How to block hover ads ?

Factual Questions
1

Those hover ads that get activated when we hover mouse over embedded underlined words on many websites like this one
http://www.squidoo.com/hoverad

I have tried to find a solution for blocking them (in Firefox3.6, Windows)
so far no luck.
Any ideas?
Thanks a lot.

2

You can block them by disabling javascript usually.

I just tried it on a couple sites with them, and turning off JS did the trick on all of them. For Firefox, I’m using QuickJava to enable/disable all of those little annoyances.

3

With that type of ad - I assume you are talking about the example they link to, the “hover ad generator” (http://hoverpro.com/) - the only reliable way to block them is to disable javascript.

As each ad is most likely developed in-house (because it is so easy, web developers are unlikely to purchase scripts), the code will be significantly different on any site you visit. Thus, disabling javascript is the only way to be certain* that the hover ads will not appear.

If you are experiencing these ads on a site you visit often, then you could create a custom Greasemonkey (Greasemonkey – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)) script to block them for that specific site.

  • “certain” assuming the developer did not plop the ad in the middle of the page using CSS and then animate it using javascript - in which case, you will see it anyway unless you disable CSS as well.
4

Noscript will allow you to block Javascript attacks like this globally, based on whitelists.

5

Quite true. I visited your example using Firefox with NoScript, and didn’t see any of those ads. If I want to, with 1 click I can allow scripts from that site temporarily. And I can make that permanent for that site (add it to the whitelist) if I want to.

6

And it may be worth your while to e-mail these sites and express your disdain for such intrusive ads.

7

I’m confused. Actual hover ads as described by the OP are blocked by Adblock Plus. The one example on the page given, the words “Internet Marketers” under the section “How effective are hover ads in bringing traffic?” are just plain text as long as Adblock Plus is on (using the EasyList)

Yes, the popup layer on hoverpro.com still makes it through, but that’s easily handled by using the Adblock Plus Element Hiding Helper.

It’s a lot better than using a Greasemonkey script, as it actually filters it out before you see it, and takes almost no CPU cycles.