307849 - [adblocking] Scan of Alexa top 25 sites using Camino adblocking

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Camino Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Samuel Sidler (old account; do not CC)]

The following is a scan of the Alexa top 25 sites with Camino ad-blocking turned
on. It's a relatively quick run through, so not perfect. It's mainly for
checking if content is missing because of our adblocking, however, will also
list when ads should be blocked that aren't being blocked.

Please don't report on sites outside the top 25 here. File new bugs for those.

Also, this uses the latest adblocking file from CVS, not from the 9/8 branch
build (the most recent at the time of this writing).


1. From yahoo.com:

My Yahoo! icon missing from yahoo.com's top nav. The following code is used to
show it: <span id=m5><a
href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12kbqccne/M=331250.7080901.8016702.6676619/D=yahoo_top/S=2716149:MHCSS/_ylt=AtYcHkuIA2JWzD5Cm8TD5kf1cSkA/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1126341607/A=2961986/R=0/SIG=11oh8t0go/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=35351/*http://my.yahoo.com/">

<img src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/ww/bt1/my.gif" width=36 height=36
alt="">My Yahoo!</a><script language=javascript>
if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object();
window.yzq_d['PcXzSELaSRM-']='&U=13afmjkqb%2fN%3dPcXzSELaSRM-%2fC%3d331250.7080901.8016702.6676619%2fD%3dMHCSS%2fB%3d2961986';
</script><noscript><img width=1 height=1 alt=""
src="http://bc.us.yahoo.com/b?P=6c9hpUJe5irqUDceQnQM_SBQGBD2WUMif8cAAHEf&T=142bqk49r%2fX%3d1126334407%2fE%3d2716149%2fR%3dyahoo_top%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3dH%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d4111114747%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d2AE65E42&U=13afmjkqb%2fN%3dPcXzSELaSRM-%2fC%3d331250.7080901.8016702.6676619%2fD%3dMHCSS%2fB%3d2961986"></noscript></span>

Currently, a "Huggies" ad is getting through on the right under the Katrina
alert, this may change with a refresh.

And... on yahoo.com, there's an "American Express Broadway" ad on the bottom
right of the page (kind of in the footer).

Finally, when doing a search, lots of "Sponsored results" show through, not sure
if this is fixable.


2. msn.com:

From msn.com, doing a search (I search for "test"), bring up results with ads
right on the top of the page in a "Sponsored Sites" box. Additionally, there's
some on the right and bottom. We don't do well with MSN...


3. google.com:

We also show sponsored links on Google.com (search for "test" again).

4. passport.net: Nada.

5. ebay.com: No problems here, that I can see. We block some featured items, but
no real content.

6. microsoft.com: Good. We do block a "Protect your PC" bulletin (kind of an ad)
on the right side, but nothing major.

7. amazon.com: Good. Mainly, I don't see anything missing when I switch
adblocking off and on, so we must not really block anything. I doubt they have
many external ads anyway.

8. myspace.com: Occasionally an ad shows on the main page here. We usually block
it, but sometimes it makes it in. Good enough.

9. google.co.uk: Same as google.com

10. aol.com: Really hard to tell what's an ad here and what isn't. We do keep
some Dell promotions (text only) on the page.

11. bbc.co.uk and news.bbc.co.uk: No problems here.

12. cnn.com: There's a large banner near the bottom of the page (before "From
our partners) that's called "Advertiser's Links". It'd be great if we can block
this.

13. fastclick.com: uh... yeah.

14. go.com: Searching for "test" (uses Yahoo! search), brings up a nice long
list of sponsored links, well before the actual results. Besides that, this site
is good.

15. alibaba.com: Hard to say. There are some "ads", but they're all within the
alibaba.com network and thus, I think we're fine with it how it is.

16. xanga.com: Looks good.

17. blogger.com: Heh... right.

18. casalemedia.com: Moving on...

19. ebay.co.uk: We block a major part of content that's an internal eBay ad. I'm
not sure if this is right. They do, however, offer a link for those who think
content is missing because of their ad blocker. ;)

20. craigslist.org: Nothing to see here...

21. comcast.com: Nice big banner ad on the right side (note: only shows
occasionally as it rotates).

22. doubleclick.com: Move along...

23. google.ca: Same as google.com

24. imdb.com: There are some "Sponsored Links" that get through on individual
pages (take http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404032/ for example). They appear near
the bottom of the page.

25. adultfriendfinder.com: Ah... the work I do for Camino had to pay off
sometime. :-P This site had no issues (though I didn't join).


I'll be doing a scan of more of the top 100 later, but this is the first run
through of the top 25.

Comment 1

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

> 1. From yahoo.com:
> 
> My Yahoo! icon missing from yahoo.com's top nav.

Fixed (though this may have regressed some other yahoo ads.

> Currently, a "Huggies" ad is getting through on the right under the
> Katrina alert, this may change with a refresh.

Fixed.

> And... on yahoo.com, there's an "American Express Broadway" ad on the
> bottom right of the page (kind of in the footer).

Hard to fix.

> Finally, when doing a search, lots of "Sponsored results" show
> through, not sure if this is fixable.

No.

> 2. msn.com:
> 
> From msn.com, doing a search (I search for "test"), bring up results
> with ads right on the top of the page in a "Sponsored Sites" box.
> Additionally, there's some on the right and bottom. We don't do well
> with MSN...

Fixed some of this.

> 3. google.com:
> 
> We also show sponsored links on Google.com (search for "test" again).

Hard to fix.

> 8. myspace.com: Occasionally an ad shows on the main page here. We
> usually block it, but sometimes it makes it in. Good enough.

Wasn't able to see one in testing.

> 12. cnn.com: There's a large banner near the bottom of the page
> (before "From our partners) that's called "Advertiser's Links". It'd
> be great if we can block this.

Fixed.

> 14. go.com: Searching for "test" (uses Yahoo! search), brings up a
> nice long list of sponsored links, well before the actual results.
> Besides that, this site is good.

Not fixed (same as yahoo).

> 19. ebay.co.uk: We block a major part of content that's an internal
> eBay ad. I'm not sure if this is right. They do, however, offer a
> link for those who think content is missing because of their ad
> blocker. ;)

They use doubleclick.net for that central block. Too bad...

> 21. comcast.com: Nice big banner ad on the right side (note: only
> shows occasionally as it rotates).

Never saw it.

> 24. imdb.com: There are some "Sponsored Links" that get through on
> individual pages (take http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404032/ for
> example). They appear near the bottom of the page.

Maybe fixable (it's an iframe).

Comment 2

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to comment #1)

> > 24. imdb.com: There are some "Sponsored Links" that get through on
> > individual pages (take http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404032/ for
> > example). They appear near the bottom of the page.
> 
> Maybe fixable (it's an iframe).

I think this will do it (I had it in my own userContent.css in the past):

iframe[src*="google/box?"]

Comment 3

[Samuel Sidler (old account; do not CC)]

Proposed patch in bug 306796 fixes issue on #24.

Comment 4

[Samuel Sidler (old account; do not CC)]

If the patch from bug 306796 goes in, I'd consider this bug closed.

Comment 5

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> If the patch from bug 306796 goes in, I'd consider this bug closed.

We can probably get the sponsored results from Yahoo.com search if we want; it
looks like the top and bottom ones are div class="yschspns" and the sidebar is
div id="yschsec".

That's the only other thing I saw remaining in Simon's comment that seemed
possibly fixable/blockable.

Comment 6

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Fixed.

Comment 7

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

div.yschsec should be div#yschsec (that one was an id, not a class)