rwdmac - 11:16 am on Jul 14, 2010 (gmt 0)

Hi folks,

I can't tell you how annoying I've been finding these repeat ads. It seems like the same 3 or 4 advertisers have been clogging up every ad position on every unrelated website for weeks !.

I came across this forum thread on a google search for a way to stop them, and I've come back to join up purely to tell AndyA and the others above there is actually a cure for this nasty advertising disease.

Each site you visit that has signed up to Google Adwords has the option of tracking your cookie and displaying one of their own ads to on whichever subsequent sites you visit. In fact Google have a lovely little video explaining the fluffy goodness and positive aspects of this on youtube. (I'm not sure if it's ok to post links here, but just go to youtube and search for "Google Privacy: Interest-based advertising ")

However, to stop these wretched things following you around then the next time you see one of the ads just click on the tiny "Ads by Google" text at the bottom. This will take you to a page about adsense/adwords. Half way down the first paragraph there is a link to "Ads Preference Manager" Click it and you'll be taken to a page where you can choose the type of ads that interest you, or, thankfully there is an opt-out option. Yay !.
They'll make you jump through a couple more hoops, like installing a plug-in for Firefox to permanantly opt-out, and some advice to make sure it works for Safari and Chrome.(Other browsers incidentally, have no get-out clause here you're stuck with the ads, you just get to choose what type, although I didn't check Internet Explorer). You'll also need to do it for every browser you have, e.g. if you have Firefox on your laptop and your desktop machine, or even multiple browser versions then you'll have to repeat the process for each one. But, eventually it will work.

Also, please remember it's not just Google that forces this stuff on us, all those sites that are members of other advertising networks do just the same e.g. AdBrite etc. However, they are relatively easy to opt out of. Just go to their collective site called : Network Adveritising org, and you'll see a big red button taking you to a long list of ad networks (and a little scarily which ad networks have already stored your cookie) which you can pick and choose to opt-out of.

To be clear, none of this stops ads appearing. It just makes sure you'll generally see ads relevant to the content you are browsing rather than the same ones again and again on unrelated sites. Guess which is my personal preference ?.

I hope this helps anyone that is getting fed up looking at the same ads all day/week/month

Thanks for reading, sorry it was a long ramble. I'm off to explore the rest of this site, it looks pretty cool.

Al.