Is anyone else finding the new ads intrusive?
I’m sure to be more sensitive than most, but surely you’ve at least noticed these large new ads popping up in the middle of a thread.
I get that it’s a business and there’s money to be made. But these are beginning to bother me.
Agree that it’s quite annoying In the middle of a thread. Intrusive is rude.
The internets thinks it’s so smart… it’s showing me ads for stuff I’ve searched. The internets ain’t TOO smart 'cause it’s showing me ads for things I already bought.
@raisins said:
maybe if they’re ‘kayak’ (or canoe?) related:
Funny video! As to the Google ad, I just close it and let it know it covers content. Maybe it will move itself to the bottom of the page. I’ve no issues with advertising income to help keep this great place running but can do without Google’s in-your-face approach.
There may be ad blocking software that will reduce this if it bothers you. I know I regularly get offers for ad blockers in my FB page. I haven’t acted on it because I would have to spend time researching which ones are not suspect themselves. But there likely is software you could install.
Totally agree with Sparky.
I still visit pnet but find the ads very intrusive.
They bother me enough I have vowed to myself; “never” buy any of the product advertised.
Net result; I spend less time here.
If & when I bail out; the dogs will still bark and the caravan will move on.
BOB
PITA but it’s a business for profit here I guess. None is better but I guess I’ll live through it.
Adblock Plus and Ghostery
They’re both browser add-ons, free, safe and easy to install and use.
I’ve been using them both on all my PCs for several years.
They have to pay the bills some how.
Actually, it’s not so much the ads that bother me; and of course I realize they’re a revenue stream for the websites that run them. What bugs me is the invasive trackers that websites run as background processes.
This website isn’t a major culprit as it is currently only running seven of them (Google adsense, doubleclick, Google publisher tags, Google analytics, SumoMe, GA Audiences, and Gravatar) but many websites use over 20 of them when you browse them. Some of these trackers are used to target and deliver advertising, some of them are used to track your behavior, location and activity. As just one example it’s how you get an email saying something like “Hi, we noticed that you put an item in your shopping cart but didn’t complete your purchase. Would you like to reconsider?”
Website tracking and analytics is an interesting topic typically done to enable advertisers to get the best bang for their buck. I’d prefer to “enjoy” it from the outside and not the inside.
I run AdBlock on my real computer but haven’t found a solution for Android/Chrome yet. Hence my starting this thread.
On a phone, screen real estate is all that more important.
“Adblock Plus is the most popular ad blocker available for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Android and Internet Explorer. Block all annoying ads all over the web: remove video ads on YouTube, block Facebook ads, get rid of pop-ups and much more…”
It works for me on Safari on my iPhones, and on MS Edge on my PCs.
I use Adblock Plus on this laptop. It’s telling me that it blocked 7 ads on this page alone…
@kfbrady said:
https://adblockplus.org/“Adblock Plus is the most popular ad blocker available for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Android and Internet Explorer. Block all annoying ads all over the web: remove video ads on YouTube, block Facebook ads, get rid of pop-ups and much more…”
It works for me on Safari on my iPhones, and on MS Edge on my PCs.
That sounds great, but every link I’ve been able to find related to Adblock Plus and Android/Chrome points me toward AdBlock Browser, which I’m not interested in using at this point.
This is the only site where the advertising has been a problem for me, and it’s a recent change. Should I really have to jump through technical hoops to avoid losing close to 1/3 of the screen to ads, and the occasional full screen pop-up? Surely you guys won’t miss me that much if I decide the advertising here has gone too far.
Sparky, I agree that it can be difficult to undo the tendency of so many packages out there that otherwise have excellent utility to also stick a brower or menu bar on your computer. But if you spend a little time making sure you ONLY let it do what you want, you can usually avoid getting something you didn’t want. It admittedly can take alertness, when Bing was real hot I always had to be careful that I didn’t accidentally install the dratted thing along with what I wanted.
I only get those ads on my phone not the PC.
@Sparky961 said:
Is anyone else finding the new ads intrusive?I’m sure to be more sensitive than most, but surely you’ve at least noticed these large new ads popping up in the middle of a thread.
I get that it’s a business and there’s money to be made. But these are beginning to bother me.
Well, after the fifth time an ad appeared hawking “Date Arab women, Join here” (in spite of my reporting it to Google each time), I bit the bullet and added ad blocker. I don’t mind paddling ads, but that ad borders on illegalities.
I feel the same way. If the ads were targeted accurately - i.e. towards paddle sports - I wouldn’t mind them.
It also bugs me that the code to track and analyze all this stuff is running stealthily on my PC totally without my permission.
I installed AdBlock early in this thread. Doesn’t get them all, but greatly reduced them.