Firefox - Say Goodbye (again) to Pop-Ups

Firefox - Say Goodbye (again) to Pop-Ups

Callaway on 06 April 2005 - 15:18 · 37 comments & 5094 views

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A lot of people have been reporting a new breed of pop-ups on the web. This increasing menace is rooted in the pop-up capabilities of plug-ins like flash and Java. If you're seeing pop-ups and pop-unders, you're probably visiting sites that have flash or other plug-ins and those plug-ins are being exploited by advertisers to abuse you with annoying pop-ups and pop-unders.

Firefox has the capability to disable these pop-ups but it wasn't enabled by default in Firefox 1.0 because we had concerns about websites that rely on plug-in triggered pop-ups for legitimate functionality. Give that these pop-ups and pop-unders have really started to spread on the web, we're testing a quick patch that enables the Firefox pref to block them.

News source: Asa Dotzler's (Mozilla Developer) Blog

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#1 Geo on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:20

Pheer!

(2 replies) #2 stezo2k on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:21

sounds good, make's FFX more useful anyway

#2.1 threedaysdwn on 06 Apr 2005 - 20:04

Seems they're slowly catching up to Maxthon in that regard

/flamesuit on

#2.2 toadeater on 06 Apr 2005 - 22:13

The more the better.

(2 replies) #3 quick on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:22

Downloaded it, thanks.

Download it here

#3.1 theyarecomingforyou on 06 Apr 2005 - 17:00

I tried it yesterday... I found it disabled opening new windows, making it completely unusable for me.

#3.2 capeche on 06 Apr 2005 - 19:00

You can, I think, put in the "allowed sites" of the popup blocker those sites you want to be able to spawn new windows.

(3 replies) #4 fro0ty on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:24

its only available as a plug-in then?

#4.1 RotAtoR on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:37

For now at least since they're still testing it. Last I heard, it should be included in the upcoming 1.1 release.

#4.2 joshpo on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:40

for now, you can go into the about:config and make the changes yourself if you don't want the extension. I forget which line it is but you can probably gooooogle it. the reason they are providing it as an extension is for easy removal if the user desires.

#4.3 PermaSt0ne on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:45

in his blog he give a link to a previous blog that says how to do it. http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/007682.html he tells how to do it manualy

(4 replies) #5 imtoomuch on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:48

Awesome. Another great feature to add to the best browser.

#5.1 Hurmoth on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:51

Agreed

#5.2 em_te on 06 Apr 2005 - 19:09

Another feature? The article says that Firefox already had this capability, but it wasn't enabled by default. And in fact I've been using the disable_plugin preference long before this was posted.

#5.3 imtoomuch on 06 Apr 2005 - 19:37

QUOTE

Another feature? The article says that Firefox already had this capability, but it wasn't enabled by default. And in fact I've been using the disable_plugin preference long before this was posted.

Well aren't you special. It is a new feature to most of us even if it was included in Firefox before because this time it's enabled by default. Now go on with your leet self...

#5.4 em_te on 06 Apr 2005 - 21:05

QUOTE

It is a new feature to most of us

So it being new to you suddenly means that Firefox got another feature added?

#6 dave164 on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:50

Cheers, cos some popups do come up still. That link by you quick doesn't work

#7 Axon on 06 Apr 2005 - 15:52

Alright, good to hear they're working to stop pop-ups

#8 Matt™ on 06 Apr 2005 - 16:08

Good to know they're addressing the issue. But I haven't really noticed the popups because Kerio blocks Flash for me.

#9 hotdog963al on 06 Apr 2005 - 16:12

Mess.be did this, I was wondering why!

(2 replies) #10 sphbecker on 06 Apr 2005 - 16:16

Cool! I don't understand why web pages can't just stick to the standard in-page advertising. Content providers are certainly not going to impress users to check out their sponsors by annoying the user, and ads which try to trick the user into clicking are just plain dishonest.

#10.1 joshpo on 06 Apr 2005 - 16:53

Think of it this way: If they're doing it, it's making money, which means somebody out there is clicking on them. Just like spam!

#10.2 raid517 on 06 Apr 2005 - 19:24

1 in 3 people have bought something as the result of a popup. It may be dumb - but no wonder advertisers love popups so much.

GJ

(3 replies) #11 nic on 06 Apr 2005 - 17:26

i noticed there were more pop-ups coming up then usual. I thought to myself, hey? What happened to all the pop-up blocking you keep touting, FireFox! Glad they fixed it!

Is there anyway to disable the sound in web page embedded flash ads? I don't mind ads (some sites just need the support), but when I browse to a page and some alien starts making weird noises or Shao Kahn starts punching the screen...well, it drives me up the wall (it is great incentive to leave the pages I'm looking at). Any solution other then just blocking all adverts? I might just do that...

#11.1 AxelStone on 06 Apr 2005 - 18:44

I havnt seen anywhere to disable audio by default in flash. Anyone?

#11.2 Manksgloob on 06 Apr 2005 - 19:00

Aye, those are annoying. Especially when I've forgotten that my speakers are on late at night.

Mute button, perhaps?
At least that's what I do.

#11.3 Ahnteis on 07 Apr 2005 - 20:01

There's a plugin to disable flash unless you click on it, but since flash is it's own entity (IE not part of firefo

they can't control it. You should write to macromedia and ask for such an option.

(3 replies) #12 Ianmac45 on 06 Apr 2005 - 18:44

shouldn't there just be a setting in about:config?

#12.1 em_te on 06 Apr 2005 - 19:13

There are. All this patch does is enable 2 preferences:

pref("privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins", 2 );
pref("dom.popup_allowed_events", "" );

The file size is 3 KB just because it is digitally signed and contains installation code. If they were removed the file size would just be 270 bytes.

#12.2 Stef Nighthawk on 07 Apr 2005 - 07:16

hmmm, can't find that first one in about:config

#12.3 markjensen on 07 Apr 2005 - 18:24

QUOTE

hmmm, can't find that first one in about:config

What version do you have? It was added in 1.01, I believe.

(2 replies) #13 TheSarge on 06 Apr 2005 - 21:32

Even without the patch, Firefox is better at blocking pop-ups than IE is (Even IE sp2)
God, I am so glad to be freed from MSIE.
We'll see how much they refine this after it's ready for prime time.

#13.1 SquareSoft0 on 07 Apr 2005 - 05:33

I really don't understand why you can't support Firefox without bashing IE, guess you're just not above that.

#13.2 The_Decryptor on 10 Apr 2005 - 08:28

Some people just cant, while others can (like me).

depends on who you talk to.

#14 lillitnn92 on 07 Apr 2005 - 02:17

hmmm. guess Opera was spared......again!

bwaha ha ha ha ha!!!!

but. i'm sure it won't be long though.

(1 reply) #15 Steffan on 07 Apr 2005 - 17:18

the plugin prevents sites from opening in new windows.

#15.1 Ned on 07 Apr 2005 - 19:38

Try changing dom.popup_allowed_events back to

"change click dblclick mouseup reset submit"

That setting and privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins set to 2 is all the plugin does
(thanks for the info EM_TE)

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Firefox - Say Goodbye (again) to Pop-Ups

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