without disabling menus.
Ideally, I'd like to see an option that allows per-domain control of Flash. For example;
If not this, then an option that grabs the text, drops everything else, and reformats the page.
Test Bed (Score:1)
iCab has potential (Score:1)
They also have filters for Java and Javascript, allowing users to filter apps from various sites. It even allows disabling parts of the scripting support
I really don't mind seeing ads in a standard size, on the same page as my content, in a standard file format. When they start using Flash, or asking me to click some damned monkey to win $30,000. (I'm waiting for someone to sue them for $30,000, claiming to have clicked on the monkey.) I start to get a little cheesed.
Re:And the big deal is.... (Score:1)
Webwasher (Score:3)
Not open source, but free (as in beer) for personal use and the best and easiest to use that I've found so far. There's even a Linux version.
It doesn't break too many things, and is easily temporarily disabled when it does. Very handy for Geocities, Astalavista (the sites with the cracks and serials always have pr0n popups), Xoom, etc. pages.
Use a proxy (Score:1)
I've been surfing for month without seeing an add, even on slashdot
You just have to carefully determine which url-part to filter.
Example:
http://ads.*/
http://banner*.*/
*://*.doubleclick.net/
*://*.hitbox.*/
*://*/ads/*
*://*/adserve*
*://*/Ads*.asp?*
*://*/*/banner/*
### yahoo Geocities
*://us.geo1.yimg.com/
*://visit.geocities.com/
*://pic.geocities.com/images/mbe/*
#javascript header:
*://*/toto?*
I don't seen any adds on geocities, even the watermark has disappeared (they add a link to the js instead of the code itselt, thanks). If popups open, they are usually empty because the url used is filtered. I don't have popups on CNN and NY-Times websites...
Here is the url for WWWOFFLE [freshmeat.net]
This is the Linux version, but it's also available in a windows' flavor.
For those who like regexp... (Score:1)
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