Floater Ads, the Cousins to Pop-Ups, Evade the Blockers

New York Times ^ | February 24, 2005 | JONATHAN MILLER

[kingattax]

If you happened upon nj.com in the last month, you might have noticed a clucking penguin waddling across the computer screen, stumbling over text as it promoted a local utility company.

On a cricket league chat board in New Zealand, exasperated users have been deluged with floating squares that try to interest them in mattresses, dating services and officially licensed trinkets from the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

On the Web, the floater's time has come.

Not to be confused with pop-up ads, which open new windows and clutter virtual desktops, these floaters, or overlays, or popovers (no one can agree on a name), can evade the pop-up blockers that many Web browsers have incorporated.

In the last year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which collects and analyzes data on Web advertising, the frequency of these ads has risen markedly, by almost 32 percent from December 2003 to December 2004, while pop-ups in that period declined by 41 percent.

The floater ads, often using a computer's Macromedia Flash Player to run, overlay the content of the page rather than spawning new windows. They have been around since 2001, but their rise has been abetted by the growing use of high-speed Internet connections, allowing them to play with greater ease.

Floaters are one example of a variety of online ads known in the industry as rich media. Some variants include banner ads that expand to show graphics and streaming video when the cursor is waved over them; a tamer version packs the video and graphics into a static, or polite, banner. All have a common characteristic: they cannot be categorically blocked by existing technology.

To many, they are just as irritating as pop-up ads, if not more so. On the New Zealand cricket chat board, one user declared, "This form of advertising is without a doubt the most ridiculous and offensive form I have ever come across."

But as with pop-ups (before pop-up blockers), their appeal to advertisers is simple: they get people to click, usually transporting them to the advertiser's site. While static Web ads typically have "click through" rates of 0.5 percent of viewers, according to numerous industry studies, the rate for pop-ups and floaters is 3 percent to 5 percent, though some studies suggest that many of those clicks are attempts to get rid of the ad.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the sites on which such ads were most common in the year ended in December were three Microsoft sites - www.msn.com, www.msnbc.com and Hotmail - followed by espn.com and www.yahoo.com.

Although most advertisers and the sites where the ads appear seem happy with the use of the floater ads, recent research suggests problems. A study of 2,500 British Internet users released last month by OMD UK found that just as many Web users (44 percent) were annoyed with floaters as they were with pop-ups. Many major sites, like nytimes.com and www.msn.com, limit the number of times a person is shown such an ad. (At nytimes.com, the limit is once per visit to the site.)

"We want to do something that's informative and entertaining as opposed to being annoying," said Joanne Bradford, vice president and chief media revenue officer for msn.com. "That's our guiding principle." To that end, the company introduced on Feb. 1 a design that limited the number of ads on the main page. (Ms. Bradford would not say by how much.) The action, she noted, did prompt "a little bit of squawking" from advertisers.

Some are trying to figure out other ways to stop the onslaught. Mozilla, designer of the popular (and free) Web browser Firefox, which offers a pop-up blocker, is trying to block floater ads as well, but has so far been unsuccessful, said Chris Hofmann, director of engineering for the Mozilla Foundation. "It really is an arms race," he said.

Jarvis Coffin, chief executive of Burst Media, a company that sells advertising for more than 2,000 Web sites, said that even though he is a fan of the "rich media" ads, he warns that advertisers should understand that they cannot deluge people with the technology without consequence. "Just because you can do it doesn't make it a smart thing to do," he said

[kingattax]

Here we go again

[Jokelahoma]

I've noticed Drudge using them already. One of the biggest draws of FireFox is its ability to block popups. These "floaters" slip right by. I refuse to buy from any company who uses a floater ad. I won't make a dent in their sales, obviously, but it's a matter of principle to me.

[Cicero]

I haven't seen this as yet. You can turn off or remove your flash player, if needed, which is evidently one form this can take.

Ad Muncher already has options to remove music and sounds from web sites you visit, remove background images, prevent changes to scroll bar color, prevent sites from bookmarking themselves, force new windows to always have toolbars, and so forth. I imagine the ad blockers will deal with this problem if it spreads widely.

I don't think advertisers would be wise to annoy users too much with this sort of thing, either. But I suppose they'll try it. Some of them seem to be willing to try just about anything.

[Drango]

Drudge is pond scum for the way he abuses the people who visit his site...

[TomGuy]

Aren't those Flash (Macromedia) ads?

Many of the tv-grid websites use them. They are annoying.

There are some blocker programs for Flash-type ads.

[Ticonderoga34]

My experience is that Firefox seems to block these floaters and IE does not. In any case they are really annoying.

[Gorzaloon]

the rate for pop-ups and floaters is 3 percent to 5 percent, though some studies suggest that many of those clicks are attempts to get rid of the ad.

The only reason I would click on one would be to find the origin, so that webmaster@, admin@ xxx would get one of my poison pen e-mails.

I had some _fascinating_ exchanges with X10 when they first came out.

"Just use the blocking cookie.."

"OPT OUT??? OPT OUT?? That's SPAMMER TALK"

[kingattax]

if you know the names or sites of blocker programs for flash ads....please post them. there might be someone who would like that 411. thanks

[Keith in Iowa]

I very rarely see ads or pop-ups...

I went to http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/ and downloaded and replaced my hosts file with the one they make available.

[Gorzaloon]

Drudge is pond scum for the way he abuses the people who visit his site...

Hosts file. Edit and save in Notepad:

127.0.0.0 www.drudgereport.com

All fixed! No more Drudge, not even if you click a link by mistake. :-)

[TomGuy]

Google is your friend.

No! Flash - a freeware for blocking Rich Media Ads and Parasites in IE

No! Flash - a freeware for blocking Rich Media Ads and Parasites in IE, disable, block and get rid of flash,advertising,parasites,browser hijackers,tracking ...

Block flash banner ads. The best software to block flash banner ads

AdsCleaner is designed to block flash banner ads and kill popups.

More at the Google link for block+flash+ads

[Fledermaus]

My simple pop up blocker that came with the Windows XP Service Pack 2 keeps all that stuff off. I get nothing when reading Drudge.

I also read Drudge at work and have no pop-up blocker. I get two at most, cancel them, and they don't come up again.

That is not my definition of abuse.

[TomGuy]

I use a similar one from Mike's Ad Blocking Hosts file

It blocks many pop ups; even most on Drudge's website.

[sgtbono2002]

I stopped going to Drudge, got tired of the BS.

[OldFriend]

They are all over the place. If they're not leaving spyware, and pop ups, they're leaving this new annoyance.

[Harpo Speaks]

Floaters are bad enough, but more troubling is the rise of pop-ups and pop-unders that are no longer stopped by my Norton Internet Security. It used to stop all of them, then about 1 month ago they started up. Most often, on Drudge. I haven't seen much on this new development. Any links that explain what's changed in the past month?

[FreedomCalls]

I have WinXP Service Pack 2, and with the pop-up blocker set to "high" it blocks all those floaters.

[kingattax]

http://popups.articleinsider.com/64583_pop_up_blocker_pro.html

[Jeff Gordon]

"Drudge is pond scum for the way he abuses the people who visit his site..."

You can eliminate many ads, especially Drudge ads, with a HOSTS file. The HOSTS file directs that certain URLs can not access the internet from your computer. In my W98 system, the HOSTS file is a simple text file in the windows directory. For more information, Google "hosts file" My current HOSTS file contains:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c1.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c2.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c3.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c4.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c5.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c6.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c7.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c8.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 c9.zedo.com
127.0.0.1 meda.adrevolver.com
127.0.0.1 servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 advertising.com
127.0.0.1 spe.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 view.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 media.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 code.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 gd22.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 dcnyadgds1.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 dcnyadgds2.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 annyadgds1.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 annyadgds2.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 uunyadgds1.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 uunyadgds2.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 cwvaadgds1.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 cwvaadgds2.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.ca.doubleclick.ca
127.0.0.1 ad.ca.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ad.ca.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.org
127.0.0.1 ad.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 ads.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 ar.atwola.com
127.0.0.1 atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 avp.ch
127.0.0.1 avp.com
127.0.0.1 avp.ru
127.0.0.1 awaps.net
127.0.0.1 banner.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 banners.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 ca.com
127.0.0.1 click.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 clicks.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 spd.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 advertising.com
127.0.0.1 2o7.net
127.0.0.1 a.tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 m.tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 tribalfusion.speedera.net
127.0.0.1 z1.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 advertising.com
127.0.0.1 servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 y.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 z.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 z1.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 z2.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 z3.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 z4.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 z5.adserver.com
127.0.0.1 m.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 m.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 m.doubleclick.org
127.0.0.1 m.surfsecret.com
127.0.0.1 m2.doubleclick.ca
127.0.0.1 m2.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 m2.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 mads.gamespot.com
127.0.0.1 md1.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 md1.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 md1.doubleclick.org
127.0.0.1 cdn.tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 cdn.valueclick.ca
127.0.0.1 cdn.valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 cdn.valueclick.net
127.0.0.1 cdn1.tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 cdn2.tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 cdn3.tribalfusion.com
127.0.0.1 www.popupad.net
127.0.0.1 www.popuptraffic.com
127.0.0.1 popupad.net
127.0.0.1 www.inet-clix.com
127.0.0.1 isg01.casalemedia.com
127.0.0.1 www.searchit.com

[Cicero]

I haven't seen any ads at all on Drudge for the past couple of years with AdMuncher running. But thanks for the tip. The more you learn about these things, the better.