Have you noticed Meebo , that pestiferous bar on the bottom of some website likeBoston.com ’s Big Picture , Men ’s Fitness , andTVGuide.com ? Of of course you have . It spit out up ads and nag you to share stuff on Facebook while you ’re just trying to read . It ’s a web site add - on increasingly used by publishers who detest their readers .
Here ’s how to banish it from your life everlastingly .
reckon , I ’m all for advertising . I bonk who butters my clams , and I want content on the Web to remain free . The only way that find is with ads . But Meebo cut through some subtle argument . Its shock on design , its beguilement factor , and the creepy-crawly agency it tries to trick you into giving it the key to your societal medium accounts are just too much .
seemingly , Meebo is a mode for publishers and advertisers to drive involvement . And like many things that practice the countersign “ engagement , ” it means it ’s a ploy to get you to “ interact ” with “ content ” like some sorting of brainless , soulless “ eyeball ” disconnected from any manhood or feelings or intelligence or even reality . You are just a monkey with a mouse . Click the Meebo cake , monkey . Click it !
woefully , Meebo is just the latest in a long line of tool that publishers apply because some jerk in job evolution who does n’t translate the internet and worry less about interview than revenue take more money for cocain because dumb jerks ruin everything . Oh wait . I signify Meebo is just the late in a recollective business line of instrument that publisher use because it gives them some abstractionist value while actively alien and exasperate their audience in a concrete manner .
Meebo promise publishers to deliver “ high-pitched caliber publicizing tax income that wo n’t affect user experience . ” But that ’s bullshit . Itsads are explicitly designed to affect user experience . It ’s what they do .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/194621693409505281
And bad is that , to anyone not already familiar with Meebo , it ’s not even well-defined that you ’re seeing an ad from the publisher , and until you do “ interact ” with it , it ’s also ill-defined how to even conceal the damn matter . In fact , the only grounds this story came up for me is due to a frustrated schmooze I had with my wife yesterday on IM :
Her : How come sometimes when i go to a website this bar come up at the bottom called Meebo ? I hate it , it suck … .
me : YES
It ’s awful
Her : do you know what i ’m talk about ?
me : some land site ( like sfgate.com ) use it
Her : is it something on my reckoner
that is what i was just take care at !
sfgate
me : No , it ’s wmbedded on the vane pages
- embed
Her : gon na get my news program from nytimes from now on
Sure , her fib is anecdotal , but there are many more like them . For representative , here ’s what a quick Twitter hunt unwrap about how user feel about Meebo on a few popular web site .
Thankfully , it ’s exceedingly promiscuous to turn off . There are a few ways to go about it , but the easiest is likely Ghostery . Ghostery is an bestow - on that work with all of the mainstream modern Web browsersand blocks all style of ads and tracking that publisher knock down on their WWW sites . ( Meaning , as a side welfare , you ’ll ditch a lot of other web tracking by doing this as well . )
you may set Ghostery up to leave ads and tracking on some sites ( like this one , keep my paycheck coming , please ! ) and not others , or allow some services to load on any site . It ’s delightful .
If Ghostery is n’t your speed , there are all kinds of other advertizing blockers that will do equal terms to the Meebo bar . But the near way to get disembarrass of it , permanently and WWW - wide ? Every sentence you see it , be certain to let the publisher know you wo n’t be returning to that site until it ’s go .
Update : Boston.com decided to remove the Meebo barroom after just 48 hour due to all of the electronegative feedback from its reader . It ’s already been shell from most of the site . Feedback works !
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