Slashdot Mirror
Unicast Claims Success With Internet Commercials
LightForce3 writes "Remember that trial run of full-motion commercials on sites like ESPN.com and MSN? The BBC reports that Unicast, whose caching technology makes these ads work, is claiming a strong favorable response from Internet users who viewed the advertisements. It looks like they could now be making long-term deals with clients (the article mentions Forbes.com and weather.com). As a dialup user, I am less than thrilled about the idea of an extra 2 MB download each time I visit one of these sites."
Don't use Microsoft software. Really. It claims to use Windows Media 9 and some "proprietary" background downloading crap, so Mozilla with no Windows Media plugin should be a good start, along with Mozilla's AdBlock plugin just to make sure.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
get the dns name of the advertiser (may have to view page source) and add a line to your hosts file in linux/windows such as: 127.0.0.1 advertiser.dns.address.
Unchecking "Enable Plug-ins" in Opera works. I use it anyway to avoid flash ads.
I don't know about Firefox, but I'd assume there's something similar.
I've tried to look at the demo on their website many times, however it never works because of the requirements:
...but you can't get the MS JVM any more :-( And I don't use IE (although I appreciate most of the world does).
Windows
Internet Explorer
Windows Media Player
Microsoft (not Sun) JVM
You can try it yourself here. If you do, be sure to comment what it's like, because I've never seen it!
http://adblock.mozdev.org/ there you go
IAAL
You have to enable "ESPN Motion", which gives you video highlights and video clips from their regular TV shows (PTI, etc.). So, you only see the video ads if you watch their video content. Seems like there isn't really anything new here. Beware of "ESPN Motion" though. It installs a service that constantly downloads content in the background so that when you hit the site it is all ready to go. Interesting idea, but can choke off that UT2004 session at just the wrong time!
It downloads and installs client software that runs 24/7 in the background, downloading the latest content. So if you ever happen to go to the site, the videos are ready to play right from disk.
As far as I can tell, you have no options for configuring when or what it downloads.
It's simply a default collection of commercial video clips, in which advertisers can add their name/brand/logo to the final frames. Only a voice-over telling you about the new and improved, unique properties of the item on sale, has to be downloaded obviously :)
If you use Mozilla/Firefox you can install Flash Click to View fromh p/flas hclick
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info.p
(Remove the space inserted into the link by Slashdot)
With the plugin, the browser loads the Flash content but displays a blank button with the text "click to view" instead of the animation. So now you can go to the site that require flash, but won't be bothered unless you want to.
With regards to the full motion video - where do they find the drooling idiots in the test group who want the net to resemble TV more? Do you believe the "only 28% of users found it annoying", or are the advertisers lying? (And why not, it's basically their job anyway)
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
That's a really bad solution for dialup users, who rely on their cache being large enough to hold a decent volume of common images (for instance, to make Slashdot non-painful on dialup, you want the top-left logo and the comment icons to be in cache).
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here; IANA Programmer and am not sure if there are tricky Java-based things they could do to get around regular ad blocking measures.
Losers choose to abuse the use of "loose".
since I use the Adblock extension for Mozilla and Firefox, the net has become practically adfree for me. I remember a time when ads didn't disturb the reading pleasure of a website with all sorts of motion and sounds. I even clicked on banners sometimes back then. But since all those flashbanners and whatnot appeared, I rather block them
it would appear to be macromedia flash/shockwave livey 4.swf?n=03%2F16%2F2004+7%3A57%3A14+AM&info=Havaian as!!!!!Many+Forms!!!!!Almap+BBDO+Brazil!!!!!Levi%2 7s!!!!!Levi+Strauss!!!!!AvenueA!!!!!General+Motors !!!!!Chevy+Tahoe!!!!!Campbell%2DEwald!!!!!History+ Channel!!!!!Killing+Pablo!!!!!Horizon+Interactive! !!!!Jaguar!!!!!XJ4!!!!!Global+Beach
go to www.unicast.com, click on "gallery" - it's a page with the shockwave object embedded - when you click on the "View ad" button it starts downloading the clip in the background. Presumably some sites will keep the shockwave embedded in a zero height frame which will go fullsize via client side scripting once the whole advert is downloaded ready to play, while others will use in page, or half page, via iframes or whatever.
You can get hold of the shockwave file direct at http://www.unicast.com/gallery/previewpane/galler
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
Here's their research. Apparently 30% found the test ad annoying, while 38% are annoyed by standard TV commercials. 59% supposedly found it entertaining, but that could just be the effect of the free sandwiches they got.
An AC mentioned this above, but it's worth noting:
Opera will disable/enable plug-ins with one click, and yes, that includes windows media and flash. i have mine set up this way, as well as animated gifs turned off and javascript disabled unless i request it.
I know everyone is in love with Mozilla, but honestly, what's not to love about Opera? i'm HOOKED on the mouse gestures and the ability to emulate a text-browser if i feel nostalgic.
also, it's available for linux (though i haven't tested it on a linux box).
hope you'll give it a shot.
** Chigusaaa!!! You're the coolest girl in the WORLD!!! **
In addition to AdBlock (and Flash click-to-view, which someone mentioned further down the page), take a look at the adblocking CSS on texturizer.net. It really does an amazing job of killing just ads (including all the ads on Slashdot-- I'm not going to click them anyway, so I don't want to see them.)
Actually, the ads Unicast is pushing are not part of ESPN Motion. They are entirely seperate.
Mt firewall software doesn't allow Media Player to connect to the network. If I actually see soemthing I want to view I disable the firewall for a few minutes. I hate commercials and I hate streamign video, so combining the two isn't likely to win me over.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Privoxy is the newer version of Junkbuster. And for all that ad-free goodness, I chain Privoxy to Proxomitron (in Windows XP).
Prixovy - http://www.privoxy.org
Proxomitron - http://www.proxomitron.info/files/index.shtml
Also, get a patched hosts file from here,
http://remember.mine.nu
And run Edexter to fill in the banners.
http://www.pyrenean.com/edexter.php
Ad-free pop-up free content. On dial-up, it's like sweet freedom.
Remove the spamfreak to speak.
Don't their current EULA's essentially force you to authorize them to download and install system "upgrades" at their will?
In Windows 2000, it was added to the SP3 EULA. It was removed from the SP4 EULA.
I don't know about any other version.
(from the unicast website)
Unicast is committed to ensuring that all ads either play perfectly or not at all.
At times, we make temporary decisions to exclude certain browser and/or configurations that contain known bugs or perform inconsistently in our testing and quality assurance environments.
Unicast has temporarily blocked the Sun JVM as a result of some modifications made with the most recent Sun releases. Unicast has seen consistent instability with this configuration and will continue to evaluate updates and new releases as they become available.
Should you have additional questions or comments, please feel free to contact us.
My other UID is 1337
As an option to "get around" the advertising issue, my boss informed me sometime ago of Mozilla. Since then I have been a loyal user. When Firebird was released I thought there was no use for me to use it, as I was running the latest build of Moz. He otld me that Firebird was the same browser just a lighter version, and tha there were a few things it did that its larger companion didn't. What impressed me was FIrebirds ability to surpress banner ads. Turns out it filters out more than 90% of them. Now I am not sure in the authors case whether or not it would work, but were I he I would give it a shot.
Life without banner ads, No longer do I need to read "Meet HOT singles in your area today".
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Just use Firefox/Mozilla and download the adblock plugin. Then you can block any content you want. If these ads are coming from http://ads.foo.com, you can block it with *ads.foo.com* or *.foo.com*, etc. If for some strange reason you want to use IE, you can still stop this junk. Under your internet options, go to the security tab and click Custom Level and select prompt for all the Active X options. Then when this thing tries to run just deny it. There are other ways as well. For example, you can put dummy entries in your hosts file for the servers that these ads are coming from, block it with a firewall, etc.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Preferences/Advanced/Style Sheet. Works like a charm!
This is not based on ESPN Motion (which is also evil, evil, evil, btw). I don't have ESPN motion and yet I see the ads. You just need to be on the site long enough for the entire ad to download. I see the ads most often when I'm trying to follow the scores of a basketball game that's not on TV.
CBS.Sportsline.com is much better anyway with extensive personalization. Unfortunately for me, some games are only on ESPN.
Mmmm.. Donuts