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No Pop-up Blocking in Netscape 7.0
jsled writes "C|Net /News.com article details how the forthcoming Netscape 7.0 will not include the nifty pop-up blocking sported in Mozilla, as AOL depends on pop-up ads for annoy^H^H^H^H^Hmarketing to their "valued" customers. The MozillaZine story and comments have a couple of extra, interesting points of detail: how to easily restore the functionality and how some sites get around the popup blocking."
Update: 08/15 12:45 GMT by J : In related news, Doug Isenberg asks over on GigaLaw:
Are Pop-Up Ads Illegal? The news publishers who say "yes" say that turning off graphics in your web browser should be illegal too.
(Original) http://ufaq.org/files/adblocker.xpi
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For those of you who use M$ Internal Exploder, Pop-Down is a nifty program. Relatively small memory footprint, a quick download, freeware. I use it on my computer-illiterate mom's p-120, and it works a whole lot better & faster than a lot of other programs that have to match the title bar with a database. This thing, although crude, lets you limit the number of windows. You also have to hold down CTRL when you want a new window to be formed. Worth a try, I use it.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
Just enter this line in the prefs.js file:
user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);
Fight the Man!
Mozilla Power!
How to disable unrequested (pop-up/behind) windows:
.txt to the filename (adblocker.xpi.txt). Before saving the file, remove .txt from the filename and save the file to disk. Then in Netscape 7 click File | Open to install.
Add this line to your user.js or prefs.js:
user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);
OR
Download the adblocker.xpi file.
http://techaholic.net/adblocker.xpi
When you download the adblocker.xpi file in Netscape 7, it will add
In Netscape 7 click Edit | Preferences | Advanced - Scripts & Windows to unselect or select the Open unrequested windows.
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Get Proxomitron.
It uses regular expressions to allow you to convert anything in HTML (including the HTML headers) to anything you want.
It'll block pop-ups, pop-unders, javascript, cookies, java, or whatever you can write a regex for.
If you're worried that not viewing site X's pop-ups is theft of service, you can not forego using Proxomitron on those sites, either entirely, or on a regex-by-regex basis.
You can bypass filtering just by adding string (like "bypass..") in front of the URL, or automate this with a Bookmark/Favorite set to a simple javascript.
And it makes browsing SO much more enjoyable. It's the difference between night and day, not having annoying, flashing, in-your-face ads.
And it's fast (even with DSL connection speeds) and it's free (as in beer, but hey, they author also licenses it to adsubtract).
Get Proxomitron and take back the web.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Just another example of the coolness that is Mozilla: Bannerblind.
It removes graphics / objects from web pages that match pre-determined sizes. Very cool!
I just went to that guys site, and it had examples of sites using their anti-adblocker.
So I visited them using Mozilla with popups disabled and an ad blocking proxy, and I didn't see a single ad. Some product that guy's pushing. Doesn't even work.
That's why I use mozilla and only disable unrequested popups. So it disables those popups that load when I open or close a page, but the popup graphs on CNN, for example (or the help popups you're talking about), will still load. Javascript is still running too. The only thing it nails are those ad popups, or the "localize CNN" popup that appeared every goddamn time I visited that site.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
So, how long before we see anti-anti-adblocker.xpi? Oh, never mind, just stuff this to prefs.js:
user_pref("capability.policy.antiantiadblocker.sit es, "http://www.antiadblocker.com");m .disable_open_during_load", false);
user_pref("capability.policy.antiantiadblocker.do
... and if there's domains that use this baby, just stuff the domains there. Popups only for those sites. And still it's possible to further enrichen this by killing the actual popups (could get as simple as "if that's not an antiadblocker window, kill it")...
No wonder this guy's a bit frustrated. Fighting a desperate war that can't be won, especially if a random non-Mozilla-geek gives a 2-line recipe that makes the anti-adblocker thing to give false positive =)
Kids: If it's interpreted by the browser, it must get deciphered at some point, and since it is, it can be intercepted and tricked into believing whatever it wants to believe =)
I think this thing will just further the development of Mozilla's security policy editor that was planned but probably pushed out of 1.0 release plan... It works even now!
If popups are disabled, the download won't start, and you'll get a fairly polite message stating you ought not to block the advertisement.
I'm not sure I'd use this blocker-blocker on my own site, since it's bound to annoy the shit out of some people. But it does kind of work.
The whole thing kind of reminds me of that hitchhiking device in HHGttG, you know, the one that was perpetually being improved by half the galaxy's engineers while the other half attempted to block it?
Here is my problem: Yesterday I saw a banner ad that was flashing red and white so fast that it was likely to cause seizures if I was prone to such a thing. The irony is I don't even remember what the ad was for. This is why I am likely to install ad blocking software. I have a dialup connection and these huge flashing banner ads take forever to load and take away from my browsing experience. Am I stealing? Maybe. Am I worried about marketers? No. If marketers made tasteful ads I'd have no problem viewing them. and 90% of the ads I have no problem with. But as with everything else, its the assholes that spoil it for everyone else.
I know that websites depend on ad revenue to keep running. The problem is, they've taken it too far. If a website depends on annoying me to remain in existence, then it doesn't deserve to live.
If you are so worried about ad-blockers then you, as an advertiser, should petition governements to regulate Internet advertising to prevent the sleazeballs from ruining it for everyone else. If all ads were either text ads or non-animated banners I would have no motivation to turn off ads. But as things stand no I have the motivation (annoying flashing banners) and the means to block ads. My eyes are tired, so I won't be looking at your stuff anymore.