SillyDog701

[MJR]

Certain pages in the about.com website display this annoying floating pop-up appearing just below the tab bar. It reappears even if you scroll down the page. How do you get rid of this? Seems that pop-ups just outwitted Netscape 7.2.

See http://email.about.com/

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[Fulvio]

Wow! And, I have other weapons from the Prebar, like Killflash. I also disabled javascript and flash, altogether. There is no new activity, until I scroll down. I can't see anything else to do other than disabling the cookies

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[akbash]

What, do you mean this relatively unobtrusive little "About" advertisement bar?

I'm inclined to write them a message congratulating them on one of the most gentle advertising schemes I've ever seen on the web. I think it's very tastefully done. See the monstrosity at http://www.hindustantimes.com/ if you want to be annoyed.

By the way

Seems that pop-ups just outwitted Netscape 7.2.

I find it odd that the word "popup" in common usage seems to have been subsumed into a general term meaning "anything on a website that annoys me." Neither of these examples are windows in any sense. And while Netscape 7.2 does have a popup window blocker (readily outwitted -- see http://www.aol.com/, for example), that window blocker by design has not the slightest effect on page content like about.com's gentle little "About" bar, or hindustantimes.com's "in your face" offense.

The web is advertiser-funded, that's all. Popup windows were an obnoxious way to feed the machine. They're pretty much old-hat now. Webpage content like these two examples is simply what advertisers have been forced to move to since popup blocking became widely available. Your best bet for suppressing individual pieces of website content is with something like the Adblock extension.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041116 Firefox/1.0

[Edward]

It's JavaScript. If I disable JavaScript in Opera, that toolbar does not appear.

UserAgent: Opera/7.60 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)

[Fulvio]

Very interesting. With the Popup box checked in the Prefbar, I don't see any unrequested window till after I close the site. The about.com ad will be blocked 50% of the times. In addition it has been an often obnoxious flash bar in about.com. How many times has akbash tried it? I never saw anything unobtrusive. The hindustantimes thing was pretty huge the first time around, but out of the way the second time, but nothing came up the third time, with the Prefbar popup block on. But, after changing my cookie settings to originating site only, AOL's unrequested windows came up with a vengeance, but nothing the next time.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[akbash]

True I haven't sat down and banged on email.about.com for a long time, and I haven't run it through Netscape 7.2 at all. But the few times I have been there in Firefox, the website made no attempt, successful or blocked, to open a popup window on me. So I assume we're talking only about that cute little content bar. I could be mistaken, of course.

...The about.com ad will be blocked 50% of the times...The hindustantimes thing was... out of the way the second time, ... nothing came up the third time... after changing my cookie settings... AOL's unrequested windows came up with a vengeance, but nothing the next time.

I know AOL's site in particular has made a small concession to user annoyance, omitting the popup window if it believes you've seen it recently (using cookies). Hindustantimes.com seems to be doing something similar with their not-a-popup-window overlayed content.

It's not an uncommon consideration, and it does make it harder to judge whether a popup blocker is working, or just getting lucky. But trust me, AOL can open that popup any time it likes against Netscape 7.2. Anytime it likes and you've just loaded the page, that is. None of Mozilla's products has any natural defense against website content like hindustantimes.com's windowish overlay. Though as I mentioned earlier, Adblock is pretty effective.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a6) Gecko/20041227 Firefox/1.0+