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IE8 Will Contain an Accidental Ad Blocker
JagsLive sends in a Washington Post blog post reflecting on one privacy-enhancing feature of the upcoming Internet Explorer 8, the so-called "InPrivate Blocking" that has privacy advocates quietly cheering, and advertisers seriously worrying. Here is Microsoft's description of the feature. From the Post: "The advertising industry is bracing for trouble from the next version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, details of which were announced today, because it will offer a feature that blocks some ads and other content from third-parties that shows up on Web pages. A Microsoft spokesman said that the feature, to be known as 'InPrivate Blocking,' was never designed to be an ad blocker, though 'there may be ads that get blocked.' Instead, it was designed to stop tracking 'pixels' or pieces of code that could allow third-party sites to track users as they move around the Web."
Install Firefox, whack in AdBlock , NoScript, and FlashBlock and you have more privacy and security than with IE.
Enjoy Every Sandwich
Actually no. I know plenty of non-computer people who I off hand mentioned ad blocking to. Generally the reaction is a stunned look followed by "you can do that?" and begging me to set it up for them. Most people don't even know it exists.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
You can do that!?... with a browser?
And all this time I've been blocking ads to all the machines on my network with a squid proxy... oh wait
Of course I didn't RTFA... why would I do that? You really are new here aren't you? Don't let my UID fool you.
This program won't block all ads. It will just block those ads that are geared towards non-Microsoft products! Furthermore, this browser will be smart enough to actually rewrite ads on the fly. So an ad for a Linux cluster will appear as an ad for a cluster running 10,000 licensed copies of Windows Vista Enterprise. I think everyone will be happy about this.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
It's almost as bad as going to the bathroom during commercials when you're watching tv!
words?
Firefox?
I think the opposite... If IE8 had some really good anti-advertising stuff then I would be REALLY happy.
I am not against advertising, but I am against adverts that:
1) Suck up 50% of my CPU.
2) Make noise even though I don't want them to.
3) Decide to every now and then pop over my reading or viewing area.
I do click on adverts, and still want adverts, but I want adverts to behave like newspaper adverts!
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
A Microsoft Ad Blocker that only works by accident.
There is difference between ad blocking and tracking blocking.
This identifies 3rd party code that keeps track of users browsing habits, and allows the user to reject being tracked.
Google would be hurt by this, as Google is NOT just about displaying ads, but displaying 'contextual' ads that it gets from not only the site content but the user viewing the site, based on the user's browsing history stored at Google.
Check out the Channel9 interview for more information and the intent of this.
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/IE-8-Beta-2-Privacy-is-about-more-than-cookies/
It would be 'easy' to paint MS as being evil, but in reality, this is a feature that 'exposes' the evil that exists all over the web, from pixel tracking systems to full ad user tracking systems like Google uses.
If Google or other online advertisers wants to display Ads, and not be affected by this, then display Ads and STOP TRACKING USERS along with the Ads.
I block google analytics because I see no difference between their spying on me and any other advertiser spying on me. Seriously, how did we get to the point where everyone thinks its A-OK for google to spy, but no other advertiser?
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
Bravo for Microsoft! The feature doesn't affect honest advertising at all.
Anyone who wants to put up a straightforward ad, presenting information about a product and letting me decide whether I'm interesting in learning more and buying it, can still do so.
This only affects companies who are doing more than just advertising.
The fact that this is being described as an "ad" blocker just shows that advertising practices on the Web have become so debased that writers about the Web simply take it for granted that anything under the guise of advertising is likely to be invested with snooper gadgets that gather information about us without our knowledge.
That's not advertising. That's spying. "Advertising" is just the cover story.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
If by header, you mean , it's probably because that's where Javascript should be kept. All my webpages validate as xhtml strict, and placing the tag in is the only way for it to validate.
Wrong! The script element can be placed within either the head or body of a page, so placing it near the end is perfectly fine.
By reading this signature, you hereby agree with the content of the above comment.
Sorry, but you're incorrect. The applicable block of valid XHTML, with the Google Analytics code where Google advises to put it:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
//<![CDATA[
//]]>
//<![CDATA[
//]]>
[snip]
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write("\<script src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'>\<\/script>" );
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3044339-1");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>
</body>
Posting anonymously, because I don't want to waste the moderation points that I've already applied to this thread.
I block google analytics because I see no difference between their spying on me and any other advertiser spying on me. Seriously, how did we get to the point where everyone thinks its A-OK for google to spy, but no other advertiser?
That point came the moment you joined Slashdot. Evil's motto is "Don't be Google," you know.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
You mean like those Dice ads that Slashdot was displaying forever even though I emailed them repeatedly and told them it was crashing my browser and slowing down my computer?