Slashdot Mirror
Firefox Improves Pop-Up Ad Blocking
BlakeCaldwell writes "The popular open-source browser already contains a pop-up blocker by default, but this does not handle pop-ups launched by plug-ins such as Flash and Java. Mozilla employee Asa Dotzler wrote in his blog last week that Mozilla developers are responding to the increasing number of advertisers that are using plug-ins to launch pop-up ads."
...and it seems to work very well so far. The sites I've noted that managed to get a popup through even with the normal popup blocker can no longer get them open.
DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
In short, it doesn't work particulary well. However, adot has responded and says that those issues will be worked on.
Having suffered one of those "new generation" of pop ups only about 10 minutes ago, I look forward to seeing this functionality when it's in a more finished state.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nig htly/experimental/popupsdie/
This isn't really an update to the popup blocking code in Firefox, it makes the default preferences a little more aggressive.
In fact, it blocks all popups so that you have to manually whitelist the sites that use legitimate popups.
Fight plugins with plugins.i nfo.php?application=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows &category=Web%20Annoyances&numpg=10&id=433
For the 3 people who aren't aware of the Flashblocker extension yet.
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/more
Might not be the ideal solution who use alot of web applications rather than just surfing.
Here's a direct link to the extension.
I'm waiting for the patch/extension that allows me to turn off flash banners like I can turn off images.
"If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit." - Mitch Hedberg
You could fix this a long time ago by going to about:config, and changing the value of privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins to "2". I started using this since I've heard of it, and it haven't seen a popup since. I think it's nice that they've enabled this by default, or made it more accessible. They should make more of the settings in about:config accessible in an easier way.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
They are one stop shopping for blocking the junk that clutters the web.
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
Advertisers may not be that worried about Firefox in particular. Remember that it still only has 5% market share or so against the IE monolith, thus a smart advertiser would spend more resources exploiting IE. When Firefox becomes more popular, that's when we really have to start worrying.
However, couldn't there be a definitive end to this battle in which one browser essentially stops popup windows completely? There are only so many ways to load the damn things, after all. I thought (correct me if I'm wrong) that popups have gotten more press in the last month or so because more people started using Flash to open them. That quickly got blocked by a FF extension. The recent renewal of interest in the issue doesn't necessarily mean that popups are impossible to get rid of.
yes, that's the beauty of OSS. no need to wait till point releases for things that require immediate attention *cough*...IE...*cough* safari... *cough*
Bad example.
Safari's pop-up blocking addressed the pop-under issue weeks before Firefox. It's been ad-free for quite some time now.
A very useful windows freeware(non-OSS) that acts as a local proxy server with custom filters to rewrite web sites on the fly on their way to the browser. All Filters are written in a reasonably potent filtering language and new ones can be written and added.
b tnG=Google+Search
Possibilities include:
- some popup blocking
- convert within-frame links to normal ones
- convert embedded flash animations or other plugins to clickable links
- modify header information (referrer, browser name,version , caching meta tags)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=proxomitron&
Yeah, IE in SP2 included a popup blocker extremely similar to the one currently in Firefox (it's strange, because I had that little bar that pops up on IE before I had it on Firefox, I don't know who implemented it first).
I'm shocked that so many people use Firefox, but not the Adblock extension. That's the first extension everyone on Earth should install, hell it should be integrated into Firefox!
Most /.ers (me inc) use flashblock. No flash content is loaded till you click on it, instead a nice, subtle blue italic 'f' in a frame is displayed. It's no problem when you want o see something - you just click! - and the rest of the time it means flash jiggly advert crap is all gone.
Get FF then get flashblock (google is your friend), then try IE again after a week. You'll never touch it again.
J.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
Sorry, but you're wrong. I get every update Apple pushes out, and as of yesterday evening, I was still getting pop-unders in Safari.
No matter where you go... there you are.
Firefox ALREADY HAD a popup blocker. What they borrowed from Microsoft was the top bar that allowed you to unblock a specific popup on runtime. Sometimes good ideas CALL to be borrowed (and thank God this one wasn't patented!)