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.]
At the request of several MDN readers, we’ve added our donation link here. If you enjoy MacDailyNews and would like to support the site, please click below to make a donation via PayPal:
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Safari’s and Firefox’s Pop-Up Blockers broken? – February 16, 2005
Macslut,
What exactly about the following sentence did you not understand?
“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.”
Read the article before you comment next time, you stupid Macslut.
Amen Chad! “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.”
I wouldn’t mind if it were one per session not just one per day. Sometimes we mac users can be too easy to offend. We have it the best online lifestyle with no viruses/no pop ups/little junk mail. But the reason there are so many sites that provide valuable services for free, is that they can cover their costs through advertising. People that gripe about these ads can go to a paid subscription site. The rest of us will “pay” for the content provided by taking two seconds to close an ad.
BTW MacDailyNews, it’s great that you took down your ad, but I think you put it back and tell the whiners to get over it.
(Brought to you by . . . Thank you MDN for your EFFORTS)
MDN, one of the ads is a link for T-shirts, but there is little choice.
Maybe putting some energy into that could bring some revenue more than ads do.
I am coming here every day since a year or so, and I guess I have never clicked on a single ad.
Not many ads are of interest to me, and I find most of them are usually not well targeted to a Mac audience.
I think the audience here is likely to buy Mac stuff if there was more choice and better designs.
Just my opinion.
I’ve been getting no pop-up/under ads… I’m using Safari 1.2 (V125) So I just don’t understand what you all are complaining about.
The over Ad-Served nation is making me sick. One day these morons are going to realize that the ever more overly intrusive advertising we see turns most of us off. The AOL animation of Fox Sports Daytona Coverage and running AOL man on the grass in the Bowl Games makes me MORE likely to NEVER want to use their product/service. Someone needs to poll internet users and show how worthless pop-ups are. No positive response= no ads= no more pop-ups. While I’m ranting- lets stop the bottom of the screen ads/promos during the programs on TV. 19 minutes of ads per hour (broadcast) and 20+ (cable) is beyond the pale.
Thanks to MDN for being so above board about the whole issue.
Want to tell the Pop-Up *&%#!(&*%()?$%# what you think about them. Try this one-
admin@popuptraffic.com
Send them an e-mail and tell them what you really think.
Here’s some contact information for fastclick, the company whose code this is. Everyone should call and express your sentiments.
fastclick*
360 Olive Street
Santa Barbara , CA 93101
Tel: (805) 568-5334
Fax: (425) 969-8552
x141 Kurt Johnson
x162 ???
x111 Andrew Arnold
x112 Matt Edinger
x113 Shane Mac???
x114 ???
x121 ???
x131 ???
x181 Matt Kaye
Laura Fulton cell phone
805/551-2482
She’s assistant to a few of the execs there. Give her a call and tell her that you dislike their product. In fact everyone should call her a dozen times or so. That way she’ll know what its like to be constantly interrupted. She did say that I should contact Matt Kaye at x181, so mayber everyone should try contacting him first. Then if the popups continue call her.
Sorry Laura – actually I’m not sorry. I’m tired of you’re company’s intrusions and impositions on my machine, maybe now you’ll know what its like to be contantly interrupted by someone or something that you have no control over.
NoPCZone, I agree 100%.
I gave up on watching TV 5 years ago. Don’t own a TV set. Commercials every 10 minutes during a movie is no way of treating an audience. People are accepting that ? I don’t understand.
I also never read the newspapers. Ever. We are being brainwashed. Journalists are manipulating the way we think. All they care about is getting people to read their lies and get cash from advertizers.
Millions of things are happening every second. What are we going to do with all this information… OK, there was a terrible car accident yesterday. What am I going to do about it ? What do I have more now that I know it ? They are not essential you know. We needs the media ?
Most people don’t even see that something is wrong. Brainwashed I tell you.
pop-up/under blocker is NOT broken… just tricked!
as far as i can see the pop-under code gets around the blocker in a very simple way…
just look at the code:
<!– FASTCLICK.COM POP-UNDER CODE v1.7e for macdailynews.com –>
<script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript”><!–
var doc=document; var url=escape(doc.location.href); var date_ob=new Date();
doc.cookie=’h2=o; path=/;’;var bust=date_ob.getSeconds();
if(doc.cookie.indexOf(‘e=llo’) <= 0 && doc.cookie.indexOf(‘2=o’) > 0){
doc.write(‘<scr’+’ipt language=”javascript” src=”http://media.fastclick.net’);
doc.write(‘/w/pop.cgi?sid=9769&m=2&v=1.7e&u=’+url+’&c=’+bust+'”></scr’+’ipt>’);
date_ob.setTime(date_ob.getTime()+43200000);
doc.cookie=’he=llo; path=/; expires=’+ date_ob.toGMTString();} // –>
</script>
<!– FASTCLICK.COM POP-UNDER CODE v1.7e for macdailynews.com –>
the trick they use is to HIDE the actual script by using the doc.write and +way of writing the code:
doc.write(‘<scr’+’ipt language=”javascript” src=”http://media.fastclick.net’);
doc.write(‘/w/pop.cgi?sid=9769&m=2&v=1.7e&u=’+url+’&c=’+bust+'”></scr’+’ipt>’);
instead of writing:
<script language=”javascript” src=”http://media.fastclick.net/w/pop.cgi?sid=9769&m=2&v=1.7e&u=’+url+’&c=’+bust+'”></script>;
because the latter will trigger the pop-up blocker of safari!
note to Apple and webmasters:
just check for this kind of scripting!!!!!!!!
NO pop-ups or UNDERS with OmniWeb, The only browser (mostly) that I use.
But as a person who serves the advertising world, and even if I didn’t, I recognize the need for advertising to help pay the freight to make excellent websites like this possible. Call me crazy, but I let SOME advertising through on sites like MDN, because I occasionally see an ad I want to click on, and I feel it’s my way of ‘paying’ my way. Or I’ll click on that PayPal banner above and kick in some real money instead of eyeball time.
It all comes down to “how much is too much?”. Is one popper too many? No? Five, Twenty?
Should we have to whack and hack our way through multiple levels of pop-ups to get to the content? That’s the ethical question we have to ask ourselves.
Clearly we have to ‘pay’ somehow. Are static banners the most we should tolerate? Can they twitch? Animate like dizzy tadpoles?
Should we allow them to pop-up? The guys at MDN gotta eat, and we KNOW that if if MDN went to mandatory subscription model (like the Wall Street Journal) 95% of us would flee. Unless it was more than $9.99 a year. Maybe $4.99 a year.
But people will only tolerate so much ‘in your face’ advertising. Broadcast TV has increased from 9 minutes an hour (it was that way for decades) to the current mind-numbing 19 minutes an hour.
OUCH.
David Vesey
Damn decent of you to stop your pop-unders MDN. I say bring ’em back! If your decent enough to stop because Mac users are being affected, I don’t mind clicking them if you get some revenue.
one pop-up is infinitely to many.
if the banners don’t pay for the site then the price on the banners is to low.
I think it’s ridiculous to put the finances of this site at risk just to appease a few pre-teen nerds who can’t handle a single pop-up/under ad.
“ooooohhhhh but it’s using my precious resources!” -Dude you need to really think about what you are saying. If you have a noticeable difference in performance because of ONE extra ad from this site then you need a new computer or you need to learn how to set up your machine properly as something is seriously wrong. I’m betting you’re also one of these people that obsesses about their uptime.
“How dare MDN try to make ends meet whilst providing a free service that i love and use every day!” -Get over it, MDN is a good read (most of the time). When you buy a magazine you not only get ads printed in amongst the articles but you also usually get a few bits of junk falling out too. Pop ups are just part of this style of advertising. Web sites need to make money somehow, ignore the ads and get over yourselves.
I wonder how many of you complainers will be using the donation link?
MDN: I say weed out the complainers, bring back the ad and let them find another site to bitch on.
petervrdk you said it ! And to be honest: you are wright !
That is why I sticked to Apple; even when it was proclaimed dead.
Honestly, The “pop-under” ads just atrted poping up when visiting MDN. They are just as annoying as “pop-ups”. I would think that MDN would understand that Apple added “pop-up” blockers because cusotmers find them to be annoying and would prefer not to have them. Guys there are plenty of ads running along the side of your site, so please do not allow “pop-unders”!!!!
I have the same problem viewing articles on Forbes. Nothing seems to work to keep the ads from appearing.
Great work, MDN! Stopping the pop-under shows respect for your readers. That’s going to win you a lot of loyalty, and I bet some of us will even make a point of buying things from your banner advertisers. One pop-under ad is not worth offending your readers. Good decision.
Respectfully,
RT
BTW, when will the pop-unders stop?? I’m still getting them.
Thanks again.
I just made a paypal donation. But I still see the pop-under script in the MDN source code. I’m more than happy to support this site. It’s one of the most valuable and I visit several times a day.
Macintosh with an attitude!
Rob
RT,
You’re using cached code. I was doing the same thing, too. Force refresh your browser to make sure you’re looking at the latest MDN site code – the pop under code has been removed.
The web site http://www.drudgereport.com/ also has a once-per-day pop-under ad with Safari 1.2.4 (v125.12) with “block pop-up windows” turned on.
Someone needs to do a large survey to show the ad buyers that this eternal saturation of advertising DOES NOT WORK- it just pisses people off. I did not buy a PowerMac G5 and get a Cable Modem to be constantly barraged by advertising. I have no problem with traditional ad placement, but anything that intrudes Pop-Ups, Pop-Unders is Bullsh*t.
I don’t want to see ANY “Pop-unders” or “Pop-ups” at all, period. You can get rid of the “Pop-under” ads completely by adding the ‘hosts’ file from the following web site to your Mac. (http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html). Follow the Macintosh OS X instructions and you will not see any “Pop-unders” again. I (and many others) have tested this extensively, with numerous web sites that implement the code for “Pop-unders” and it works flawlessly. I have over 24 years experience as a Systems Analyst with various OSes and systems ranging from mainframes (dating myself) to all other machines. Personally, I don’t care to be “force-fed” any advertisements from anyone. By the way, Safari’s ‘Block Pop-Up Windows’ works great, just add the ‘hosts’ file and you won’t see any. You can verify that it is working by checking Safari’s Activity window and you will see ‘tons’ (literally) of pop-ups and unders being stopped dead in their tracks. Give it a try, you’ll be much happier!!!
Thanks for the info!
what are you all talking about, i use firefox and i have not one pop-under or pop-up on mdn…
no special stuff done on hostfiles..
perhaps you all allowed popups from mdn when you saw the header that a popup got blocked from mdn