Strange Ad Behavior

Titles missing when viewed from my browser

[CalArch90]

I know someone has brought up the issue of the ie6 browser bug, but this is something completely different. When I view the AdSense ads on my site and on any other AdSense publisher site from my browser, the titles are not showing up. The body and URLs are showing up fine, but not the titles! It's not an ie issue, by the way, because it also happens with Netscape and Opera.

I also notice that my AdWords ads are behaving the same way, no title. Some of the other AdWord ads are also not showing titles, while others are fine.

The strange thing is that when I view my site from another computer/browser eveything appears o.k. I've cleared my history, erased all cookies and temporary internet files, reinstalled my firewall and ran a virus scan which came up empty.

Has this ever happened to anyone else, or is there anyone who might have an idea what might be causing this?

[Jenstar]

This happens with Norton Internet Security and similar programs. They have an ad blocking feature that is turned on by default, which is why it appears to be a problem in different problems.

Here is a longer thread on Norton Internet Security [webmasterworld.com]

[CalArch90]

Ahh! That worked. Thanks a lot for your input.

What I find strange is that some ads were being blocked, but not others. I guess the ad blocking feature is not 100% perfect :-)

[Jenstar]

There are two different kinds of URLs for AdSense - one is the page2.googlesyndication.com and the other is googleadservices.com which is for those with conversion tracking. I believe that googleadservices.com URLs were not being filtered, but not very many people use these kinds of URLs.

Can you confirm if it is the difference between these two URLs as to why some do and some don't show up?

[CalArch90]

I'll check it out and let you know.

[edited by: CalArch90 at 4:39 am (utc) on Jan. 21, 2004]

[CalArch90]

All of the ads from the pagead2.googlesyndication.com server are being filtered out. I didn't see any from googleadservices.com, so I can't say for sure if they are being filtered out or not.

Where it gets strange is with the google.com/search? ads on the Google SERPs. Some ads show and some don't. They all seem to be coming from the same server.

The string you posted was very informative by the way. What threw me off was the fact that I never changed the settings in my Norton Internet Security. I'm not sure how the ad blocking feature was enabled, unless it was an automatic update of the program that reset things to the default settings?

[Jenstar]

Was it a recent install? The default setting with it is to have ad blocking turned off. If it changes the setting to "on" with updates, there are many who would not be very impressed with Norton for doing this.

[europeforvisitors]

Hey, I'm not impressed with Norton Internet Security 2004, period. I have to leave the antispam feature turned off because it crashes about half a dozen times a day and requires a reboot if I want to get my e-mail. Blocking AdSense ads is the least of Norton's problems!

[CalArch90]

It's not a recent install, I've had it for a while now. I actually thought the default setting was "on", but if it is "off" as you indicate, that makes this even more odd.

I use this program in conjunction with Zone Alarm which offers updates from time to time, and I recently downloaded an updated version a couple of weeks ago, roughly when the issue began. Could it have something to do with this?

Oh well, all is fine now. I know in the future to check the setting.