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