Why NoScript is essential to the surfer
In his blog today, Tim Linden has rightfully raised the issue of why surfers need to use a wonderful Firefox ad on called No Script. There is a new report that in fact has a go about No Script because it is claimed that some website owners are “missing out on making money” due to the use of No Script. Now I am not about to critique that report because the author has compromised her own position on the subject due to her association with the owner of a particular website. Instead what I am going to do here is write about why No Script is a must for users of Traffic Exchanges. Another essential is AdBlock which helps the surfer to be able to stop those heavy loading images.
There are many good reasons for surfers to continue to use No Script and to quite frankly ignore the report written by Sunny Suggs. Here are some of my reasons for using No Script when I am surfing especially at Traffic Era and a few other exchanges where one is not totally protected against malicious people who add trojans to their sites.
1. Bandwidth. There are sites out there, such as Mythology Surf that have splash pages that are huge. This kind of splash page takes up too much bandwidth. By using No Script a surfer can have a page load a lot faster instead of waiting for a heavily laden slow image to appear. Mythology surf is only an example where the splash pages are just too big.
2. Clock hunting at Traffic Era. When a team at Traffic Era is in the hunt the last thing we want is a slow loading page. I use Mythology Surf as an example here, but there are plenty of other examples out there. By using No Script it is possible to ban the page from loading, and thus the time is not being wasted. This is important in that situation.
3. Sites that have auto-load flash player video movies for example Yuwie. I hate Yuwie. I hate it because of the fact that they advertise by using a flash player with a man who has the most irritating voice. What is really worse though is the fact that you cannot turn the video off. If a surfer is not interested in this Yuwie site then that surfer should not have to sit through the flash player movie. The answer though is to disable the plugin so that the flash player cannot load. I can do this in the Maxthon browser and I can do it by using the NoScript Ad on.
4. Trojans. Yes, there are many sites out there and they are at Traffic Era and other exchanges too, that have a download trojan attached. By using No Script a surfer is better protected than someone who is not using No Script. So far I have been lucky because my own anti-virus protection has been diligent in picking up these trojans. I get several warnings every week about these trojans.
These are just a few reasons for the continuing use of No Script. I agree with Tim Linden on this matter. If a person wants people to see their site then disable these annoyances.
I am not going to respond to squeeze pages. I am not going to sign up to these lists and programs, especially where there is a cost beyond my means involved. I do not believe that there are sales being missed because surfers are using No Script. I think that the real issue is related more to the content of that particular website. If the website owner has loaded the page with a trojan then they deserve the lack of sales. Surfers need to protect their private information and it is essential that they take precautions to prevent the malicious type that are out there in cyberspace. NoScript is one of the ways for fighting back against the malicious people who want to harm us as we have fun on the Internet.
[...] here: Why NoScript is essential to the surfer david-foley, flash, gladiatorhits, hover-technology, jeremy-lemon-exchanges, logiscape, [...]
Why NoScript is essential to the surfer | surfgearcentral.com
July 28, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hello!
Great post Maggie!
You’re right, the use of NoScript while surfing definitely keeps things running smoothly. It also keeps out nasty bugs, and the like.
My report is to show people how to use NoScript properly… and to help Marketers teach their potential customers the same. I show throughout the report how do “disable” the firefox addon, so they can use it to their benefit.
It is a great addition to Firefox, but of those 25 million users, of the add-on how many additions to our lists are we NOT getting?
Thanks for your post!
Sunny Suggs
July 28, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I cannot even tell you how many sites I have refused to join just because of how annoying their promotional pages are.
There are tons of tutorials out there, free and paid, that explain what is the best sort of page to plug into a TE – a Fast Loading, Attention Getting splash or capture page.
I don’t even understand why the Companies themselves even allow their associates to use those pages in TEs anyway – it sucks up bandwidth on their end as well.
Bill Darton
September 2, 2008 at 12:53 am
It seems tome that you are treating this from a “TV viewers” point of view and not the point of view of the advertiser.
It is true that networks raise the sound levels when they cut to commercials and most viewers hate that, but the bottom line is that those higer sound levels lead to higer conversions based on those ads.
Traffic exchanges, as a cooperative ADVERTISING medium, are made more effective with pages that use various scripts that can enhance conversions rates.
As long as people continue to get results with these pages and they do not put an unnecessarily taxing burden on the surfer I can assure you that exchange owners willcontinue to allow them.
Michael Coursey
September 16, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Michael, somebody has to address this issue from the point of view of the surfer, not a TV viewer. A large proportion of a TV viewing population will actually switch the channel rather than watch some advertisements. Why is that? Because they get on people’s nerves. The same is also true of ads on exchanges where the advertiser uses videos etc.
The problem is not the use of the video, but the fact that the video is primed to play automatically if someone lands on the page. It is far better if the surfer has the choice to press the play button than be assailed with a loud voice that irritates – this is one reason why I hate Yuwie with a passion.
The advertiser should be able to grab the attention of the surfer by what is on the page without the need for scripts that could in fact be hiding download trojans and the like. Since surfing at Traffic Era and other sites I have often come across pages that have a download trojan. I want to keep my computer clean, and that means something like NoScript and AdBlock is necessary so that I can view pages, and then act upon what I am viewing without the worry of infecting my computer with viruses and other nasties.
There are exchange owners that do not allow the pop-ups, pop-unders, audio and video, and believe me, surfers like myself will use those exchanges in preference to an exchange that allows those pages.
Maggie
September 17, 2008 at 9:54 am