Yahoo Mail Forcing Ads Through Adblock? 291
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?
GReasemonkey (Score:5, Informative)
Opera (Score:5, Informative)
Why not allow it (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Use the options (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I just don't understand some of you (Score:3, Informative)
Re:View the ads or find another webmail (Score:2, Informative)
related to bug? (Score:3, Informative)
I take it that you can't reproduce the problem in IE or Opera?
What's they cpu usage? Does it freeze all firefox windows or just the Yahoo window?
Re:Dear Slashdot, (Score:5, Informative)
It's in section 2.
Filterset.G suckage explained (Score:5, Informative)
So I switched to Adblock Plus, which:
Adblock Plus rocks. There's just no comparison.
Only for proxies (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I just don't understand some of you (Score:3, Informative)
So, don't waste your time trying to be reasonable. It's all some kind of marketing voodoo that isn't bound by logic.
Re:GReasemonkey (Score:5, Informative)
Re:View the ads or find another webmail (Score:2, Informative)
That was when I stopped trusting 3rd parties to hold my information for me. Now I use POP3. The interface might not be so pretty, but at least I know I can access my mail when I want to.
Of course, I could use the web interface for reading and composing mail and use POP3 just for backing it up to local storage.
Re:Gmail (Score:2, Informative)
Re:View the ads or find another webmail (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Gmail (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gmail (Score:3, Informative)
Touch and no go. (Score:3, Informative)
But if you want something for free, you have to pay with your eyeballs. Someone has to foot the bill for the web hosting, and the sysadmins, and the time and effort that go into building a site. Or are you one of those guys who gets HBO for free, spliced off your neighbor's cable ?
The ad blocking game is no different from copy-protection schemes, or product activation, or any other undesirable software trait. They're like human viruses; they start out as a minor nuisance (simple banner ads), then you develop antibodies (adblock), then the virus grows stronger (javascript detection), then come stronger antibodies (adblock++.Net 2.0 GT), and then finally the virus grows so strong and belligerant it just plain kills you (ad company buys out Mozilla and makes you watch 2-minute full-screen noisy ads every time you click, then forces you to complete a "short" survey before letting you read the actual page).
I personally don't employ any kind of ad blocking.. yes, it slows down page loads a little bit, but I don't mind it so much. An extra second or two won't kill me, I'm usually multitasking anyways. The sight of ads doesn't bug me, I just scroll past.. every now and then I'll actually see one that catches my interest and click through, because sometimes I actually discover something I like. The only gimmick I use against ads is FlashMute, because the last thing I need is for the neighbors to call the cops on me, from hearing those stupid screaming smilies pumped through my loud stereo.
Yahoo = riding pure inertia (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Why even bother? No need to! (Score:1, Informative)
I've been using yahoo mail as my primary email for like 10 years (can't be bothered to move to gmail or anything). I've never had such problems. Actually, I'm logged in right now, using FF and Adblock (non-plus) and Filterset.G. Guess what? No ads, no extra ads I've been fored to block, and never froze either. I see no such ads-forcing client JS either (I've looked). I can't believe anyone didn't mention this yet... And yes, I've also tried their new mail beta thingy (which DOES suck very badly, and takes even longer than gmail or google maps to load)
I don't know if the submitter is on crack, plain lying, imagining these problems (recreational drugs?), are being caused by something else (other buggy extension), spyware, or if it's some kind of tactic to try to get ppl to switch away from yahoo mail to other services (conspiracy theory of the day!)...
I don't know how this could even make the front page really (yeah, I must be new here, right?)
The only reason I can see myself switching from yahoo mail isn't ads (I don't see any), it's their new beta mail piece of shit thing. Force this slow and bloated useless trash on me, and I'm over to gmail SAME DAY and NEVER COMING BACK! There better be an option to keep the "classic" mail app. All I want is a fast loading, lightweight and simple page (click to view inbox, click on message to view, hit reply, etc) - NOT some javascript bloated useless thing (drag this and that? WTF for?) that takes a minute to load. If I wanted a very slow and feature-rich client, I'd be using outlook, not webmail. Thinking of it, outlook opens faster.
Re:Yahoo = riding pure inertia (Score:3, Informative)
Just one warning regarding POP3: It was originally disabled and the option for enabling it is a set of radio buttons which allow you to choose between web+POP3 and forwarding. There doesn't seem to be any way to disable POP3 once the selection has been made.
Re:Gmail (Score:1, Informative)
On Yahoo, under their Datastorage section, states "Please note that any information that we have copied may remain in back-up storage for some period of time after your deletion request. This may be the case even though no information about your account remains in our active user databases."
I assume that means mail as well, though it's not stated specifically as far as I can tell. Let's be reasonable. As cheap as magnetic storage is, there's a reason that spam and trash bins are automatically cleared after a period of time, and there's a reason that email services have mailbox size limits. No free email service is in a position to permanently store every email sent to or by every user. The cost of that storage would far outweigh whatever benefit they get from being able to retrieve that dirty joke you sent your old college buddy 4 years ago.
Re:Gmail (Score:3, Informative)