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New online ad formats
Mar. 11, 2009, 10:23 PM
Post: #1
New online ad formats
Just to let you know we might have some "work" to do in the near future:

Quote:27 publishers with a reach of about 109 million unique visitors per month -- that's 66% of the total U.S. Internet audience -- have agreed to try one of three new online ad formats sometime before July. The publishers are all members of the online publishers association (OPA).

Here's how an OPA rep described the units:
The Fixed Panel (recommended dimension is 336 wide x 860 tall), which looks naturally embedded into the page layout and scrolls to the top and bottom of the page as a user scrolls.
The XXL Box (recommended dimension is 468 wide x 648 tall), which has page-turn functionality with video capability.
The Pushdown (recommended dimension is 970 wide x 418 tall), which opens to display the advertisement and then rolls up to the top of the page.

From: http://www.businessinsider.com/27-publis...ads-2009-3

There's also a list of websites where we might be getting this new kind of ads. Personally I didn't encounter any of this as of yet.
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Mar. 12, 2009, 01:11 AM
Post: #2
RE: New online ad formats
World of banners is changing, maybe it they weren't so obstrusive we would not block them, as we understand servers and their work must be paid...
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Mar. 12, 2009, 05:57 AM
Post: #3
RE: New online ad formats
I blocking ads no matter what!

During my daily life their already enough ads for my brain to filter Smile!
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Mar. 12, 2009, 02:09 PM
Post: #4
RE: New online ad formats
(Mar. 12, 2009 01:11 AM)lnminente Wrote:  World of banners is changing, maybe it they weren't so obstrusive we would not block them, as we understand servers and their work must be paid...

I like Michael Bürschgen's approach, to entirely separate anti-ad filters from anti-tracking etc ones, offering a switch for turning ad blocking off and on. However, if done consequently, it would require you going over hundreds of ad domain list entries, deciding if they are specialized in tracking, or pushing ads.


As for the new banner formats, i'm confident that they don't require new filters.
Maybe except for the "Fixed Panel" (style="position:fixed" or a JS emulation thereof). That one is a pain.

And then there's the intro ad, the second videoegg recommendation here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-web-a...als-2009-2
It can be seen at http://bloomberg.com/ .

While they can usually be blocked on a per site basis (RBB.js in above example), i wouldn't know how to do that generically.
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Mar. 12, 2009, 04:01 PM
Post: #5
RE: New online ad formats
Separating anti-ad filters from anti-tracking ones could be a hard work. Hopefully i have found two different list from adblockplus, these could be easily adapted to use with the ad-list parsing we spoke:
For ads http://adblockplus.mozdev.org/easylist/a...emhide.txt
For tracking http://easylist.adblockplus.org/abp-tracking-filter.txt

BTW i'm testing an addon for firefox to know who is watching us http://www.ghostery.com/
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Mar. 12, 2009, 05:58 PM
Post: #6
RE: New online ad formats
Personally, i like to stick to separate lists for domains and paths.

However, it appears to me that 99.9% of tracking is done via JavaScript, img/iframe/object, Flash, cookies, and very few other things. So it might not be too hard after all to separate this category of filters from anti-ad, but i'm not sure...


(Mar. 12, 2009 04:01 PM)lnminente Wrote:  BTW i'm testing an addon for firefox to know who is watching us http://www.ghostery.com/

Verrry nice, thanks Smile!
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Mar. 12, 2009, 06:30 PM
Post: #7
RE: New online ad formats
(Mar. 12, 2009 04:01 PM)lnminente Wrote:  BTW i'm testing an addon for firefox to know who is watching us http://www.ghostery.com/

I find it odd their site pulls in this script: cdn.lookery.com/look.js
I've blocked lookery.com as being a tracker. That script injects an iframe for tracking you.

The page also sends a URL to getclicky.com, another domain that I block.

Does the use of Ghostery also block the junk being done by Ghostery, or have they excluded their own trickery?
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Mar. 12, 2009, 06:49 PM
Post: #8
RE: New online ad formats
The extension itself doesn't do any tracking (unless you check "Enable GhostRank" in the preferences), it's only the homepage.
It isn't removing any trackers, it just displays them. It also displays the bugs on their homepage.

So it's more a developer extension. However, it isn't very helpful with locating the actual detected tracking code. I had to dig deep into the extension's JS code, in order to find out that "Dotomi" matches dtmpub.com .

Nonetheless, i find it interesting to have it running for a while. Smile!
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Mar. 12, 2009, 08:43 PM
Post: #9
RE: New online ad formats
Graycode, the extension also advice us about his page. I add a screenshot

Sidki, upper right appear a violet box with the systems tracking us. Also i use this other extension to see the styles and scripts loaded. Here it is useful for doing some fast search


Attached File(s)
.jpg  Clipboard-1.jpg (Size: 91.68 KB / Downloads: 686)
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Mar. 12, 2009, 09:29 PM
Post: #10
RE: New online ad formats
Yep, and often the hints in the violet box are sufficient, but sometimes the displayed name, like "Dotomi", isn't part of the tracking code. So, i would wish to also get information about the actual code being matched, like "dmpub.com".

But it's okay now, the matching expressions are in "db.js", which is readable.
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Mar. 16, 2009, 01:22 AM
Post: #11
RE: New online ad formats
The addreses inside db.js (the database file inside of the FF addon)


Attached File(s)
.txt  ghostery.txt (Size: 7.42 KB / Downloads: 1442)
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Mar. 16, 2009, 07:32 AM
Post: #12
RE: New online ad formats
The only distinction I make is that if the ad is served by the same server as the web page, it is probably not trying to track me. If it is served by a third party, they are probably trying to track me.
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Mar. 16, 2009, 03:15 PM
Post: #13
RE: New online ad formats
(Mar. 16, 2009 01:22 AM)lnminente Wrote:  The addreses inside db.js (the database file inside of the FF addon)

Ahh, that makes it easier, thanks.
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Mar. 16, 2009, 09:06 PM
Post: #14
RE: New online ad formats
An early filter, list is attached. Testing to a debug file...

Code:
[HTTP headers]
In = FALSE
Out = TRUE
Key = "URL :0_3.4 Kill tracking scripts (Ghostery) {ln}090316 TEST"
URL = "(^local.ptron)"
Match = "((\w)\0|*((^(http|ftp)://|//)(http|.|/)\w)\0)$TST(\0=(.|/|)($LST(Ghostery))\9*)"
Replace = "$ADDLST(debug,0_3.4  Kill tracking scripts (\4)\t$DTM(Y/M/D H:m:s't)\t$GET(uDom)\t$GET(uExt)\t$GET(ContentType)\t$GET(Resp)\t$GET(ContentLength)\t\u\t\9\t\1\t\3) $LOG(R$DTM(c),0_3.4  Kill tracking scripts (\4): \u) \k"


Attached File(s)
.txt  ghostery.txt (Size: 7.44 KB / Downloads: 1304)
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Mar. 17, 2009, 06:04 PM
Post: #15
RE: New online ad formats
Almost half of the DB entries are "widgets", originally Blog plugins, some of them now also used by major Web2 sites, or news pages like NYT and WP.

Some love widgets, some hate them. I've opted for a config switch, "Block specific Third Party Scripts", which could just as well be called "Block those widgets, that either take ages to load, or focus too much on ads/tracking".

Almost all widgets have a tracking component. Some are required to keep the blog usable, like the comment plugins (e.g. Disqus, Intense Debate, JS-Kit). JMO Wink
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