13 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
13 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

First Google SideWiki, then Bing Vibrant popups. What next?

by Kirk Ward
10 replies
I've been going crazy trying to avoid causing "Bing" text link popups on a bunch of sites, and making complaints to the webmasters about the number of ads they were selling on their site.

Today, I got frustrated and did a search for the term "bing popup ads" (without the quotes) and discovered they are being added by some component or add-on that Microsoft is distributing through an agency called Vibrant.

Seems the only way I can find to get them off the sites I visit is to go to the "Vibrant" website (What is Vibrant In-text Advertising?) and downloading a cookie. If I delete that cookie, the text link ads come back. Talk about intrusive.

So, what does this mean to you?

Seems these folks are forcing these ads onto "content rich" sites. Meaning sites with a lot of keyword rich pages of interest to Bing searches, i.e. Microsoft Advertising.

Is your site keyword rich enough for MSN/Bing to be ripping off your advertising dollars? Do you expect it to be? Mine isn't, yet. But, maybe one day it will be, and I certainly would like to keep the advertising dollars in my pocket instead of Bill Gates.

So, if you have any idea about how I can kill this monster before it appears on my site, please let me know. I've got a SideWiki blocker installed, and that seems to be working well, but I'd like to know if there are any "Bing Blockers" or "Vibrant Blockers" on the market.

This is getting to be a pain in the Gazitchka.

Kirk
#bing #google #popups #sidewiki #vibrant
  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Kirk Ward View Post

    Seems these folks are forcing these ads onto "content rich" sites. Meaning sites with a lot of keyword rich pages of interest to Bing searches, i.e. Microsoft Advertising.
    Um... no. Vibrant is just like AdSense. You sign up for it, and you add code to your website to enable it. See here:

    "Vibrant is a Publisher-side Technology Company. Publisher-side means that all of our solutions reside on the individual server of the websites we partner with."

    If you don't sign up, and you don't upload that code, they don't display ads on your site.
    Signature
    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1455693].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      Um... no. Vibrant is just like AdSense. You sign up for it, and you add code to your website to enable it.
      Well, that makes me feel better.

      In the meantime it sure scared the beejesus out of me. Seemed everywhere I was going I was seeing them, and couldn't read the content.

      Sorry for the panic.

      Kirk
      Signature
      "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

      Dr. Samuel Johnson (Presiding at the sale of Thrales brewery, London, 1781)
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1455808].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
        Funny thing is, MS had something exactly like what you describe at one point. It was built right into the browser, if I recall correctly. They could decide what keywords would link to which site, and sell ads on any site you visited using IE.

        When the excrement hit the oscillator, they tried saying, "Well, you can just add this header to your pages to stop it."

        A classic example of why opt-out doesn't work. There was such a storm about it that they pulled the "feature."


        Paul
        Signature
        .
        Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1457224].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
          Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

          Funny thing is, MS had something exactly like what you describe at one point. It was built right into the browser, if I recall correctly. They could decide what keywords would link to which site, and sell ads on any site you visited using IE.

          When the excrement hit the oscillator, they tried saying, "Well, you can just add this header to your pages to stop it."

          A classic example of why opt-out doesn't work. There was such a storm about it that they pulled the "feature."

          Paul
          I jumped to the conclusion that Vibrant was doing such because it is very easy any programmer with moderate skills to create a browser add-on and slip it in, just like eBay did when they used Skype to push "The Browser Highlighter" add-on out to anyone with a Google toolbar. Wouldn't have noticed if my virus scanner hadn't locked up trying to remove the two "services" they added ... tbhDaemon.exe and tbhMonitor.exe

          Pretty sure that's what gave me the "Black Screen of Death" Microsoft is currently investigating. Took a week to recover my PC. Big pain in the gazitchka what the "Big Boys" are trying to do that would be called "spam" if any of us did it.

          Have a nice day.
          Signature
          "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

          Dr. Samuel Johnson (Presiding at the sale of Thrales brewery, London, 1781)
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1457440].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
    Originally Posted by Razer Rage View Post

    Bill Gates isn't with Microsoft anymore...
    So their profits don't affect his dividends?

    Silly boy.
    Signature
    "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

    Dr. Samuel Johnson (Presiding at the sale of Thrales brewery, London, 1781)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1457418].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
      Originally Posted by Razer Rage View Post

      Yep. Just like Bing forces you to see their popups.

      Silly old man. :rolleyes:
      Got the cookie. Don't see them no more.

      Wouldn't have minded them if they hadn't put so many on a page that it blocked all the content. Couldn't move my mouse across the page to a link I wanted to click without one of them. It was like some kid found a shiny new toy and was beating it to death.

      Getting Bing on MSN competitor sites and reading a couple of threads to find out about it is what made me assume it was being pushed through a browser. Still think it could be, Vibrant protestations to the nonce.

      Anyhoo, here's back at you -->> :rolleyes:

      Oops, silly me. LOL
      Signature
      "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

      Dr. Samuel Johnson (Presiding at the sale of Thrales brewery, London, 1781)
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1457458].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
        Originally Posted by Razer Rage View Post

        You know, that isn't a new form of advertising. It's been around for a while, and yes, it is annoying. Of course, I use adblockplus for firefox, so I don't see any ads at all.

        Why use Bing at all if they're going to pound you with ads?
        I don't use Bing, I try to read the news at MSN and FoxNews.

        The text link ads pop up there. Try reading a story about Britney's new beau, or how she has been rejected, and see if you can click on a related story without scrolling across a text link.

        Can't figure why Fox would sell ad space to MSN as they dis each other on the cable so much. Thought they were blood enemies.

        Like the idea of AdBlockPlus, but wonder if there are any such animal for a website if toolbar coders start developing ways to push these things through surreptitiously.

        Cheers and all that rot.
        Signature
        "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

        Dr. Samuel Johnson (Presiding at the sale of Thrales brewery, London, 1781)
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1457531].message }}

Trending Topics