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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 can send you a gmail invite. that'll fix it.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
You could run a greasemonkey script to remove the script causing all this.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
One trick that worked in Opera was to find out which javascript function was creating the adds and overwrite it. Opera allows you to define a user.js file and any functions in it overwrite the functions in any page loaded javascript. I just created a function with an empty body and I was good to go.
-TheDawgLives suckitdown
If I had a website relying on ads and a reliable way to do it, I'd terminate accounts of people with an ad blocker right off the bat. You are using a free service in exchange of which they are putting a bunch of advertisement on your screen. By blocking it, you become a free loader, absolutely useless for them as a customer. If you don't like the business model, pay for your webmail.
I signed up for a service that is paid for by displaying advertisments.
I am trying to avoid my side of the bargin by blocking the ads, however, the service provider seems to have prevented me from doing this easily.
Can anyone help?
I hate ads just as much as anyone else. I certainly hate being subject to "driveby" ads where you happen to visit a web page once in your life for no important reason (ie check out a story linked to by Slashdot), and I would stop at nothing to block those bastards. Yahoo, however, is offering you a pretty valuable service (free web mail), and I assume you enjoy the benefits of having it, so why not let them have their ads? Quid pro quo is not too unfair in this case.
If you really want to get the ads off of your Yahoo mail account, pay them. I have a premium account with Yahoo because my ISP partners with them to provide all the web services. I log in--no ads! It's not too shabby.
Agreed there. If an ad interferes with reading the site, or blares audio without asking me, I'll block it. I remember one site that had a pair of interesting articles (about website usability, ironically enough) that had so many ads it was almost impossible to read. I blocked all the ads, read the two articles, then never returned to the site.
With most of them, it's just as easy to tune them out.
Oddly, the only ads I can recall clicking on in the last year or so are on a handful of webcomics that I read. I wonder if that says something...
in addblock just click the radio for hide add instead of remove add, the add are still downloaded but you don't see them
I just had an ad come up when I clicked on this article. Not a popup, but one of those annoying things that layer across the content. It smacked up right in the middle of the web page and asked me if i wanted to take a survey.
I had a choice of hitting Yes, or I guess letting the ad sit there blocking my viewing the content.
There was no close option.
I don't mind ads, but what is the purpose of annoying me?
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?
Now, there is a somewhat person reason for this for me too. I am starting up a new gaming company that will depend on ad revenue on the site to survive. If people block it, we will die off. We won't ever put ads in the way, but some people just can't stand to let us make money for a free service to happen.
I just don't understand some of you.
Let me try to help you understand. First, consider that not everybody blocks ads. If you run a site that depends on
ad revenue, you will have some people downloading and viewing your ads, but you must accept that not everyone will.
Some of us really dislike ads, and some of us even believe that the web is a one-to-many publishing medium that exists
for people to express themselves with, not for people to try to make a go of business ventures that are so pathetic that
the only way they can survive is if everybody that visits their site views their ads.
Second, the way that some sites display ads is simply unacceptable. When I point my web browser at www.domain.com,
I am expressly downloading content from www.domain.com, and from nowhere else. If that site attempts to trick my
browser into requesting files from any other domain, it is pissing in the wind. I guarantee this behaviour with
any browser I use via a custom proxy, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Keep that in mind if you want to
embed ads in your pages. You had better plan on managing those ads yourself, because some people's browsers are
not going to fetch them from anywhere else.
Finally, you need to come to grips with the fact that some people believe that the web would instantly become a
better place if all sites that depended on ad revenue vanished. Granted, a lot of useful and popular sites would
disappear, but I assure you that equally useful sites would fill their places. There were excellent free search
engines before google, and there would be again.
If you cannot survive with web surfers exercising their ability and right to control what HTTP requests they do and
do not make, then kindly release your domain name as you die.
So I switched to Adblock Plus, which:
Adblock Plus rocks. There's just no comparison.
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
Swing and a miss...
Karnal
"I read somewhere that Microsoft teamed up with CIA to block myspace."
Finally, some good news about the War on Terror!
* Firefix will not adhere to it on principle, but there will be 17 plugins that claim to, 3 of which actually work.
* Konqueror will support it, but 90% of the ads won't show because KHTML properly handles CSS errors but the authors assume a laxer CSS parser. There will be an option to turn it off.
* Opera will not support it because the users don't want it.
* Internet Explorer will claim to support, but there will be the usual embrace, extend, extinguish, and all ads will be replaced with MSN ads.
* Lynx will put a note in the man page that the next version of Lynx will support frames.
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
Here's a few reasons why noone should use Yahoo as their mail system:
Don't even get me started on GMail vs. Yahoo maps. Or GCal vs. Yahoo Calendar. Yahoo are not innovating; they are riding the pure inertia of their 1996 early start.
Oh, here's a word for those of you who are moaning about unethical users blocking ads: some of us are truly incapable of tuning out obnoxious banners and flash animations. It realy ruins our internet experience. Don't worry. The sheep will always be there to provide you with advertising revenue. As for the rest of us, if you want to win us over, use text ads only. You will get many more clicks from us, that's for sure.