Floaters are the New Pop-Ups

windowpain writes "A prior Slashdot article discussed the ever-increasing ability of pop-up ads to break through adblocking software. Now the New York Times (registration required) is reporting that pop-ups are pooped out, replaced by those annoying "floaters" that are even more resistant to conventional pop-up blocking software. From the article: 'Not to be confused with pop-up ads, which open new windows and clutter virtual desktops, these floaters, or overlays, or popovers (no one can agree on a name), can evade the pop-up blockers that many Web browsers have incorporated. In the last year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which collects and analyzes data on Web advertising, the frequency of these ads has risen markedly, by almost 32 percent from December 2003 to December 2004, while pop-ups in that period declined by 41 percent.'"

Comments

Not a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

With Mozilla/Firefox these new ads are actually not a problem. Just use a userContent.css file to block them.

For example, I found some that use divs with IDs, so I just added something like:

div#GF__p_0,
div#floatpop { display: none !important;}

And, poof, they're gone. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out what to block, but the Webdeveloper extension can help quite a bit.

Re:Not a problem

[shird]

Yeah, until they start using random names for the floats.

The solution is to not allow layered content like that to cover up the page in the actual browser core.

This is similar to blocking popups using a *popup.html* filter instead of actual logic in the browser to prevent windows from appearing unless the user has clicked the mouse and requested them.

Re:Not a problem

[JSBiff]

While I agree that it is kind of a band-aid approach, your approach doesn't work either. If you disallow divs to overlap any other content, then you have just disabled a lot of non-offending uses of dhtml. For example, drop down menus that don't use flash (really, I'd rather have dhtml menus than flash menus). Lots of different types of animation effects (like, for example, maybe a web-app would use a 'slide-out' notifier to alert you when you have new messages, like when using a web-forum with private messaging built in).

Some people use this in a highly annoying way, it's true. But the solution is NOT "to not allow layered content like that to cover up the page in the actual browser core." If you are going to do that, you might as well just turn off javascript, which most browsers will let you do, already.

No Reg Link

[KaSkA101]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/technology/circu its/24popp.html?ex=1266987600&en=22bde7cc89dd70a5& ei=5090&partner=rssuserland No Registration Link

Re:Flash suppression

[cswiii]

I haven't had it installed lately because my adblock does a pretty good job of blocking flash that I don't want to see, but
flashblock is what I used to use... it blocks out flash until you click on it to view.

Re:Hey!

[FunWithHeadlines]

"Would you watch a TV station that played its ads over the show, cutting in at random moments so you miss key dialogue? Me neither. There are ways to host ads on Web sites that don't annoy the hell out of the user."

It already happens. You're watching a TV show and suddenly a swirling logo appears in a corner and then an ad for another show on that network appears. And then during the closing credits, the network will break in with obnoxious promos that block out anything you can see or hear on screen.

Re:"Remove this object"

[erykjj]

Sorry, the link above should be this.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

AdBlock = easier

[CdBee]

Adblock can also kill the floater by preventing it loading. (I prefer "floater" as its alternative meaning in British is that of a turd in water)

Re:Complain

[barzok]

The biggest annoyance isn't even the ad - it's Flash Player. Flash player will NOT let you disable *any* flash animation that is embedded in a webpage. *Some* flash animations seem to allow you to stop them (by right-clicking, and toggling the 'Play' menu option), but it appears to be something that webpages can disable. This is something that has always made me royally angry with Macromedia. It's *my* computer, I should have the final control over it, not the person embedding flash content on the page. I should *always* have the option of stopping the flash animation.

I would just get rid of flash, but unfortunately, too many sites use it for critical parts of their webpages. *sigh*.

Get the Flashblock extension for FireFox/Mozilla. It'll let you choose which Flash animations to play, and which sit there idle.