For related material, on what helps or hinders visitors seeing your content and message, see the [Web Content] page in the Web Design section of this site.
 

 

 

Banner Blockers May Kill Your Graphics

Bill Hovingh writes:

    "Not only do users ignore any page element that looks like an advertisement, new software may do so as well and prevent the browser from ever downloading a graphic that looks like an ad.

    "So-called banner blockers like Siemens' free WebWasher are easy to install (in fact, WebWasher has great usability, even if it does require users to change one obscure setting in one of the Windows control panels). Once installed, the banner-blocking software inspects every page while it is being downloaded and simply stops the browser from ever requesting any image files (or Java, scripts, pop-up windows, or other technologies) that it thinks is an advertisement. Unfortunately, the software doesn't have perfect artificial intelligence, so it could well block legitimate content that looked sufficiently similar to current advertising formats."

 Readers' Comments on the new Top-10 Design Mistakes  
 

Editorial Note: Both the links in the above quote were dead (no longer working), so appropriate replacement links have been provided.

 

Additional Information

    Below are some Graphic Sizes that WebWasher 3 can use, to assist with finding ads to be blocked. (These are the listed sizes, that the program preferences permits selecting to not use.) Also, it should be noted that by default, the program does not block graphics coming from the same domain (server) as the Webpage.

60x52
80x340
88x31
100x70
120x60, 120x90, 120x240, 120x600
125x44, 125x90, 125x125
130x40, 130x80
137x60
140x40
150x74
155x40
156x60
160x600
175x45
180x60, 180x150
196x46
200x42, 200x50
220x40
230x33
234x60
240x160
250x50, 250x250
275x80
300x60, 300x130, 300x250
336x280
357x40
370x50
392x72
400x40, 400x50, 400x60, 400x62, 400x64, 400x68
420x80
432x50
450x75
460x55, 460x60
466x54
468x55, 468x60, 468x64, 468x68, 468x70
472x64
486x60
554x90

 

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    In addition to the above, there are also several Web browsers, which permit users to enable or disable pop-up windows. The idea being, to generally leave pop-up windows off, so the user won't sometimes get 1 to 3 advertisement windows opening for each new site (or each Webpage!) that they visit. And pop-ups are enabled only when something the user wants to see states that it will open a new window, to display the desired content.