I’m not anti-advertising, but I am anti-intrusion. Unfortunately, so much online advertising is intrusive. It’s not just a matter of visual distraction or clutter. It’s also about a profound lack of relevance in many cases.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m willing to peruse text-based ads as long as they are relevant to the content in some clear way and also clearly separated from the editorial content. Anything other kind of online advertising diminishes my experience.
Yesterday and today at Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits blog, I’ve posted a couple of items about some nifty extensions to the open-source web browser Firefox that allow me to kill the types of online advertising that bug me most. Here’s a quick recap of those tools…
- Flashblock: Many of the most annoying online ads, especially on news sites, are delivered using Flash. The Flashblock extension blocks all Flash from loading, instead displaying a simple icon in the affected parts of the page. You can click that icon to load only the flash you want (such as navigation or content), but bypass the ads or annoying intro graphics. The downside: You don’t necessarily know which blocked Flash animations are navigation or content, and this extension appears also to block alt text that could tell you that. But this extension is a no-brainer to install and offers fast relief.
– More info: Hate Flash Ads? Try Flashblock for Firefox - Adblock: The Adblock extension does a more comprehensive and targeted job of removing online ads. Like Flashblock it will kill Flash ads, but it tends to leave Flash navigation and content untouched. Even better, Adblock doesn’t leave gaping holes in a page’s layout. The ads are simply removed, and other content is shifted to fit as if the ads had never been there in the first place. However, the Adblock extension is a bit geekier to set up. To make this process easier, try installing Filterset G after you get Adblock installed. If you install Adblock, you’ll probably want to disable Flashblock.
- IntelliTXT disabler script: Ever been to a site where the editorial content includes some links with weird green double underlining? Guess what – they’re not really links. They’re IntelliTXT in-line ads, and in my opinion they’re pond scum. When you mouse over one of those “links,” a pop-up ad appears – usually with little or no direct relevance to the content, which makes it even more annoying. Here’s how you’ll never have to see these phony links again. First, install the Greasemonkey extension, and restart Firefox to activate it. Then install the IntelliTXT disabler script.
– More on this from WSJ columnist and blogger Jeremy Wagstaff, and from me.
While you’re at it, make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of Firefox. And yes, Firefox comes with a very good built-in pop-up blocker.
I think there is something of an implicit moral contract between a site and its reader – if you visit a site often, you should do your best to support it by allowing non-obtrusive ads to be displayed.
I agree that the top offenders are Flash ads (especially the ones that ‘break out’ of their box and float around the page, obscuring elements you want to see) and IntelliTXT ads – but one just as annoying that you didn’t mention is animated GIF ads.
It’s easy enough to disable animated GIFs in Firefox entirely:
1. In a blank tab’s address bar, type about:config to display the configuration settings.
2. In the Filter field, type image. to search for the image configuration options.
3. Double-click the image.animation_mode entry.
4. In the Enter String Value dialog box, change ‘normal’ to ‘none’.
5. Click OK.
Note: This disables all animated GIFs, not just ads. I find that it’s worth it.
Thanks, Jonathan
So far, Adblock seems to be doing a very good job of killing ads for me, including animated GIF ones, while leaving Flash and animated GIF content/navigation alone. But yeah — killing all animated GIFs is another valid approach, if that suits you.
- Amy Gahran