Gmail Advert Disabling!!

[zen-r]

For those of you who send or receive webmail using Google occasionally, you will probably be all too aware of the adverts that get attached to your viewing window.

The simple method for yourself to remove the adverts has always been to use the Firefox browser with the AdBlock Plus add-on. But until now you have not been able to control what adverts the recipients of your email will see, if they themselves use Gmail.


Well, all that has now changed due to someone's recent discovery. It's based on the fact that Google disables Gmail's targeted ads if an email mentions suicide, death, 9/11, murder or similar such tragedies!

Apparently, all you need to do is include a "tragic" mention once every 167 words for your email to be completely free of targeted ads. And if you write those trigger words in white text on a white background, the recipient of your email need not even be aware that those words are present!


OK - it's maybe not the most sophisticated of hacks, but it's completely legal & has a certain charm!

Original Source : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/11/gmail_and_tragedies/
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[Sharky]

Nice of Google, tbh... Not what you want to see, if you're talking about the death of a loved one... Kinda like if Clippy said "It looks like you're writing a eulogy: Would you like me to (a) show you photographs of different coffins, (b) load eulogy templates, (c) both of the above?".

So now, if people exploit this, it's sure to be disabled/'uncoded'... Great. If someone I know dies now, I'll be shown stuff about death, coffins, suicide bombers, 11/09, and vampire/goth/emo kids.

Anyway, all the cool kids use Outlook so don't get the ads in the first place

 

[fusionimports]

That's quite clever! Well done to whoever figured that out

but as Sharky said - Outlook ftw

 

[aymen215]

well google know what to do bro if they disabled it,so it will be for your interrest

 

[zen-r]

...
Anyway, all the cool kids use Outlook so don't get the ads in the first place

Unfortunately, not everyone I send email to & who uses Gmail is "cool" - so this method could spare them a few adverts.

The sort of situation I'm thinking this might have a particular use for is if, for example, I'm advising an internet novice by email to use GIMP for their image editing (as it's free) & Google goes & plasters the email they receive with loads of adverts for (the rather more expensive) Photoshop or some other image editor, just to confuse them. It would be nice to ensure that Google can't sabotage the advice I had given them.

By the way, if you read the full story that I linked to, you would know that this technique also works if you include certain "rude" words in your Gmail. Not that any of you would know any rude words, of course!

 

[Sharky]

Unfortunately, not everyone I send email to & who uses Gmail is "cool" - so this method could spare them a few adverts.

Then they'd not make any money and put graphical ads in the email service!

Plus, kudos to whoever buys photoshop from a google ad, when he/she should in fact be reading the content of your email... I think this means your emails aren't captivating enough! haha

 

[zen-r]

If you like adverts so much, give me your email address & I'll sign you up to a few dozen spam vendors.

You don't need to thank me now, save it till later! :biggrin:

 

[masshuu]

If you like adverts so much, give me your email address & I'll sign you up to a few dozen spam vendors.

You don't need to thank me now, save it till later! :biggrin:

no thanks, a couple months ago i was reciving 10,000+ bulk a month.

on a more ontopic note:

i have never payed attention to ads. Its called a mental ad block >.>

But i don't understand why you would go through so much trouble to stop ads?

 

[ichwar]

But i don't understand why you would go through so much trouble to stop ads?

Because they're totally annoying and they're becoming more and more inappropriate.

 

[zapzack]

I don't mind the ads.. They aren't that intruding.. (At least for Google Apps)

 

[zen-r]

I generally don't mind the ads myself much either - I usually just ignore them or block them with AdBlock.

I just think that this technique is an amusing tip, & worth bearing in mind should it ever be needed!

 

[ichwar]

Adsense annoys me a lot. Probably why it's so successful: it gets in your face. But adblock does a good job of taking that all out, besides a whole lot more! :biggrin:

 

[Sharky]

I think the best bet isn't actually blocking them, but actually hiding them. I believe that's an option in AdBlock?

Oh, and I don't particularly like adverts, it's just that web servers cost money, and as long as they're not massive flashing... flash ads......

 

[Smith6612]

For me, I don't mind text based ads. Simple ads that are parsed in with the page and aren't Javascript infested are just fine with me, and I might check them out. Anything else will hit the fan and never make it to my PC/device, ever.

 

[martysilver22]

Interesting article, and find. Who would have thought to read the Gmail fine print?

I think it's a good call to not advertise based on catastrophic events or tragedies, but Google has to realize that there are countless other ways to talk about a tragic issue (with euphemism, for instance) that they will still end advertising for.