Disable IntelliTXT and keyword popovers: some solutions for the end user
Thursday, August 30th, 2007 - 10:30PM
With tons of links, props, comments, and almost 600 Diggs (and counting) it’s clear that I’m not alone: people REALLY don’t like keyword popovers. So I did a little of the old Google n’ compile to come up with some possible solutions to get rid if this garbage advertising while the rest of the internet wises up. I haven’t tested these solutions, so caveat emptor.
- Download the Firefox Adblock extension (I’m less a fan of this, because I don’t necessarily think we should block ALL ads, just the evil ones).
- There are a couple of Greasemonkey scripts that disable inline text ads: here and here.
- Add intellitxt.com (and / or tleone.us.intellitxt.com) to your computer’s host file, point it to localhost (127.0.0.1). More here.
- Try Intelli<nix> for FireFox or IE — this is a manual solution that requires you using a bookmarklet on every page with those ads, so it’s less useful.
- Try SafariBlock for Safari.
- The manual solution: ask your favorite offending website to enable an opt-out. The IntelliTXT people only offer per-site opt out at the request of their clients (your web site), there’s no global opt-out. Sleazebags.
[...] 2: I put together a short list of some end user solutions to disable IntelliTXT ads here. Thursday, August 30th, 2007 - 2:17PM | Permalink Posted in Web Submit to: RSS [...]
Pingback by An open letter to friends and colleagues on keyword popovers » Ryan Block — Thursday, August 30, 2007 @ 10:35 pm
[...] Disable IntelliTXT and keyword popovers: some solutions for the end user » This Summary is from an article posted at Ryan Block on Thursday, August 30, 2007 [ Vibrant [...]
Pingback by University Update - Firefox - Disable IntelliTXT and keyword popovers: some solutions for the end user — Friday, August 31, 2007 @ 1:41 am
I also find these ads intrusive and frustrating and, as I am in the beginnings of soliciting advertising for me site, I’m joining you in your pledge. No matter how much return there may be in using this means of advertising, nothing, IMO, should deter a visitor from consuming my content.
Good writers know not to use arcane phrases, idioms, and other content that take the reader away from the content. Keyword popovers break this rule.
Comment by Dennis Hays — Friday, August 31, 2007 @ 6:54 am
I don’t want to block all ads either, so if you are blocking by domain, you have to include all the other in-text providers… Two I know of:
Kontera: http://www.kontera.com/
Echo Topic [Tribal Fusion]: http://www.echotopic.com/
Comment by Jason — Sunday, September 2, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
[...] Ryan’s two-part anti-IntelliTXT rant, and I have to say I’m in 100% agreement with him. Now I’m going [...]
Pingback by Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » I want a WidgetBlocker — Monday, September 3, 2007 @ 9:03 am
Damn, Ryan. All I can say is BLESS YOU. These things drive me nuts and I never thought I would get rid of them. So, you have changed my life, haha.
Comment by JFree — Thursday, September 6, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
[...] Update Some other options for blocking these ads can be found here. [...]
Pingback by Block those annoying “Intellitxt” ads at Mac Singularity — Thursday, September 13, 2007 @ 11:55 am
Another (imperfect) solution to a lot of the most annoying ads is the Firefox extension NoScript, which blocks Javascript from running except on trusted domains. I actually didn’t know that NYTimes had these features until I read articles complaining about them. Since most annoying website features are served through Javascript (it’s hard to be annoyingly distracting in HTML except through marquee and blink and animated GIFs, all of which can be killed by hitting the escape key), NoScript will deal with pretty much all the really flashy annoyances.
You just have to remember/be willing to authorize the sites you want to have using it and temporarily reenable it on sites you don’t want using it permanently (easy interface, but if you’re not used to it you can forget). Annoyingly many sites use JS for stuff they really don’t need to.
Comment by Jadagul — Sunday, April 6, 2008 @ 4:01 pm