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?

Gmail

[Kingrames]

I can send you a gmail invite. that'll fix it.

related issue

[Anonymous Coward]

My friend has this myspace page, and when I visit it in MSN Explorer, it freezes (I am using a Motorola modem). I read somewhere that Microsoft teamed up with CIA to block myspace.

Since Slashdot now offers free tech support, is anyone technically competent to explain this?

Re:GReasemonkey

[posterlogo]

Oh yeah? Well I'll deploy my greaseape script to pwn your greasemonkey's ass!!

Re:GReasemonkey

[MrShaggy]

In Soviet Russia, the monkey greased you.

Re:Why not allow it

[Achromatic1978]

Pay? For an internet service? What are you, some kind of capitalist? Subsidize the cost of it being free? What are you, some kind of capitalist?

Yes those servers are free, damnit. Who pays for bandwidth and development time, these days, anyway. Get out of the past.

;)

Re:Gmail

[dthable]

But Apple says Yahoo mail is the best and they even included it on their new phone. Everyone knows Jobs wouldn't lead us astray.

Whoosh....

[karnal]

Swing and a miss...

Re:All ads are obtrusive.

[thinsoldier]

I was playing a word association game with some co-workers once.
1 person said "pets"
the other person said "food"
I said "Purina Puppy Chow".

I have 9 Cats.

Re:related issue

[Guppy06]

"I read somewhere that Microsoft teamed up with CIA to block myspace."

Finally, some good news about the War on Terror!

Re:daydreaming

[oyenstikker]

* 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.

Re:View the ads or find another webmail

[phrasebook]

I actually make a point of scanning the ads in my GMail messages from time to time, and following those that might interest me.

That is truly bizarre behaviour. Can you remember when you started to develop that? And do you do it with any other products/services?