rant: mobile pop-app ads getting out of control

[Ichinisan]

I don't recall if it has happened to me on Anandtech. If so, it's very rare. I do a LOT of my forum browsing on iOS devices (iPad and iPhone 6 Plus).

It happens often on various other sites. It's super irritating when trying to check out blog articles that show up in my Facebook feed. Kicks me to the App Store. Really, this is the fault of the web browser / operating system, which should never allow this to happen without a user prompt explicitly asking the user to allow the App Store (or any other app) to launch.

 

[lxskllr]

You need to have a smart phone, an old Nokia 8210 doesn't count.

Galaxy S5. Rooted, and I don't install adware.

 

[Ichinisan]

Galaxy S5. Rooted, and I don't install adware.

We're talking about web browsing kicking you back to an app entry in the Google Play store or iOS App Store.

...or full-page ads where you have to tap a tiny little thing to dismiss it and read the article.

 

[lxskllr]

We're talking about web browsing kicking you back to an app entry in the Google Play store or iOS App Store.

...or full-page ads where you have to tap a tiny little thing to dismiss it and read the article.

Never got that.

 

[Ichinisan]

Never got that.

You probably don't browse many web sites then.

modmyi.com -- that's one that I just stopped reading because their site kept showing me ads that force me to dismiss them with a tiny little "x" before I could read the article or even scroll through the articles.

I think lots of mainstream tech sites do it. I'll try to take note the next time I'm browsing around...

 

[lxskllr]

You probably don't browse many web sites then.

modmyi.com -- that's one that I just stopped reading because their site kept showing me ads that force me to dismiss them with a tiny little "x" before I could read the article or even scroll through the articles.

I think lots of mainstream tech sites do it. I'll try to take note the next time I'm browsing around...

Kind of busy now, but I wouldn't mind checking some sites out. I request the desktop site by default. Maybe that prevents it.

Edit:
Went here... modmyi.com No ads

 

[mmntech]

Yeah, those full page ads that make you X out. I've gotten them occasionally on Safari and the like. It's high on my list of web design sins along with the scourge of autoplay videos.

Site managers and marketers hate ad-blocking with a passion, but conveniently forget it exists because online advertising got too obnoxious.

 

[Ichinisan]

Kind of busy now, but I wouldn't mind checking some sites out. I request the desktop site by default. Maybe that prevents it.

Edit:
Went here... modmyi.com No ads

Yeah. Requesting the desktop site is probably more effective on an Android device than on iOS.

The problem is, many sites specifically detect iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and show a special layout for that iDevice. So they have some kind of routine that thinks like this:

device=checkdevice(useragent);

if(device="iphone"){
	showsite("iphone");
}elseif(device="mobile"){
	if(preference="desktop"){
		showsite("desktop");
	}else{
		showsite("mobile");
	}
}

...or maybe it's more like this:

device=checkdevice(useragent);

if(device="mobile"){
	if(preference="desktop"){
		siteversion="desktop";
	}else{
		siteversion="mobile";
	}
}

if(device="iphone"){
	siteversion="iphone";
}

showsite(siteversion);

The result is that these sites ignore my request for the desktop site and show me the iPhone / iPad version.

 

[lxskllr]

The result is that these sites ignore my request for the desktop site and show me the iPhone / iPad version.

Spoofing your user agent should get around it.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Is this some sort of iOS problem? Because I've never had anything redirect me to Google Play on my Android phone

But then, I also run Firefox mobile with Adblock installed, which seems to work pretty well. Browser is a bit slow that way sometimes, but I don't browse on my phone a ton either so it is fine.

I agree those full screen "not-really-an-ad-so-adblock-doesn't-block-but-still-ad-like" garbage - both desktop and mobile - are hideously annoying.

 

[Ichinisan]

Spoofing your user agent should get around it.

Something iOS Safari doesn't allow you to do. I used to do that on my jailbroken iDevices.

 

[Leymenaide]

Get an Android noob! https://adblockplus.org/en/android-install :twisted:

Thanks it has made Droid Turbo life more pleasant

 

[NoTine42]

Is this some sort of iOS problem? Because I've never had anything redirect me to Google Play on my Android phone

But then, I also run Firefox mobile with Adblock installed, which seems to work pretty well. Browser is a bit slow that way sometimes, but I don't browse on my phone a ton either so it is fine.

I agree those full screen "not-really-an-ad-so-adblock-doesn't-block-but-still-ad-like" garbage - both desktop and mobile - are hideously annoying.

As far as I understand, it's an iOS "feature" that has been around a long time. They don't want to stop valid "click here to purchase on the App Store"

iOS 8 beta listed a redirect block as a feature, but I guess there are ways around it, and more advertisers have figured out the way.

 

[88keys]

Yeah it really is a pain and I started requesting desktop view by default to put an end to it. Another thing that annoys me on both desktop and mobile browsing are those new register/subscribe request pop ups. Like every god damn website wants you to set up and account, link your email, facebook, twitter, etc. all because you read one damn article. If I like your content, I'd fucking bookmark the website and go back and check periodically. You don't need my personal information.

I feel like internet has to come up with ways to annoy the fuck out of people every couple of years. Remember the late 90s when every website opened like 50 pop up ads? Then people started installing pop up blockers and that shit went away. And then you had ones that wanted to change your homepage and run Activex Scripts blah blah blah, the M$ got their shit together.

And then they came up with intellitext ads so you'd have a little pop up window that would show up whenever your mouse pointer is within 100 pixels of a highlighted word.
Then the rise of online video gave us those wonderful hidden commercials that would blare out of your speakers trying to sell you shit while you had to sort through all of your tabs to figure out which one it is so you can shut it down.
Banner ads and a few links is all there should ever be for websites that don't host videos.
I understand the need for advertizing, but website hosts need to stop being greedy because this is the kind of shit that makes people resort to adblockers.

 

[lxskllr]

I understand the need for advertizing, but website hosts need to stop being greedy because this is the kind of shit that makes people resort to adblockers.

Ads should be like a newspaper. A company buys space, and they get an ad coded into the html for a week, month, whatever. No tracking, no noise, no movement; just a tasteful simple ad. Lack of tracking reduces it's value, but that value would be greater than the zero it is for me now, because I block every single one of them. I don't mind tasteful ads, but I will not be tracked, and I don't want to watch a shit show circus going on in the sidebar of a site.

 

[CZroe]

Kind of busy now, but I wouldn't mind checking some sites out. I request the desktop site by default. Maybe that prevents it.

Edit:
Went here... modmyi.com No ads

They randomly load but not every page. You will encounter them as you change pages and load articles. Usually they load after you scrolled and it either undoes all of your scrolling and snaps back or the ad loads off the screen and glitches everything. Luckily, you don't have to click the X and clicking anywhere away from the ad dismisses it. When it loads correctly you will find it just as hard to click away from it as it is to click the little X because it occupies almost all of the viewable portion of the page. They also have another type that loads with a touch-sensitive partially-turned page that you either have to finish turning to reveal the full ad or drag back down to make it go away.

 

[jlee]

They randomly load but not every page. You will encounter them as you change pages and load articles. Usually they load after you scrolled and it either undoes all of your scrolling and snaps back or the add loads off the screen and glitches everything. Luckily, you don't have to click the X and clicking anywhere away from the ad dismisses it. When it loads correctly you will find it just as hard to click away from it as it is to click the little X. They also have another type that loads with a touch-sensitive partially-turned page that you either have to finish turning to reveal the full ad or drag back down to make it go away.

Yeah, ih8mud has ones like that. Scroll down and the ad drags up to the middle of the page, then slides back to the bottom. SO annoying...

 

[mmntech]

Something iOS Safari doesn't allow you to do. I used to do that on my jailbroken iDevices.

Some legit iOS browsers let you do it. Atomic for example, but it hasn't been updated in years.

 

[master_shake_]

i run firefox and adblock plus on my nexus 5.

ads are not worth using my data.

 

[John Connor]

once installed, I go into settings and on top it says "Adblock Plus can not change the proxy settings on your device, please configure it manually."

Is that required for it to work? I was hoping it would also block the small banner ads at the bottom of some apps like Facelite (FB).

https://adblockplus.org/en/android-config

 

[Ryan Smith]

It used to happen rarely, but now it seems like a third or half of websites I visit on iOS, including anandtech, have resorted to advertisers which can force-close your browser to open the app store directly to some particular app.

If this is happening on AnandTech, please let us know right away. This shouldn't be happening. You can find my email address on the main site.

 

[Blanky]

Google doesn't allow extensions for its mobile Chrome because it knows that 7 seconds after it allows them adblock will come in and put all this stupidity to a rest. At least one site I simply don't visit anymore because it's literally unusable on mobile. Any time you do anything it's forcing you to visit the app store.

 

[Blanky]

Yeah it really is a pain and I started requesting desktop view by default to put an end to it. Another thing that annoys me on both desktop and mobile browsing are those new register/subscribe request pop ups. Like every god damn website wants you to set up and account, link your email, facebook, twitter, etc. all because you read one damn article. If I like your content, I'd fucking bookmark the website and go back and check periodically. You don't need my personal information.

I feel like internet has to come up with ways to annoy the fuck out of people every couple of years. Remember the late 90s when every website opened like 50 pop up ads? Then people started installing pop up blockers and that shit went away. And then you had ones that wanted to change your homepage and run Activex Scripts blah blah blah, the M$ got their shit together.

And then they came up with intellitext ads so you'd have a little pop up window that would show up whenever your mouse pointer is within 100 pixels of a highlighted word.
Then the rise of online video gave us those wonderful hidden commercials that would blare out of your speakers trying to sell you shit while you had to sort through all of your tabs to figure out which one it is so you can shut it down.
Banner ads and a few links is all there should ever be for websites that don't host videos.
I understand the need for advertizing, but website hosts need to stop being greedy because this is the kind of shit that makes people resort to adblockers.

You're right. It's always something. The biggest trend now is that basically all news site have video--with audio--playing as soon as you load them. This has only happened within the past year and I'm seeing it on most major news networks. This despite my confidence that virtually everybody absolutely fucking hates this kind of thing.

 

[QuantumPion]

If this is happening on AnandTech, please let us know right away. This shouldn't be happening. You can find my email address on the main site.

It has happened to me on anandtech twice in the last week. Next time it happens I can tell you what app the ad has redirected me to but it's not clear what the source of the popup is. It occurs seemingly randomly while loading any part of the forum.

 

[Fingolfin269]

This has happened to me a few times as well. Even more annoying than the old days of desk top pop ups.