Now I see that it is from GWeb itself, and there is a way to "opt out" if you like. Well, I liked and I did opt out. I find that it is intrusive and irritating, and it just might cause someone to miss the main source of information that I could try to link to in my response.

Maybe in time I will get accustomed to them, but I think it is like a sore thumb sticking out, it gets all the attention. To have some word as basic as HOUSE or AIR CONDITIONING lead to a link, is not important. Perhaps if the link was keyed to a brand name, like GE or GENERAL ELECTRIC, it would work better and actually provide a service for the membership as well as the advertiser.

I think it needs further refinement.
Meanwhile, maybe we can use LETTERS like AC or HVAC or PLBG (for plumbing) to subvert the triggering of a generic link?

That linking thins is annoying for sure.

I am using Google Chrome and can not tell if it is worse than firefox or better.
Chris

here is the link and you click on disable. I cant see the links that were in moccassins post anymore woohoo

In this announcement it tells how to opt out, and why they are doing the advertising this way in the first place.
I can see it being useful if they were stable links, but these little things jump right up and get in the middle of everything. And another thing, if they keep these, they should be more selective about the words they choose to use. I thought it would be neat to have IKEA send me to the IKEA site....but no, it popped up a clue to BING. What if I don't LIKE TO USE BING, but choose to use my own search engine? And the expression my home created a link going to....guess where....SEARS. I wonder if typing Sears into my post will send me to BING, like IKEA sent me there.

Whew, I wonder who got a big bonus at Christmas for this latest marketing idea.

When I am confronted with something which attempts to FORCE me to do something I choose not to do, I seek ways around it. One way to minimize these popups, is to change one vowel to a * or something similar. This would make the search function less satisfactory though.

And yes. Tonight I am getting a blank white page and I have to click reload to get it to process.

Also, find out what website is "serving" the ads and put them in your "hosts" file.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

If something is in the hosts file, you will never see it again ... ever, on any site.

I like the idea of adding a star here and there to stop the process. Will try to remember that one. I misspell so many words anyway they should never catch my words anyway. Hehehehe

Chris

FWIW - Keebler Sandies "Simply Shortbread" are the equivalent of Shortbread/Trefoils. Keebler Fudge Shoppe Peanut Butter Filled cookies are the equivalent of Tagalongs/Peanut Butter Patties. I found relabeled Samoas/Caramel deLites, Do-Si-Dos/Peanut Butter Sandwiches and several other GS cookie varieties in a local bakery thrift store, of all places. I rarely buy cookies, though, because DH has no self-control when there are sweets to be had. LOL

We prefer to donate cash directly to the local GS troop since they only get about 50 cents from that $4 box of cookies (and the troops often then get nickel-and-dimed half to death), or maybe we buy one box and pay with a $10 with the instructions that the additional $6 go straight into the troop treasury. I sold many thousands of boxes of cookies in my decade-plus as a Scout, but the cookie program and Scouting in general has changed a lot since the 1980s. A friend of ours signed up to be a troop leader a couple of years ago after going through the entire program from age 5 to 18 in the same era I did ("graduating" from Senior in the late 1980s) and quit in exasperation after less than two years.

It is like a grain of sand irritating the oyster--one of these days, us oysters will turn that sand into PEARLS.
Hope so anyway.