Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Fighting ad blockers - the Microsoft style · 2007-01-16 20:05 by Wladimir Palant
I received a mail from a confused user. She wasn’t able to log into her Hotmail account so she mailed Windows Live support. And the support folks over at Microsoft didn’t need any additional information to find the reason: “it appears that your Firefox browser settings are not optimized”. Now, how does one optimize the browser settings according to Microsoft? It comes out that one has to disable proxies, clear cache and cookies (wtf!), reset SSL options. So far it makes sense, more or less. But now:
III. Allowed sites
a. Click “Content.”
b. Next to “Block Popup Windows,” click “Allowed Sites.”
c. In the text box, type “hotmail.com”, and then click “Allow.”
d. Repeat step 3 for the following domains:
msn.com
passport.com
live.com
e. Click “Close.”
Yes! So to log into Hotmail they advise unsuspecting users to disable the popup blocker on 4 (four!) major Microsoft sites! And unless I am very mistaken this login procedure doesn’t even use popups. But it comes better:
If you have the Firefox addon Adblock installed you must also follow these steps:
1. In Firefox press the following keys at the same time CTRL+SHIFT+A to open the Adblock preferences window.
2. Click “Add filter.”
3. Type “@@live.com” (without quotation marks) and press ENTER.
4. Repeat step three with the following site names:
– “@@msn.com”
– “@@hotmail.com”
– “@@passport.com”
– “@@msads.net”
– “@@atdmt.com”
5. Click “OK.”
So they basically want the user to allow ads on the same Microsoft domains and from two major ad servers. So much about acting in the user’s best interest…
Funny thing is that it seems she only installed Adblock Plus because she misunderstood the meaning of these directions — and she didn’t know what to do with the subscriptions dialog so she mailed me.
Comment [5]
Commenting is closed for this article.
rick752 · 2007-01-17 00:53 · #
Jeez!
The absolute greed on the internet just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn’t it? It is just unbelievable! I mean, what can you say?
I don’t know what to say. I think that just says it all …. :-(
chewey · 2007-01-17 04:23 · #
This is way to sad to be funny. Suggesting to whitelist atdmt(!) to be able to use hotmail is insulting and taking advantage of the user’s inexperience. I wonder if this answer is company policy or just a support agent gone wild.
On the bright side: Practices like that can only be good for IE’s competitors.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
The answer certainly looks like a template sent out to all Firefox users having problems. Oh, and I forgot to quote the last sentence:
As to the bright side: I am not sure there is a bright side here. Hotmail has always been the worst mail service possible and yet it is still has 35% market share. They have pretty much the most unexperienced users out there, do you think many of them will notice how the support is trying to undermine their browsing experience?
mariano · 2007-01-17 20:52 · #
This is a shock! I’d never have expected this from Microsoft.
This i would:
a. Click “Content.”
b. Uncheck “Block Popup Windows,”
and
If you have the Firefox addon Adblock installed you must uninstall it
Gidseo · 2008-04-23 11:39 · #
I have two computers both running Firefox; on one Adblock Plus is 100% effective of stopping the M$ banner ad at the top of Hotmail. The other I can’t block it at all.
I don’t mind the ads on Gmail because they don’t flash in a Epileptic Fit inducing style and the way Google works the emails seem to take priority over the ads.
Any advice on how I can get Adblock Plus working on the other computer would be much appreciated.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
I guess your second computer doesn’t have any filters. Easiest thing to do – choose a subscription from http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions (e.g. EasyList) and click “Subscribe”.
Gidseo · 2008-04-25 18:13 · #
Thank you Wladimir – that worked – your help is much appreciated.