Mummy

Thought that getting the google toolbar was supposed to stop all the pop-ups? I still get them from this site - admittedly not as many but some still appear.

wmoore

Me too - I use the Altavista toolbar. Ho hum, this site is very good for free so I live with it, though it is a bit annoying.

EssexNobby

Yep, I still get the popup ads too and I use Google toolbar.

I used to use "PopUpStopper" (http://www.panicware.com/popupstopper.html) and that was much better at stopping popup ads. I think that I might go back to using that instad

LaraandBryn

Yep, the Panicware popup stopper always works on this site...and it's free

bondipom

Use a secure browser such as firefox or mozilla. www.mozilla.org . They have a built in pop up blocker.

Peter

What Bondipom said. There's really no reason to use Internet Explorer when there are superior alternatives.

MarkMyWords

Seconded, I mean thirded. Mind you, Opera's built-in popup blocker, which normally works beautifully, doesn't block the ones on this site. I'm going to capture the raw output when I've got a moment to see what clever and devious things are going on.

sky

I dont really get any, maybe 2 in the last few months. I used the panic ware pop up stopper in the uk and it seemed very good

gedge

I've just switched to Mozilla, and it does the trick although I get flak from J for changing something she has only just got to grips with. Oh and she doesn't like the interface 'it doesn't look nice', though I could try a new skin.

Pity that I can't change the browser on the PC at work as I do alot of browsing in work hours.

bondipom

The Mrs still uses IE at home so I still have to apply the updates. I use Mozilla on my profile.

Centurix

Currently using MyIE2, popup blocker plus proper tabbed browsing, and it's still IE.

Ceri

food for thought .... make up your own minds



http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html

Google deserves your nomination
for Big Brother of the Year.

1. Google's immortal cookie:
Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies altogether. Now it's years later, and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines; Google set the standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This cookie places a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already have one. If you have one, they read and record your unique ID number.

2. Google records everything they can:
For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as "IP delivery based on geolocation."

3. Google retains all data indefinitely:
Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save.

4. Google won't say why they need this data:
Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are ignored. When the New York Times (2002-11-28) asked Sergey Brin about whether Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no comment.

5. Google hires spooks:
Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.

6. Google's toolbar is spyware:
With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf. Yes, it reads your cookie too, and sends along the last search terms you used in the toolbar. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you phone home. Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google.

7. Google's cache copy is illegal:
Judging from Ninth Circuit precedent on the application of U.S. copyright laws to the Internet, Google's cache copy appears to be illegal. The only way a webmaster can avoid having his site cached on Google is to put a "noarchive" meta in the header of every page on his site. Surfers like the cache, but webmasters don't. Many webmasters have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to discover later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's cache. The cache copy should be "opt-in" for webmasters, not "opt-out."

8. Google is not your friend:
Young, stupid script kiddies and many bloggers still think Google is "way kool," so by now Google enjoys a 75 percent monopoly for all external referrals to most websites. No webmaster can avoid seeking Google's approval these days, assuming he wants to increase traffic to his site. If he tries to take advantage of some of the known weaknesses in Google's semi-secret algorithms, he may find himself penalized by Google, and his traffic disappears. There are no detailed, published standards issued by Google, and there is no appeal process for penalized sites. Google is completely unaccountable. Most of the time they don't even answer email from webmasters.

9. Google is a privacy time bomb:
With 150 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved. Google deserves your nomination for corporate Big Brother of the Year.

Google Watch home page

bondipom

Hence their search engine is so good. Google's attitude to privacy is scary. I have uninstalled the google toolbar because I found it had a performance overhead and the pop up blocker is not 100% effective.

Technically the company is the envy of the IT world. They deliberatley plant misleading stories about their equipment to confuse the competition on what catch up is required. Estimates of the no of servers varies between 10,000 and 100,000. That is one almighty cluster and probably rivals the NSA's computing power. The NSA is one of the worlds biggest users of super computers. Google also attracts the cream of programming graduates.

As is the company's privacy policy is not threatening as it is geek run. Bring on a flotation and it becomes much scarier as shareholders demand max returns from the company.

Keep them in check but as is the companies abilities are technically spectacular.

The reason Ulujain and myself like mozilla and firefox is the program is good and open source. Open source means anyone can inspect the source code and check for security/privacy concerns.

Ceri

My father-in-law had a google toolbar installed, also basically he was getting favourites in his favourites.. which he thought were normal.. Hubby took control of his computer to sort it out (over the net) and ran spy checks .. yip spyware, and cleaned a lot of planted registry items out.. was there for three hours cleaning his computer up.. but couldn't get rid of the google toolbar for him of course.. as it was in use..( and obviously he couldn't disconnect the net.) so he's stuck with his stupid toolbar.. father-in-law really is a complete novice when it comes to computers.. he's in his 60's.. and good on him he's taken up a computer, but has nobody there to help him.. he lives by himself.
basically it annoys the hell out of me.. all this spyware and sh*te.. Hubby is the computer tecky one . If I had to sort things out.. I'd be *****ed... but I'm learning ... getting there

bondipom

Spyware is annoying especially as Internet Explorer lets it in even with tight security.