Disable Text Ads in Firefox
In-text advertising (such as the Vibrant Intellitxt ads), where double-underlined ‘links’ are actually ads that generate pop-ups on mouse-over, are annoying and intrusive. Especially for me, as I tend to move my mouse around a bit while reading a web page. Fortunately, disabling these things in Firefox is pretty easy. Just install the GreaseMonkey script manager, then install the Disable Text Ads script. You won’t have to carefully avoid those fake green links any longer – they just disappear.
There are other methods to accomplish the same goal in every browser, but I happen to be a big fan of GreaseMonkey, and installation is easy enough for anyone.
By the way, I understand the need for advertising on web sites, and I don’t really mind. But I can’t imagine the rationale behind a content-driven site such as PC World or ExtremeTech (for example) allowing advertisers to essentially hijack their content. Sneaky pop-under ads and flash ads with loud audio are just awful, but at least they don’t screw with the actual text on a page.
Here’s a random ExtremeTech page with multiple green text ads. The word ‘servers’ – referring in context to hardware servers – generates an ad for Microsoft SQL Server software.
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2 Responses to “Disable Text Ads in Firefox”
Lord Xeb of OCN
February 6th, 2010
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. A thousand times thank you.
Nick
June 14th, 2010
This is a HUGE help for people like me who read tones of reviews a day (from several sits such as TechPowerUp). I hate text adds!