How to block TimesSelect ad at nytimes.com?

November 6, 2005 10:31 PM

How do I get rid of this godforsaken TimesSelect floating ad that appears at nytimes.com?

I'm using Mozilla 1.5RC1, but it also appeared with the prior Firefox versions (1.4 etc). I've even tried clicking on the ad, in hopes that that would make it go away. It's not a flash ad, and blocking the site from which it is served would block other nytimes images I don't want to block. Ideas?

posted by Brian James to computers & internet (14 answers total)

in firefox, you can use RIP. Remove from domain, all similar items. Can't help you with mozilla.
posted by puke & cry at 10:45 PM on November 6, 2005

Woops, I said Mozilla, I meant Firefox...I'm not using Mozilla at all.
posted by Brian James at 10:46 PM on November 6, 2005

well, I dont seee anything weird, but couldnt you block something like
http://*.nytimes.com/adx/*

the real images for stuff all seem to be in the form of
http://*.nytimes.com/images/

so blocking the ads doesnt block that.
posted by Iax at 10:47 PM on November 6, 2005

then I suggest RIP wholeheartedly. Don't leave home without it.
posted by puke & cry at 10:47 PM on November 6, 2005

upon refresh, it does look like it's a flash ad, so flashblock would also work.
posted by puke & cry at 10:51 PM on November 6, 2005

How could you tell it was a flash ad?
posted by Brian James at 10:52 PM on November 6, 2005

when I refreshed, flashblock stopped the ad from coming up. I had to click on the flashblock box for the ad to show up.
posted by puke & cry at 11:04 PM on November 6, 2005

You can also block ad servers en masse with a hosts file like so. Works with any browser.
posted by skallas at 11:20 PM on November 6, 2005

Filterset G is a constantly-updated list of advertising servers on the web - add the definitions to your Adblock setup (instructions contained in link) and you'll rarely see any adverts ever again.
posted by blag at 3:01 AM on November 7, 2005

I'm not seeing a floating ad on the NY Times page you linked to. I'm using Firefox 1.0.7, with the Adblock Plus and Adblock Filterset.G Updater extensions.
posted by flabdablet at 6:08 AM on November 7, 2005

FWIW, when I turn Adblock off, I still don't see a floating Times Select ad. Crapload of other ads, though. The page refreshes about twice as fast with Adblock turned on as it does with Adblock turned off.
posted by flabdablet at 6:15 AM on November 7, 2005

Consider yourself lucky...I am thinking maybe they send down a cookie to determine if the image has already appeared, and perhaps I am blocking that cookie.

RIP fixed it for me...thanks all. It was driving me nuts because the ad was obscuring content on the page.
posted by Brian James at 6:24 AM on November 7, 2005

At one point, there was an "about:config" setting that controlled pop-ups from Flash, since they can bypass most of the normal blocks:

privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins - set to 2

I don't know if that's still used in Firefox 1.5.
posted by smackfu at 6:39 AM on November 7, 2005

Second what flabdablet said.

Download Adblock Plus, which now comes with Filterset.G Updater. Make sure it does an update after you install it, and you shouldn't have to configure anything manually.
posted by rxrfrx at 8:09 AM on November 7, 2005