Blocking Gmail ads

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso-2]

I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
browsing the Octave mailing lists. That's quite obnoxious. It looks
like it's tricky to block Google ads, since it looks like Google can
detect when you're using Adblock and serves you ads in <tables>
instead, making them harder to block.

Can anyone suggest a fix? I only use Gmail for mailing lists nowadays,
and have moved my personal email to a server in an undisclosed
location in a remote island... ;-)

I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.

- Jordi G. H.


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[Paul Johnson]

On Tuesday 13 May 2008 03:03:27 pm Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:

> Can anyone suggest a fix? I only use Gmail for mailing lists nowadays,
> and have moved my personal email to a server in an undisclosed
> location in a remote island... ;-)

Why not use that for mailing lists as well?  It's not like you can't use
spambayes or other tools to keep things usable...

--
Paul Johnson
baloo@...

Explaination of .pgp part: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/rant-gpg.html

[Nicolas George-2]

Le quintidi 25 floréal, an CCXVI, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso a écrit :
> I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
> browsing the Octave mailing lists. That's quite obnoxious. It looks
> like it's tricky to block Google ads, since it looks like Google can
> detect when you're using Adblock and serves you ads in <tables>
> instead, making them harder to block.
>
> Can anyone suggest a fix?

You could try a Greasemonkey script to add the "display: none" style to the
rule for the div containing the ads. With the current layout, it is the
"yxEQwb" class, but it may change.

> I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
> better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
> to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.

I assume you already know all about Gmane.

Regards,

--
  Nicolas George

[Ron Johnson]

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On 05/13/08 17:03, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:

> I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
> browsing the Octave mailing lists. That's quite obnoxious. It looks
> like it's tricky to block Google ads, since it looks like Google can
> detect when you're using Adblock and serves you ads in <tables>
> instead, making them harder to block.
>
> Can anyone suggest a fix? I only use Gmail for mailing lists nowadays,
> and have moved my personal email to a server in an undisclosed
> location in a remote island... ;-)
>
> I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
> better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
> to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.

Every MUA of any note has folders, and all have filters either
built-in or via procmail/maildrop.

Even if you want to use gmail to hide your real address from address
vacuums, gmail has POP and IMAP interfaces, plus Thunderbird "knows"
gmail as a source type.

- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA  USA

We want... a Shrubbery!!
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[Emre Sahin]

"Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso" <jordigh@...> writes:


[...]

>
> I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
> better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
> to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.
>
> - Jordi G. H.
>

You can use Gmail IMAP or POP service with a client of your choice. I
currently use Emacs + Gnus, splitting mails using regular expressions
(checking mostly their List-Id:) into gmail labels. Gnus is originally
a newsreader and may be a good solution for such a task. However, Gnus
IMAP implementation is slow and you may want a more "mainstream"
client.

You can also use fetchmail + procmail solution. It is faster than any
IMAP connection but if you have multiple computers, sychronization may
be a mess sometimes.

Best Regards,

Emre


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[Gregory Seidman]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 05:03:27PM -0500, Jordi Guti?rrez Hermoso wrote:

> I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
> browsing the Octave mailing lists. That's quite obnoxious. It looks
> like it's tricky to block Google ads, since it looks like Google can
> detect when you're using Adblock and serves you ads in <tables>
> instead, making them harder to block.
>
> Can anyone suggest a fix? I only use Gmail for mailing lists nowadays,
> and have moved my personal email to a server in an undisclosed
> location in a remote island... ;-)
>
> I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
> better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
> to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.

I do all my web browsing through privoxy (apt-cache show privoxy).
My adblock.action file, which does a good job of blocking lots of ads,
including gmail's, is pasted below. It also blocks a lot of web bugs and
traffic trackers. It isn't perfect, but it vastly improves my web browsing
experience.

> - Jordi G. H.
--Greg

{+block }
.247realmedia.com
.2o7.net
.adbasket.net
.adbrite.com
.adbureau.net
.adknowledge.com
.adlegend.com
.adnetwork.com
.adroll.com
.adserver.com
.adserver.yahoo.com
.adspeed.net
.adsrevenue.net
.adtech.de
.advertising.com
.afy11.com
.atdmt.com
.backbeatmedia.com
.bannerspace.com
blcadserv.shinycomics.com
blogads.com
.blogads.com
stocker.bonnint.net
.burstmedia.com
.burstnet.com
.casalemedia.com
.chitika.net
.claxonmedia.com
.clickforensics.com
.contextweb.com
.coremetrics.com
.doubleclick.net
.esomniture.com
.falkag.net
.fastclick.net
.google-analytics.com
.googlerank.info
.googlesyndication.com
.hitbox.com
.humanclick.com
.indieclick.com
.industrybrains.com
.intellitxt.com
.interclick.com
.interclick.net
.keenmercial.com
gavzad.keenspot.com
merv.keenspot.com
www.keenspot.com/premium*
.kontera.com
.lostfrog.com
.marketwatch.com
.maxserving.com
.mediaplex.com
.overture.com
.paypopup.com
.pheedo.com
.pointroll.com
.primaryads.com
.projectwonderful.com
publish.blanklabelcomics.com
.quantserve.com
.ru4.com
.edge.ru4.com
http.edge.ru4.com
.sitemeter.com
.smarttargetting.co.uk
spa.snap.com
.specificmedia.com
.statcounter.com
.tacoda.net
.textads.biz
syndication.thedailywtf.com
.trackalyzer.com
.trafficmp.com
.tribalfusion.com
.ttzmedia.com
.ugamsolutions.net
.unicast.com
.valueclick.com
.vibrantmedia.com
.web-stat.com
.xplusone.com
.yceml.net
.yieldmanager.com
.zedo.com
ss1.zedo.com
ad.
ad1.
ad2.
adremote.
adsremote.
ads.
ads1.
ads2.
adserv.
adserver.
adv.
advert.
banner.
banners.
metrics.
servedby.
stats.
stats1.
stats2.
webad.
webads.
.facebook.com/beacon/
feeds.feedburner.com/~a/
www.davidszondy.com/images/shop.gif
/(.*/)?adv/.*
/(.*/)?ads/
/(.*/)?adx/.*
/(.*/)?adserver/.*
/(.*/)?banners/.*
/(.*/)?phpAdsNew/.*
/(.*/)?RealMedia/.*
/(.*/)?dealtime_iframe.php\?.*


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[Allan Wind]

On 2008-05-13T17:03:27-0500, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
> I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
> browsing the Octave mailing lists. That's quite obnoxious. It looks
> like it's tricky to block Google ads, since it looks like Google can
> detect when you're using Adblock and serves you ads in <tables>
> instead, making them harder to block.

Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper

I subscribe to some of the feeds for Adblock Plus to do the heavy
listing, and I after I removed a couple of elements manually I do not
see ads in gmail or and rarely anywhere for that matter.


/Allan


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[John Hasler]

Jordi writes:
> Can anyone suggest a fix?

You want a free service from an advertising agency without advertising?
Right.

> I'm beginning to miss Usenet.

Usenet isn't gone.
--
John Hasler


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[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso-2]

On 13/05/2008, Nicolas George <nicolas.george@...> wrote:
> Le quintidi 25 floréal, an CCXVI, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso a écrit :

Floréal? :-)

>  > I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
>  > browsing the Octave mailing lists.
>  >
>  > Can anyone suggest a fix?
>
>
> You could try a Greasemonkey script to add the "display: none" style to the
>  rule for the div containing the ads. With the current layout, it is the
>  "yxEQwb" class, but it may change.
>

Ugh. Obfuscation and deception. I guess I could work around it and we
could have a nice arms race with adblocking, but now I'm starting to
think that the less I have to rely on Google, the better.

>  > I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
>  > better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
>  > to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.
>
>
> I assume you already know all about Gmane.
>

Actually I didn't... It looks like an option, but now I'm flirting
right now with the idea of using Lavabit, which looks like a nice
alternative, and I'd be quite happy to pay for a quality webmail
service (or at least pay what they're asking, which seems to be 16 USD
per annum), except that they have all this "intellectual property"
nonsense in their Terms Of Service.

Any recommendation for a quality webmail service that uses free
software? I don't mind paying for the service, but I feel rather more
comfortable if I know that they use free software, maybe even Debian.
:-) If not, I think I may try out Lavabit.

- Jordi G. H.


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[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso-2]

On 13/05/2008, John Hasler <jhasler@...> wrote:
> Usenet isn't gone.

I think that Debian must be one of the last organisations that still
uses Usenet. The Wesnoth, Octave, Maxima and VTK mailing lists don't
have Usenet alternatives as far as I can see. Sage uses Google groups.
:-(

- Jordi G. H.


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[Steve Lamb]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 3:59 pm, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
> Any recommendation for a quality webmail service that uses free
> software? I don't mind paying for the service, but I feel rather more
> comfortable if I know that they use free software, maybe even Debian.
> :-) If not, I think I may try out Lavabit.

    aptitude install squirrelmail


     ^.^

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[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso-2]

On 13/05/2008, Allan Wind <allan_wind@...> wrote:
>  Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper

Excellent! I didn't know about this latter one.

Even though I think I still want to move away from Gmail, it's nice to
know that there are further tools to help fight the anti-ad battles.

- Jordi G. H.


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[dotancohen]

2008/5/14 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <jordigh@...>:

> I'm getting a little tired of Gmail serving me Matlab ads whenever I'm
> browsing the Octave mailing lists. That's quite obnoxious. It looks
> like it's tricky to block Google ads, since it looks like Google can
> detect when you're using Adblock and serves you ads in <tables>
> instead, making them harder to block.
>
> Can anyone suggest a fix? I only use Gmail for mailing lists nowadays,
> and have moved my personal email to a server in an undisclosed
> location in a remote island... ;-)
>
> I'd be happy with a solution that either blocks all Gmail ads or a
> better method to browse the 14 mailing lists I'm currently subscribed
> to, many of them high-volume. I'm beginning to miss Usenet.
>

I've started using adblock plus in Firefox as a particular blog that I
enjoy reading has popup ads on almost every word of the articles. I've
found that I now _miss_ the ads in gmail, as they are almost always
relevant to what I'm reading.

Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[celejar]

On Tue, 13 May 2008 17:59:37 -0500
"Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso" <jordigh@...> wrote:

...

> Actually I didn't... It looks like an option, but now I'm flirting
> right now with the idea of using Lavabit, which looks like a nice
> alternative, and I'd be quite happy to pay for a quality webmail
> service (or at least pay what they're asking, which seems to be 16 USD
> per annum), except that they have all this "intellectual property"
> nonsense in their Terms Of Service.

I use several Lavabit free accounts, and I'm quite happy with them.
The intellectual property stuff doesn't really seem so bad:

<Quote>

Intellectual Property

You acknowledge that Lavabit owns all intellectual property related to
its website and the software used to provide its services. Accordingly
you agree not to copy, reproduce, modify, alter or create derivative
works based on the intellectual property of Lavabit.

</Quote>

IANAL, but AFAICT, all they're claiming are the rights to their
software and website.  Is that really so objectionable?

> - Jordi G. H.

Celejar
--
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ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator


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[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso-2]

On 13/05/2008, Celejar <celejar@...> wrote:
 > I use several Lavabit free accounts, and I'm quite happy with them.


So why are you sending from a Gmail account?


 >  The intellectual property stuff doesn't really seem so bad:
 >
 >  <Quote>
 >
 >  Intellectual Property
 >
 >  You acknowledge that Lavabit owns all intellectual property related to
 >  its website and the software used to provide its services. Accordingly
 >  you agree not to copy, reproduce, modify, alter or create derivative
 >  works based on the intellectual property of Lavabit.
 >
 >  </Quote>
 >
 >  IANAL, but AFAICT, all they're claiming are the rights to their
 >  software and website.  Is that really so objectionable?
 >


Well, the problem with software-as-service is that more and more
 software is moving in that direction. Google, to mention the villain
 du jour, has been exploiting the ASP loophole to take free software
 without giving back. There are rumours of that fabled Ubunut
 derivative that Google uses internally, and who knows, maybe it powers
 some of their web servers, but Google hasn't released a single line of
 code of that derivative, yet they're still profitting off it.

 It's understandable that this is why Google doesn't condone the
 AGPL[1] which is designed exactly to close this loophole that Google
 and presumably Lavabit are exploiting. You take our free code, you
 have to give back free code. It seems fair to me, but not to Google.

 They keep saying that code is all going to move to the web browser. If
 we tolerate non-free code on our browsers for much longer, then all
 the work that has been done towards giving us all this free code could
 be endangered. The AGPL is a necessity, and I think it's also
 important that we insist upon its principles even if it still has a
 very small level of adoption.

 Well, so it seems to me. I'm open to hearing opposing viewpoints.

 - Jordi G. H.
 [1] http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/04/11/google_bans_aero/


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[celejar]

On Tue, 13 May 2008 17:59:37 -0500
"Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso" <jordigh@...> wrote:

...

> Any recommendation for a quality webmail service that uses free
> software? I don't mind paying for the service, but I feel rather more
> comfortable if I know that they use free software, maybe even Debian.
> :-) If not, I think I may try out Lavabit.

Look at Mailvault:

http://mailvault.com/

They run Apache / PHP / OpenSSL on Linux (Debian since 2005):

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.mailvault.com

Their specialty is web based OpenPGP, but the service works fine for
ordinary email..  I've dabbled with their free service for a few years,
but I haven't used them for serious work.  The website is infrequently
updated, and consequently may be out of date.  I'm not completely clear
what their business model is.  They don't seem to offer a paid account
type, and they only run one ad, the same one all the time, for some
privacy services, but I've never investigated them.  I like Mailvault;
they have a clean, simple website; they don't push ads in your face,
they seem to be concerned about privacy, they run Linux, and their
stuff works.

> - Jordi G. H.

Celejar
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[Steve Lamb]

Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
>
> Well, the problem with software-as-service is that more and more
>  software is moving in that direction. Google, to mention the villain
>  du jour,

    Cute.

> You take our free code, you have to give back free code. It seems
> fair to me, but not to Google.

    Uhm, that is a gross oversimplification.  You use software you have the
right to the source.  If you *choose* to release software *to others* they
have right to the source.

    Hate to break it to you but I use FOSS all the time for my private and
personal use as well as my professional use.  There is code I have that will
not ever be redistributed and as such you, nor anyone else, has right to that
source because you will never, EVER use it.  That is my choice.  On the other
hand if I did release it for others to use I would obligated to release the
source along with it.  An obligation I have fulfilled on all the software I
have chosen to release for others to use.

    They haven't released it for others to use.  They're under no obligation
to share the source.  That's not a loophole.  That's freedom.

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         Steve C. Lamb         | But who decides what they dream?
       PGP Key: 1FC01004       |   And dream I do...
-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------

[Ron Johnson]

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On 05/13/08 21:01, Steve Lamb wrote:
[snip]
>
>     They haven't released it for others to use.  They're under no obligation
> to share the source.  That's not a loophole.  That's freedom.

If you don't think like I think people should think, you're Evil and
your rights should be restricted.

- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA  USA

We want... a Shrubbery!!
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