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Yahoo Mail Forcing Ads Through Adblock?
egNuKe asks: "Like some people here, I use Firefox and Adblock. I've blocked the ads that Yahoo puts in my inbox, however the next time I opened it, I've found other ads, and blocked them too. This happened for several times, until I figured out that Yahoo must have some script that checks if the ad is displayed and displays another one, if it hasn't. This is no big problem, I just needed to add several rules to Adblock to block the several ad sources they use. Here is the problem: when Adblock is running and effectively stopping Yahoo mail ads, Firefox would freeze (all open windows and tabs) for about 15 seconds. Then the page opens and there is no ads. The script must be on client side, since it's the browser that's freezing and not the network. Turning off Adblock solves the freezing problem. Is there a cure for this?" This is a touch-and-go issue as it basically boils down to the user's priority (not seeing ads) versus the services priority (displaying the ads it needs to allow the user to enjoy a free service). It was only a matter of time before someone thought to try and work around ad-blockers, and all this will eventually lead to is open warfare (competing Javascript or browser code in the browser) on your machine. Instead of working around the workaround, why not consider another service that doesn't inundate you with ads?
I use Firefox with AdBlock and haven't seen an ad on Yahoo Mail in ages. But I haven't switched to their new layout, either. Maybe that makes a difference (and if so, I'll never switch).
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
I personally like Gmail's ads. They add a lot of humor when having a back and forth discussion, coming up with stuff that is completely inappropriate. Often we have more fun discussing why Gmail decides we need to see "The secret coffee cos don't want you to know" more than the actual topic.
I don't buy based on ads. I don't do research based on ads. Why should I waste my bandwidth, AND YOURS, loading ads that are not going to result in a sale, or even a click for that matter? Bandwidth costs money. You should be thanking me for blocking ads and saving your business money, since there was no possibility of me clicking on the ad anyway.
And yes, I even block google ads, even though they are the least annoying. I still won't click them, so why bother with them in the first place?
when you download your gmail to a pop3 reader, do you get the other stuff in the column that comes with the ads? Like the auto-parsing of any addresses in your email with a link to thier site on maps.google.com, auto-parsing what it sees as DHL, FedEx or UPS tracking numbers with a link to those web tracking services, or parses any dates and descriptions and links directly to adding them to your google calendar, or even better yet linking news site articles that have content that actually is relevant to the discussion?
Thats what gmail does for me, and why I use the web interface.
The whole point of advertising is to scream "OOH! OOH! BUY ME!" louder than the other guy. I don't buy stuff on a whim without any sort of information about it, and I certainly don't trust companies to offer unbiased information on their own products; hence, ads are only a waste of money for them (at least when I view them) and an annoyance for me.
Actually, that's the "old" mode of advertising. Today, it's more about creating a feeling about a product and company - giving a sense of the community you could be a part of. For example, how many advertisements actually tell you anything about the product? There aren't many. Most are about the fun, good-looking, exciting, partying people you will be with when you use the product.
It's also about impresssions. Today you might not be in the mood for some shoes. But, someday you will be, and sadly/strangely/interestingly, there is a correlation between how many impressions of an ad you've seen and which product you actually get. So when you DO want a pair of shoes, the hope is the thought of the company that has the most compelling lifestyle to offer you will pop in your head. When I said "buy a pair of shoes", which brand did you just think of? Nike? Adidas? Asics? Saucony? Whichever one it was "won".
Anyway, look at the ads and you'll see few of them actually describe the product and how you'll use it. Many many more of them are about how cool you'll be, or how much better your life could be because of the product.
Any self-respecting geek should have his own domain. For less than ten bucks a year, you can get a domain with DNS and email forwarding (I use Namecheap, but there are others). Forward everything to a Gmail address, and use POP3 to make a backup.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Why do you use Ad Block Plus? It just bloats up firefox!
:)
Use Privoxy and force Firefox / Opera through the proxy on your localhost. It filters the ads for you!
Also, I just tested -- I created an account on Yahoo and tried regular Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Mail Beta.
I saw no ads. None. Nada.
Privoxy > Ad Block Plus in my opinion. I never see ads thanks to this. And it's less work.
Give it a shot guys.
I wonder if they do the same thing for spam. If I mark a message as spam, then delete it, does it still get saved?
I doubt Google sees archival of massive volumes of spam as economical.
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It is bizarre, and I'm a bit baffled and academically curious to explain it myself. It's a pretty recent thing, and it's only in GMail.
I think it has something to do with a perceived disparity between GMail's pages vs. the 'average' web page in terms of (a) their elegance & simplicity, and (b) the usefulness of their incidental / extraneous content.
Perhaps I'm too accustomed to the "manual approach," i.e. avoiding links altogether, typing command lines & URLs instead of using bookmarks, typing search phrases instead of clicking search links, etc. By the intelligence of their offerings, Google has challenged some of my entrenched habits; for instance, I now search for addresses on Google proper & then click the resulting "Google map" link, instead of going to Google maps to type the address in. This approach adds a bit of address correction on the front end, I can type my text into a single search box instead of having to split it up into separate fields, and it's available right from [Ctrl + k] in Firefox.
I was also in the habit of copying UPS, USPS and FedEx tracking numbers & navigating to their respective tracking URLs to paste & track, and that for some time after Google started parsing those references & hyperlinking them automagically. That was a matter of muscle memory, most likely; in the back of my mind I *knew* Google parsed & linked those, but I would already be on UPS's site before I really became conscious of the fact that I could have saved steps by just using the link.
Maybe now I'm forming a new pattern of web behavior that's Google (or GMail) specific. I'm not sure, but after enough instances where the "Google way" turned out to be simpler than "my way," I'm starting to reflexively look for the "Google way" more and more.
I think that unlike most other companies -- who constantly try to find ways to jam more annoying bs into my field of attention -- Google has consistently surprised me with stuff that's actually useful & time saving. My old habits were borne of the former kind of web experience. So ultimately, I think Google's behavior has caused me to have a different (better) set of expectations regarding their incidental content.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find out if Nextag has Fourier transforms in stock & ready to ship...
Pi Ran Out
Another one of my "tricks" was to create a user.css and move the ad div off the screen with a size of 0x0 and top of -1000px. That's more work as you have to copy the the site's original css, but it still gives an impression to the ad counter, you just don't have to see the ad.
-TheDawgLives suckitdown