EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: engrguy42 on April 10, 2020, 11:40:50 am
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Okay, I totally get that companies hosting websites need to make money in order to provide the website service. No problem. They do news, or weather, or whatever, and that takes money to run just like anything else.
But has anyone else noticed the (fairly new?) "website wiggle", where when you go to a website it seems that someone has included an algorithm to ensure that the page does this annoying up/down wiggle, apparently to ensure that when you click on something of interest it jumps at just the right time to ensure your click lands on an ad?
I'm curious what that algorithm looks like. Yeah it's hidden under the natural loading of images and ads and stuff, but it's getting so that I can't click on anything of interest without the page jiggling so that my click hits an ad.
I've pretty much given up on most news websites, other than to check the front page headlines. And weather websites have become all about making sure you click on an ad, and all of these OMG THE SKY IS FALLING forecasts that rarely come true.
Anyone remember when TV ads were nice and predictable and you could get up and grab something to eat? :D
In any case, I'd be interested to see if anyone knows what they add to their code to make this happen.
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Have a look at the website's JavaScript code.
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Anyone remember when TV ads were nice and predictable and you could get up and grab something to eat? :D
I remember when tv stations would show a series of ads and almost always the last one would be an ad for one of their shows. Made it much easier to fast forward the VCR through the ads to the last one back in the day.
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I have noticed on several occasions, just after loading a page and just as I click something that another bit loads and I missclick, but after that one missclick it doesn't do that any more. I always assumed that the ad banner just didn't load in time and that I was not patient enough. I always attributed it to shitty design, as opposed to asshole design. :-//
Can you give us an example of one such website?
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I have noticed on several occasions, just after loading a page and just as I click something that another bit loads and I missclick, but after that one missclick it doesn't do that any more. I always assumed that the ad banner just didn't load in time and that I was not patient enough. I always attributed it to shitty design, as opposed to asshole design. :-//
Can you give us an example of one such website?
Yeah, I can give examples, but as you may know one of the great universal truths is that when other people try the ones I reference they won't have the same problem. Guaranteed. Kinda like when you have a problem and call a technician, when he gets there the problem doesn't happen :D
Anyway, any of the big news sites (not sure about CNN...), weather sites like wunderground, and honestly just about any other major info/entertainment website.
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Have a look at the website's JavaScript code.
:-DD
Oh wait, you're serious?
Yeah, I suppose that's an option, but I suppose not every minor observation/annoyance deserves a major research project...
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I use 'Privacy-Badger' and 'uBlock' only, and rarely have a problem, except when some site 'detects' that, and complains. Often though, the problem is clicking on some link before the page has fully loaded, and the background Javascript has missed the real screen-point.
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NoScript + uBlock Origin, I won't get on the internet without them.
My experience has been that "old media" sites (local TV and radio, newspapers, etc.) are the absolute worst for excess garbage (trackers, advertising, third party JavaScript, and so on).
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Wasn't there a problem with uBlock? I used to use it but I recall uninstalling it a year or two ago due to some problems. Can't recall what the issue was tho.
Maybe it was some sites blocking you if you used it or something?
Or maybe I just didn't need it. Lately it's rare I go to anything outside of about 5 or so websites, none of which have much annoying ads. And more recently I've decided against the weather websites and now go to the government weather sites. And I've pretty much given up the news sites since they just piss me off with all their nonsense.
But occasionally I'll follow a google search and end up in a news site that just explodes with ads in your face. |O
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Here is an example. This is what Newegg looks like when I go there to buy something.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/how-much-memory-do-chrome-take-on-your-computer/?action=dlattach;attach=931114;image)
Why is all that other crap there wanting to run in (and receive data from) my browser if it's not needed to just buy something? Is it all friendly and benign, existing only to "improve my shopping experience"? I don't think so. Denied.
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Here is an example. This is what Newegg looks like when I go there to buy something.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/how-much-memory-do-chrome-take-on-your-computer/?action=dlattach;attach=931114;image)
Why is all that other crap there wanting to run in (and receive data from) my browser if it's not needed to just buy something? Is it all friendly and benign, existing only to "improve my shopping experience"? I don't think so. Denied.
Yep. Obviously the vast majority of website creators utilize Google to share both ways their analytical sharing etc. However, I always laugh when I see at the bottom of the browser, the transitional links before getting to where you want, like googleapis :(
I call it "Google Piss", (although supposed to be about "'API's". See the link below and select People asking what is googleapis....
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03ZBfWyCAY8dSaFH_mc3un_8fR2zQ%3A1586688235832&source=hp&ei=6_CSXtTyMKKE4-EPsaC1wA4&q=googleapis&oq=googlepis&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgAMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKOgUIABCDAToCCAA6BAgjECc6CwgAEIMBEJECEIsDOgoIABCDARBDEIsDOgQIABBDOgcIABCDARAKOgQIABANOgYIABANEApKLQgXEikwZzI2MGcyNzVnMjc5ZzI2NWcyNzRnMjc3ZzIzM2cyNDFnMjQ0ZzI0MUoZCBgSFTBnMWcxZzFnMWcxZzFnMWcxZzFnMVCHMlj8igFgu7EBaAJwAHgAgAGNAogB1xKSAQQyLTEwmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpergBAg&sclient=psy-ab (https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03ZBfWyCAY8dSaFH_mc3un_8fR2zQ%3A1586688235832&source=hp&ei=6_CSXtTyMKKE4-EPsaC1wA4&q=googleapis&oq=googlepis&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgAMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKOgUIABCDAToCCAA6BAgjECc6CwgAEIMBEJECEIsDOgoIABCDARBDEIsDOgQIABBDOgcIABCDARAKOgQIABANOgYIABANEApKLQgXEikwZzI2MGcyNzVnMjc5ZzI2NWcyNzRnMjc3ZzIzM2cyNDFnMjQ0ZzI0MUoZCBgSFTBnMWcxZzFnMWcxZzFnMWcxZzFnMVCHMlj8igFgu7EBaAJwAHgAgAGNAogB1xKSAQQyLTEwmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpergBAg&sclient=psy-ab)
Doesn't sound friendly to me, but I see that temp link come up all the time!! >:(
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Okay, I totally get that companies hosting websites need to make money in order to provide the website service. No problem. They do news, or weather, or whatever, and that takes money to run just like anything else.
But has anyone else noticed the (fairly new?) "website wiggle", where when you go to a website it seems that someone has included an algorithm to ensure that the page does this annoying up/down wiggle, apparently to ensure that when you click on something of interest it jumps at just the right time to ensure your click lands on an ad?
I'm curious what that algorithm looks like. Yeah it's hidden under the natural loading of images and ads and stuff, but it's getting so that I can't click on anything of interest without the page jiggling so that my click hits an ad.
I've pretty much given up on most news websites, other than to check the front page headlines. And weather websites have become all about making sure you click on an ad, and all of these OMG THE SKY IS FALLING forecasts that rarely come true.
Anyone remember when TV ads were nice and predictable and you could get up and grab something to eat? :D
In any case, I'd be interested to see if anyone knows what they add to their code to make this happen.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s deliberate. I observe it when I click on something before the page has finished loading. My suspicion is that some script is waiting on something to load, and that the half-finished script does something with the document length or position. Then, when you click, the browser aborts the script, causing the position change from the script to be discarded. So then the content scoots around, and then the click is processed.
It’s absolutely maddening.
If a page isn’t fully loaded, I try to remember to stop the page loading first, so that it’ll settle down before I click.
I also suspect this behavior is related to something else that’s been driving me up the wall lately: “back” is broken on so many sites. Not that it doesn’t take me to the right page, but that it forgets where I was on the page and takes me back to the top of the page. (And this is without endless scrolling/dynamic loading, which ironically can support “back” very well if effort is made. Twitter is a fantastic example of “back” working well, even with endless scrolling: you always end up precisely where you were before, including page position. Facebook is a perfect example of how it shouldn’t work, as your timeline will never go back to where it was.) But the fact that even pages with no or minimal scripting and dynamic whatnots now often “back” to the top of the page makes me think that many factors are at play, from browser behaviors, to how browser caches work, to how the servers signal whether a page is stale or not.