Dancing ads: can I block these dern things?

When I go to a web site and there are ads on the right and left trying to sell me something, I tend to ignore them, read the article which brought me to the site, and then move on. What is most irritating are either the dancing ads (with some animal doing a crazy dance on either side of the article) or those which slide on top of or under the article I am reading, forcing me to click on an X to get rid of them (the Sports Illustrated website is a prime example of that).

I understand the ads on both sides of my article. I can ignore them. What I want to block are those which are dancing or come over or under the article I am trying to read. How can I block them?

What browser are you using? All of them have a pop up blocker.

The "Pop up blocker" was the BEST thing ever added to a browser Photolady isnt it??

what this user is describing would not be stopped by a pop-up blocker, because it's not a separate window, it's a div manipulated with JavaScript.

I thought those were popups, guess I was wrong on that count. There is software that will stop them, but I don't know the names of these types.....don't use them myself.

Put the URL (address) of the offending websites in restricted websites.. tools>internet options>security>restricted websites.

Just the domain is ok.. eg- whatever.com or use a wildcard like *.whatever.com, */whatever.com for more complex/changing/alternating addresses.

Yeah, the main question is, if the user complains about pop-ups, or built-in ads.
Built-in ads can be easily stopped in Firefox by combination of couple of add-ons:
- AdblockPlus
- Remove It Permanently (great add-on, which I discovered recently - I even got rid of right hand side ad panels on this site)

I have heard of adblockplus, I think, but have not tried it. Will look into it.

What is this add-on, Remove It Permanently? How and where do I find it?

Firefox Add-ons

Remove It Permanently 1.0.6.4
by Jerome O'Flaherty
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/521

(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...22&btnG=Search)

Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5
by Wladimir Palant
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 1.0.5
by Wladimir Palant
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4364

Another Firefox addon that will stop JavaScripts:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

TEk

bear in mind everybody, if enough people resort to ad blocking, free sites like this will become a memory.

Thanks guys and girls. Did several things: installed the latest version of firefox, added adblock and Remove it Permanently.
The blocking seems to be working well.

With AdblockPlus, Adblock Filterset.G Updater: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1136 is a must:

Quote:

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This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days.

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Some AdblockPlus users no longer promote the Filterset.G Updater and recommend the combination of EasyList and EasyElement instead. It's been a while since I've read up on the reasons but I do know Filterset.G was originally made for Adblock, not AdblockPlus. How much of a difference this all makes, I really don't know. (FWIW, at work, I use AdblockPlus Element Hiding Helper with AdblockPlus to block the few remaining ads that ABP (with EasyList/Easy Element) doesn't handle on it's own.)

Interesting observation. That led me to discover this site: http://easylist.adblockplus.org/, and apparently, there is one more AdblockPlus subscription: The Tracking Filter
I'll have to test it...
Thanks, Han.

http://easylist.adblockplus.org/idea.htm

Quote:

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First, these are my reasons why the current web ad model is bad:

1. FACT! Most websites have no idea what ads they are serving.
   
   They give an adserving company a space to advertise in on their site and give them full control over that space to serve anything they want in return for $$$. At that point, the site has no control over what its users will see. This is bad! All other media types (newspapers, tv, magazines) have the ability to pre-screen or pre-roll their advertisers. The actual advertiser and the serving media are on a one-to-one basis. Those media types KNOW what they are advertising beforehand. The "Oops, I didn't know that those were x-rated", or "I'm sorry it destroyed your operating sytem", or "Sorry it gave you malware" responses just don't cut it. They won't help the destruction caused to the user's machine. This could be grounds for legal action especially if a site takes action to insist that users see those ads.
   
   
2. FACT! Almost all malware is cause by exploit scripting, misleading advertising, or adservers just taking 'shoddy' clients or being hacked themselves.
   
   Once again, we are back to ads as the cause of bad things happening to you on the web. Malware and spyware are almost totally non-existent when ads are removed from the equation. Blocking ads not only stops you from seeing them, but because they are blocked at the source, any malicious script served by a 'bad' ad will not come through to the user's computer. "You can't get what you can't get". Adblock Plus is not 100% perfect for that, but it sure helps a lot with the right subscriptions. NO ONE has a perfect system. But you only need one bad ad to screw up your whole computer. There are also strings in the EasyList to stop malicious executions like, "Spyware has been detected on you computer ... click here to get rid of it" ... you know those? A tv or a newspaper never rewrote the info on itself or tried to steal from me because there was a bad ad in it. User's have the legal right to protect themselvesfrom anything they see as even a remote threat to their property or identity if no responsibility is taken by anyone for it happening.

[...continues...]

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Broni I have just found adblock plus and Adblock Filterset.G Updater. I must say that they are brilliant, thank you so much!! Once again, this site comes up trumps.

You're welcome :)