Surfing the web…

October 20, 2008

Surfing the web…

… and the web ads.

Jillian Michaels Ad: How Much Do You Want To LOSE?

Me: Do I have to? I mean, our retirement savings are down 33% already!

The really annoying ones are the flash animations. Remember the woman who would “shrink” over and over and over and over? I kept running into that one on Yahoo! Mail. I found the distraction maddening. (See also: annoying mortgage refinance animations on Hotmail.)

Weight Watchers Ad: Lose weight and start living!

Me: So…if I’m not living now… why do I still have a job? Should I stop paying my bills? Does this make the man of the house a necrophiliac?

One (partial) solution: I mostly surf with Firefox & I’ve downloaded the add-on Flashblock. It makes flash animations optional. If I want to see what a Flash item is, I can click a “start” button to “play” the ad or YouTube video or what-have-you. But I don’t have to. In fact, on my “usual” sites, it’s pretty clear which positions on the page are always ads.

This does get annoying if I’m walking through a site that is entirely done in Flash, but I generally find it worthwhile.

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FatnessInGeneral, fluff, Mental health

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

6 responses to “Surfing the web…”

Cree

October 20, 2008 at 9:32 am

You should try the Adblock Plus add-on. It’s amazing. It makes all ads just disappear from browsing. I haven’t seen an ad in, wow, like almost a year now. It’s blissful.

Reply
Patsy Nevins

October 20, 2008 at 11:49 am

This stuff sounds great. Unfortunately, I am one of the three remaining people in the world who has dial-up, & downloading most stuff doesn’t work too well for me. I do find myself wondering if people who never visit ‘fat’ websites or read fat blogs also get all these damn diet ads when they are online. I know that they are always trying to get me to participate in trials of the ‘amazing’ weight loss secrets of Chinese women (the majority of whom are very small & thin to begin with).

Reply
living400lbs

October 20, 2008 at 12:31 pm

I do find myself wondering if people who never visit ‘fat’ websites or read fat blogs also get all these damn diet ads when they are online.

Patsy, it often depends on the website. I’ve noticed that many newspaper sites will give me ads for Catherine’s and Lane Bryant after I’ve been to shopping at … Catherine’s or Lane Bryant’s website. I think the stores are flagging me (through a cookie or other fashion?) and the ad company is going, “Oh, this user likes plus-size clothing, let’s push those ads!”

Other websites base it on text, such as “fat” or “diet”. And in others, the website selects specific ads to show. I think http://fullfigureplus.com/ falls into this latter category :)

Cree, I may look into that…. But I do like some ads, such as those Catherine’s sales :)

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Patsy Nevins

October 20, 2008 at 5:12 pm

Oh, I don’t mind ads about sales at places where I buy clothes, but I could live without Weight Watchers or the promises to turn me into a 100-pound Chinese woman. :-)

Reply
living400lbs

October 20, 2008 at 9:41 pm

Well, I don’t need life insurance either, but the ads keep on a-comin’.

Then there’s email spam. Sorry, Charlie, all the Viagra in the world won’t make me more “manly” ;)

Reply
Bree

October 21, 2008 at 7:53 am

I’ve been getting weight loss email spam too. Not only do I get the “how do Chinese women stay so slim?” I get the ACACI Berry diet crap too. I just hit delete. I also get the Viagra/Cialis/comenow@69 junk, and it just makes me laugh.

The ones I do like are the little videos with the people dancing and jumping up and down, and as they turn toward the camera, shocked they got caught on tape shaking their moneymakers, it stops and in big letters “reduce your credit score” or “lower your monthly interest payments now!” Then if you roll your mouse over the ad, they dance again. It doesn’t take a lot to amuse me.

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Former software tester, now retired heart patient having fun and working on building endurance and strength. See also About page.

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