Posted on 04/01/2005 1:55:01 PM PST by Eagle9
The Mozilla Foundation is testing a patch to its Firefox browser that puts the kibosh on popup ads which have been slipping through the open-source browser's blocker.
In recent weeks, said the group, advertising networks, in particular Fastclick, have started exploiting the fact that Firefox's popup blocker doesn't stymie Flash and Java popups by default.
Firefox can disable such popups, but the current version has that feature turned off due to concerns that it would interfere with legitimate popup windows that some sites use. A manual method of changing the default to block plug-in popups was offered up by the foundation several weeks ago, but now it's testing an add-on patch that automates the chore.
The patch has been packaged as an extension to Firefox, and can be downloaded from here.
Unfortunately, it also blocks legit popups. The only way to access those is to "white list" the site from the built-in popup blocker. "This looks, at this stage, like a reasonable trade-off," said Asa Dotzler, the Mozilla developer who created the patch.
You can download, read feedback from those who have tried it, and post your own comments or suggestions to the developer at the following link.
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/007860.html
If you simply want to block all popups, this is the extension that you want.
Tech Ping.
The advertisers wouldn't go to the trouble of working around your defenses to show you an ad, if it didn't pay off.
Unfortunately, there are apparently enough people who actually buy stuff this way to encourage them.
DON'T BUY IT !!!
Seems a lot of folks have this problem but I have yet to find someone offering a solution.
Anybody here, besides me, had this trouble?
Uninstall, reinstall of all components and programs did not help.
Good, maybe I will now be able to start reading Drudge again. There is more crap on his site than just about anywhere else I go.
So true.
I recently read that close to 30% of Internet users have actually purchased a product from a spam email. Incredible!
Would be most appreciative if you would add me to the Tech Ping list.
They need to do something. When I started using FireFox I had virtually no popups. Now that it has been around for awhile I am starting to see them.
......mainly on Drudge.
He has to pay the bills I guess.
ping.
I installed this extension and just visited Drudge's site. No popups. I clicked on several articles, still no popups.
I didn't install the Flash and other plugins for Firefox, so I haven't had the problem. If I need to see something in Flash, I'll fire up my Mozilla, which has all the plugins I could find. Coupled with my standalone pop-up blocker, it works well enough.
Nice! I think I'll give it a try.
Same here!
Drudge = PWND!
I got rid of Quick Time for that very reason, Got tired of it hanging up.
Done! Welcome aboard!
my mozilla firefox often attempts to send an error message home to its maker, but the error message cannot get out of my computer.
any ideas?
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