No problem so far. I’ve always been interested in what caused the collapse of any civilization, so I can prepare and avoid the next one. What pisses me off is the “what are they thinking” of the popups when you mouse over the underlined links in the text. (And these are dynamic, so YMMV if you try them.)
“Mayan Civilization” gives me an ad for a $1799 Samsung television.
Another “Mayan Civilization” link is an ad for Groupon flight tickets.
The last line says “The scientists detailed their findings in the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Science.” The Journal Science link goes to an ad for a Chevy.
Refreshing the page shuffles the ads, and now one of the links goes to a Groupon ad for Wellness Vouchers.
Fox makes a mockery of hyperlinks. Shouldn’t there be another name for these? Ricklinks?
I think your browser’s been compromised. Those links work fine on my Chrome - link to things like “livescience.com” etc. Not even Fox would be that sly.
You may have something on your computer or it might be some sort of adware that their site is running, but it’s not links purposely added into the article by the writer.. The phase “Mayan Civilization” isn’t a link in either instance for me and all the other links go right to where I would (more or less) expect them too.
There’s no link in that sentence for me. There is a link in the following sentence, the one with the copyright info in it. That link goes to the magazine from which the article comes from.
If it makes a difference, I’m running AdBlock Plus.
It’s a stupid thing on their site, not any sort of infection that the OP has to worry about. I get those same links when I disable Adblock. It’s a particularly retarded type of advertising called “in line text links”. Ideally the advertisement network is supposed to hook up somewhat relevant ads, based on the article context; something like “Come to this resort where you can see Mayan ruins!” would at least make a little sense. But it appears that they have abandoned all attempts to do so.
I’m running Chrome. No viruses present. I just noticed the links I’m complaining about are double-underlined. The single underlined ones are OK. I’m going to check the source code and try the link in other browsers.
I just tried pulling the article up in IE (with no ABP) and some of the links (not the same ones though) were double underlined. Probably not much you can do about those other then not clicking on them. ABP only seems to sort of half work in Chrome for me. It does seem to work for that particular article though (no double underlined links on Chrome with ABP).
Firefox does exactly the same thing; double underlines, same bogus popups during mouseover. IE6 won’t render the page completely without error, but I can see the same double underlines under the same phrases. However, all of these are running on the same computer (XP, SP2).
I’m going to try this at work when I get there later this morning, on a different set of computers.
I’m not seeing the double underlines or spam links. I tried Firefox 10.0.2 with and without Ad Block enabled, IE 7, Safari 5.1.2, Opera 11.10, and Google Chrome 17.0.963.56 m. OS is Windows XP Media Center Edition SP3, running the latest version of Avira Free Anti-virus 12.
OK, so I’m at work, and the only browser allowed here is IE6 (it’s a hi-tek office, you bet!). This machine has Webroot SecureAnywhere as the anti-virus. The same double-underlined links on the same phrases are in the same sample page as the OP. However, the mouseover popups are slightly different; there seems to be some minimal randomness to the graphics.
Another machine at work, XP SP2 (da boss loves XP!). IE6, same thing, same ads, same double-underlined links.
I’ve seen this symptom before, where EVERY web site displayed is affected because the local PC is infected. That’s usually pretty obvious to anyone who’s halfway web savvy. That’s not what’s happening here. It seems to be limited to Fox sites. My guess is that Fox isn’t explicitly inserting the links, but they are allowing a third party to do so.
So I pulled out my laptop at work (Win 7 home) – the one the boss doesn’t get to dictate what I install on – and tried Firefox 3.6.12, IE 8, and Chrome (latest vs is automatic, I think). It’s running thru the work wireless network, but I doubt that that is a factor here.
IE 8: same 3 ads on the test page. Ad 1 is always a TV ad (but not the same brand), 2 is always Groupon (usually tickets) and 3 is always a Chevy ad. Graphics vary.
Firefox: same as IE 8.
Chrome: Only the 3rd ad is double-underline linked, and it is always a Chevy. Strange that the first two phrases underlined in the other browers are not underlined or linked in this machine & browser.
I think Kontera is the ad feeder in all cases, so my guess is that Fox is being paid by them to insert this junk and hyperlink relevance is not important to either.
Not that it would justify Fox doing it, but other “respectable” sites are pulling this sort of crap with hyperlinks.
For instance, the Gardenweb got into the act awhile back, so that if you post to a gardening forum, a word in your text is liable to be a link to an ad, which I find disgusting.
During a cursory Google search I found some people complaining about them showing up on their own web server, so I suspect it may be malicious (or at least unsolicited) rather than an intentional money-grab. Much as it pains me to defend the honor of Fox News.
You’re just now noticing things? Sites have been doing this for years. Since they’re always double underlined and a different color, I’ve found a great way to deal with them: ignore them.
I’ve seen double-underlined links for at least 10 years, but until recently, they were a clue that your computer was badly infected by browser hijackers. I first saw them on sites I programmed and in places where I knew I had not included links.
Maybe things are different now, but when I last tried popup blocker software, it blocked the good popups along with the bad, and some sites use the same code for standard, non-offensive programming. So I decided those weren’t worth it and the ignore option was the best compromise. Besides, if they work with mouseovers and don’t require clicking on them, you get a preview.
Am I the only one who, when they started reading the OP, thought Fox was going to blame the fall of the Mayans on tax increases and abandonment of traditional values.
“Look, I’m not saying that ripping out the hearts of living children and letting their blood run down the pyramids, was RIGHT, but you have to admit there were a lot fewer jaguar attacks back then. But just TRY bringing that up to your local guinea-pig roaster!”