Original article from 2/16 – please see UPDATES below.
Just a quick note that we’ve noticed that the latest version of Safari (1.2.4 (v125.12)) sometimes seems to allow pop under ads that we and other sites serve to appear even though “Block Pop-Up Windows” is checked in Safari. This never happened with any other version of Safari that we know of – and the network ad code (Fastclick) that we are using seems to be unchanged. It is happening to us on one of our recently updated machines (Mac OS X 10.3.8, Build 7U16, Safari 1.2.4 (v125.12).
MacDailyNews serves one pop-under ad per browser session per 24-hour period. We do not, have not, nor will we ever, run pop-up ads. You shouldn’t see more than one per 24-hour period per browser session from our site.
In the days before Safari, Mac users received these pop-under ads. Since Safari’s “Block Pop-Up Windows” feature, Mac users have gotten used to surfing without such ads. All along, MacDailyNews has continued to run such advertising to satisfy our need to actually pay our web host for the bandwidth we use. Before this issue with pop-under ads reappearing, the nice thing was that mainly the MDN visitors using Windows and Internet Explorer to visit the site were being served their daily allowance of one pop-under ad per day. Of course, they are used to receiving these types of ads and never even mentioned our pop-under ad. Oh, and the three Mac OS X users who are still using MSIE for Mac were seeing the daily ad, too. Thank you for your support.
So, the once per day pop-under ad has been running here as usual, you just might have forgotten it thanks to Safari’s ability to block it. It doesn’t seem to be happening to all Safari users, either. Please let us know what version of Safari (use “About Safari” under the Safari menu) you are using if you are suddenly receiving our pop-under ads even with Safari blocking enabled. Some users have also informed us that using the “Reset Safari” option has cleared up the issue.
We have not changed any code on MacDailyNews. If anyone has additional information, please let us know.
[UPDATE: 2/16, 11:06 am ET: We have replicated the issue with Firefox v 1.0 on the Mac. This would indicate that it is not an issue with Safari. It is also happening on other web sites, not just MDN. We are investigating to see if the network ad service’s code has changed. We’ll let you know what we find out. If you encounter ads while visiting other websites that also aren’t blocked when they should be, please let us know below. Thank you.]
[UPDATE: 2/20, 1pm ET: The silence from the network ad service(s) is deafening. Or maybe they didn’t get our 50+ emails? Anyway, until we understand exactly what’s going on and/or Apple fixes Safari’s pop up blocker to once again effectively block our pop-under ads for users that desire to block them, we will not be serving pop under ads. We’ll work to make up the lost revenue in some other way.]
[UPDATE: 2/22. 4:45pm ET: We are currently testing pop under ad codes. You may see a pop under ad or two during these tests. Thank you for your patience.]
[UPDATE: 2/22. 10:25pm ET: We are currently testing various pop-under ad codes. We have now been in contact with Fastclick and there is a way for our users who do not wish to accept pop-unders to opt out. Users who wish to opt-out of pop-under and other Fastclick ad network ads may do so by installing the Fastclick Opt-Out Cookie. If you choose to install this cookie, please consider buying any songs you wish via iTunes by launching iTunes via our left side column to launch iTunes or please consider patronizing our other sponsors via banner and text ads (such as Other World Computing, MacService, PowerMax, The Apple Store, The Apple iTunes Music Store, and others) as MacDailyNews will be unable to derive any Fastclick revenue from your visits. MacDailyNews is an ad-supported site and Fastclick is a major component of this site’s revenue and helps greatly in offsetting our operational costs. Thank you.]
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Safari’s and Firefox’s Pop-Up Blockers broken? – February 16, 2005
I’ve been getting more thatn 1 ad per 24 hours i get a pop-up almost every time I go to MDN
Thank you! ‘Nuff said.
Two words: PithHelmet
That’s the right thing to do MDN. Thanks (even tho I have not been affected here yet I have seen it on other sites; no idea why).
Have you thought about putting up that “Support MDN” page I suggested? You could put a lot of affiliate links and maybe a paypal donation link on the page and anyone who wants to support MDN could click to go shopping for iTunes, etc from there and support the MDN site.
The only time i get pop-up/unders with Safari 1.2.4 is when i accidentally hit cmd-K in Safari instead of say the Finder (the connect to server command) – In all cases i’ve seen that the “Block pop-up windows” option was un-ticked, indicating 1 of my 10 thumbs as the culprit.
Good to see some ethics coming into play!
It’s pretty hard to criticize MDN when it has this kind of transparency. Very classy guys. I’ll keep coming here everyday for the latest news on Apple.
and that is why this is my favorite mac site.
Camino 0.82 joins Safari and Firefox in getting the one popup from MDN. iCab 3 dudn’t get them at all. In the old days I could force them to pop into a new tab in the background, from which they were handily dismissed, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen even that.
Thank you guys very much, although I didn’t really care, as I come for the content and any obstacles that are in my way wouldn’t matter. Again, very nice to see you guys pull this stuff down until you can figure out who is to blame.
Because of the pop ups MacDailyNews is dead to me. Rot in hell.
Well done guys – you made the right decision! I hope this can be worked out soon, for your sake as well as ours.
Thanks MDN. You are probably the only website in the world with enough balls to do this. You will be receiving a donation tomorrow.
proving once again that MDN is one of the best mac sites around. keeping it real
This article explains it is not just a Safari issue. In fact, it says advertisers are bragging about the ability to serve ads even with blockers in place: http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050218022511830
I’ll tell you what is more annoying, MacNN served up an add yesterday about swatting a fly. It came with sound effects of a flying buzzing around. I usually open sets of pages in tabs, so I had to hunt for the offending noise. Why on earth would somebody think annoying people would attract customers? I think pop-ups and pop-unders fit into the same category. People ignore them. They are a hassle to deal with.
Your[sic] Dead to Me, did you actually read MDN’s latest update? They killed the pop-under and you tell them to rot in hell?! Perhaps they are not the ones who should rot.
just when i was contemplating about not coming here anymore. WOW…
WOW…
nicely done. i think i will continue to return.
good good work! it was quite annoying!
I just install OS X version 10.2 on my new harddrive with old version of Safari. Pop up blocking also don’t work on older version of Safari.I save the older version of safari and run it in 10.3. Safari runs well but Pop up blocking don’t work.
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i have that stupid pop up thing happening to me on several sites.. not all…. but some…. however i took the advice of resetting the safari.. and well now i ahve that problem where you got ot a website and it errors out and have to try again.. i think i would rather have the pop under ads if you ask me……
mac
Thank you MDN. I have been receiving more than one per 24hrs. It seems to affect all browsers, Other sites are affected too. It seems MDN were the first to spot ths – although it has now reached Slashdot. Thank you for pulling the code – above the call of duty.
Gimme a break! It’s not like MDN is doing it intentionally to piss people off! They have to pay for this site in some way, it certainly isn’t free. At least it’s a pop under and some huge 800×600 popup that won’t go away. Jesus, get over it.
Thanks’ “macaddict” for the MacFixIt link explaining that it is most likely the advertisers that have found a way around the Pop-Up Blockers and that the arrival of 10.3.8 is just a coincidence.
The link is worth repeating,
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050218022511830
fastclick apparantly has an optout cookie to block their own ads. I don’t know if it works.
http://www.fastclick.com/v4/safe_optout.go
“MacDailyNews serves one pop-under ad per browser session per 24-hour period. We do not, have not, nor will we ever, run pop-up ads.”
You say that as if pop-ups are evil and pop-unders are ok. Sorry, but you’ve got that backwards. I totally don’t mind if a site serves any number of pop-up ads per page viewed on their site. If it’s too many pop-ups per page viewed *I* can decide that it’s not worth it, and no longer visit the site. The same is true with interstitial ads…see The Onion, which is honest and direct about the ads.
What really pisses me off is when the ads can’t easily be tracked back to the site that served them. Pop-unders do this! You might go to close your browser and discover a large number of pop-under ads consuming resources…or time to deal with. It’s no longer a question of if MDN is worth the ads, but rather who the &$#*! is popping these ads!
Now that I know it’s from you, I’ll be less likely to visit…not because of the ads (in that you deserve revenue), but rather because I don’t feel you’ve been honest and direct about it.
BTW: Even if the pop-unders state that they came from MDN, it’s still far more obnoxious than pop-ups in that you don’t know they’re there.
Please reconsider your policy and either do pop-ups or interstitial ads if you need additional revenue.