Advertising

[singletracker]

I'm on a Mac, using Safari as my browser with Ad Block Plus added as an extension. No ads here or any other site. It's wonderful.

For those interested, to instal Ad Block or Ad Block Plus (as well as other extensions) into Safari:
-click on the Safari menu at the top left of your screen
-in the drop down menu that appears, click on Safari Extensions
-in the new window that opens, scroll down to Ad Block or further down to Ad Block Plus and click on your selection
-follow the simple instruction from there to instal it.

This is my setup and ads are a non-issue. As a bonus, web pages load way faster when they aren't loading all those annoying, distracting ads.

 

[techfan]

You know... I wouldn't mind the ads so much if they weren't targeting my fiber intake, my mental deterioration, and my libido . Geez... Way to make a guy feel old!

 

[Ian G]

Use Google Chrome and use AdBlocker Plus I hardly see any ads

 

[padlin]

Use Google Chrome and use AdBlocker Plus I hardly see any ads

Thanks much, works like a champ.

 

[BCnomad]

You know... I wouldn't mind the ads so much if they weren't targeting my fiber intake, my mental deterioration, and my libido ��. Geez... Way to make a guy feel old!

I got targeted for the judicial pardon I need to be granted in order to vacation in Guatalema while driving my stylish new Kia. Yikes! ??? Takes escaping to a whole new level.

 

[Jim Bennett]

Use Google Chrome and use AdBlocker Plus I hardly see any ads

This has been a duo of mine for years. I too get none of these problems.

 

[Zardoz-ESC]

Downloaded Adblocker Plus and another app that would let me install third party apps on my Nexus. Had to change a port setting and and a couple other configurations but finally got it to work. Only problem was it takes forever to open the Forum and ironicallly, I couldn't open this particular thread at all! I wonder if this is the handiwork of the NSA ... ?

 

[tractors1]

I think the saying is "nothing in life is free........"

There are proxy services that will strip out all advertising before delivering your internet content. For a fee, of course.

 

[Sandra L]

All I get is the ETI ad and a Campground Report. I feel ignored.

Me too.
I've got a Mac W/ Firefox.

 

[Dave Walter]

You know... I wouldn't mind the ads so much if they weren't targeting my fiber intake, my mental deterioration, and my libido . Geez... Way to make a guy feel old!

You do realize that many ads target you based on your browsing history. Just saying...???

 

[techfan]

You do realize that many ads target you based on your browsing history. Just saying...???

I think mine is based on age because I haven't been browsing for fiber relief ( or the other items mentioned. ) I know I started getting a lot of stuff when I qualified for Medicare. I have had fun following this thread, however!!

 

[swamibob]

Is there a way to eliminate the annoying advertising? Lack of excessive
commercialism was one thing that I really liked about this forum.

I installed this on Safari & Chrome http://getadblock.com/
No more targeted ads.

 

[rbryan4]

Downloaded Adblocker Plus and another app that would let me install third party apps on my Nexus. Had to change a port setting and and a couple other configurations but finally got it to work. Only problem was it takes forever to open the Forum and ironicallly, I couldn't open this particular thread at all! I wonder if this is the handiwork of the NSA ... ?

I had the same problem Zardoz. It has to do with the proxy for WiFi. Not exactly sure how, but every other thread worked on my Nexus.

 

[rbryan4]

For those who don't know what the posters are referring to regarding the recently spawned ads, the captures below show the browser before Adblock Plus and after Adblock plus:

 

[Zardoz-ESC]

Interesting. For the short time I had Ad Block installed on my Nexus7, the ads were gone, but the formatted white space they occupied remained (on all affected websites).

 

[Donna D.]

Interesting. For the short time I had Ad Block installed on my Nexus7, the ads were gone, but the formatted white space they occupied remained (on all affected websites).

I downloaded Adblocker for IE 9 and I noticed the same white space is left. It's not like it closed everything up like it does in Firefox.

 

[mitsui]

I installed Adblocker Plus on my IE10 and also have the blank spots where the ads use to be. The biggest benefit so far has been the web cams or YouTube videos no longer hijack me and give me 30 seconds of advertising before playing the video I wanted to see in the first place.

 

[rbryan4]

How the ads are blocked differs depending on the browser. Some will collapse the space because their HTML parser is coded to do so, others will just block the ad - leaving the blank space behind. In the Chrome browser (in the pictures I posted above) the spaces don't appear.

 

[Zardoz-ESC]

How the ads are blocked differs depending on the browser. Some will collapse the space because their HTML parser is coded to do so, others will just block the ad - leaving the blank space behind. In the Chrome browser (in the pictures I posted above) the spaces don't appear.

That's strange, because I was also using Chrome as my browser.. No worries; these ads are a small inconvenience.

 

[rbryan4]

That's strange, because I was also using Chrome as my browser.. No worries; these ads are a small inconvenience.

Yeah, I should have been more specific. Chrome on Windows 7 64-bit, latest version of the browser. They make a Chrome browser of course for different OS's, and I'm posting this from the Nexus 7 using Chrome. On the Nexus, the blank spaces do appear.

One other thing I didn't mention for those who are interested. The ads you see will help you understand how your browsing habits are tracked. When you see an ad from a particular company or product you've visited, its because they placed a tracking mechanism (a cookie, browser helper object or applet usually) in your browser when you visited their site. The advertising uses these objects to generate what they consider targeted or relevant ads.

This raises some issues in the internet security arena, mainly privacy issues. One of the things that can help is to configure the browser to 'do not track'. It won't eliminate targeted ads, but it will reduce them. For Chrome users, you can find 'do not track' in Settings>Show Advanced Settings. In the privacy section, check the box starting with 'Send a Do Not Track Request'.

If you're using a Mac, the browser may not have these settings. But, you can also enable 'Incognito Mode', which will not keep your browsing history and does help.

Lastly, even if you take lots of precautions, you should assume that almost nothing you do online is private. The internet is in many ways the 'Wild Wild West'.