Keyvan Minoukadeh

Update (2007-01-31): Included a fourth (Windows hosts) method for getting rid of ads.

More and more sites are displaying Google (AdSense) or Yahoo (YPN) ads. I thought I’d post up 4 simple ways you can get rid of these ads, and, if like me, you’d still like to know which sites use them but don’t really want to see the ads, there’s even a solution to replace them with boxes. Solutions 1-3 require Firefox—I’ve only tested with Firefox 2.0. Solution 4 should work with any browser on a Windows system.

Note: these solutions are targeted at Google and Yahoo ad services, to remove other ads you can follow the steps in my ad-free browsing guide. Solutions 1, 2 and 4 only remove the ads, solution 3 also replaces them with boxes where the ads would have appeared.

1. AdBlock Plus extension

Install Adblock Plus and add the following two filters:

http://ypn-js.overture.com/*

and

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/*

If you’re already running AdBlock Plus, you can subscribe to my Google and Yahoo ad remover filter set, I’ll be adding to it soon.

2. CSS solution—no additional addons required

Edit userContent.css (use ChromEdit Plus or read Editing Configuration Files if you need help) and add the following two rules:

/*
 * Remove Google ads
 */
iframe[name='google_ads_frame'],
a[href^='http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com']
{ display: none ! important; }

/*
 * Remove Yahoo ads
 */
iframe[src^='http://ypn-js.overture.com']
{ display: none ! important; }

Save and restart Firefox.

3. Replacing Ads with Greasemonkey

Install Greasemonkey and then my Replace Google/Yahoo Ads script.

Before and after screenshot:

4. Windows hosts

This is based on Tech Support Alert’s in-depth guide to Removing Google Ads Using the Windows Hosts File. Read that if you’re unfamiliar with the Windows Hosts file.

Locate the hosts file. It’ll be found in one of these locations, depending on your version of Windows:

Windows XP = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 2K/NT = C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 98/ME = C:\WINDOWS

Open it with a plain-text editor, e.g. Notepad, and add the following two lines:

127.0.0.1    pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1    ypn-js.overture.com

Any feedback appreciated.

Ads on Google and Yahoo websites

The methods above will not block ads appearing on Google or Yahoo’s own websites, e.g. Gmail or Yahoo Mail, as most of those ads are fetched server-side and not through the easy-to-use HTML snippets most webmasters receive when signing up to AdSense/YPN. You will however find Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts targeting those sites specifically. For example, the excellent CustomizeGoogle extension removes ads from Google search results, GMail, and more.

Very late posting this, but it’s about time I pointed you all to the new White Town album: Don’t Mention the War.

I’ve been listening to it a lot and it just gets better and better. If you’re new to White Town, listen to tracks from the new album, read a review, an interview with Jyoti, then buy it! It’s available to buy on CD Baby and iTunes.

See Bzangy Groink for more…

War is good for business. Invest your son.

Photos from my trip to Holland are up. I spent just under a week cycling from town to town on the country’s wonderful cycleways. It wasn’t as scenic as I’d expected, but that’s partly due to bad planning on my part. I passed through Amsterdam, Haarlem, Noordwijk, Den Haag, Delft, Rotterdam, Kinderdijk (thanks to a friendly Dutch woman I met at the hostel in Rotterdam), Dordrecht and Utrecht. I even managed to join the critical mass action in Amsterdam against the G8.

Finally, lots of thanks to the lovely people I met during my stay: Okke for showing me Amsterdam and putting me up, and Burcu, Cemre, Burcak and Jewel for keeping me company in Utrecht. Tomorrow I leave again to see more of Europe with the lovely Suzi.

Click the image above to reveal the rest.

“I don’t think anybody after this is going to be able to say of Tony Blair that he’s somebody who is driven by the drift of public opinion, or focus groups, or opinion polls. He took all of those on. He said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his critics not to acknowledge that tonight he stands a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result.” (Andrew Marr, BBC News at Ten, BBC1, April 9, 2003).

Quote taken from Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media