A solution to gratuitous cookies and distracting banner ads. Shift-clicking on a graphic gives you a menu of choices: one of them is to blacklist the site serving that graphic. Subsequent graphics from that site show as a blacklist icon. (Clicking on the icon will load the graphic if you *really* want to see it). One click and goodbye obnoxious DoubleClick and whack-the-mole banners. Also, all cookies are reported with a list of options that includes "reject all cookies from this site" as well as "accept only cookies that go back to the originating server." Of course, you can do all this with a proxy (I use and recommend the one from www.junkbusters.com) but maintaining the killfile is a hassle. One feature I would like to add is a cookie randomizer: when a blacklisted site drops a cookie, its data format is parsed. Subsequent requests for that cookie get it back with random information, thus confusing the marketroids and preserving anonymity.

This is the first step towards my ideal of "spank technology." The idea is to discipline technological objects that misbehave. Example: the Microsoft paperclip RICHLY deserves a "spank" button. When it pesters you, spank it: at some point it should get the idea to GO AWAY AND STOP BOTHERING ME.
-- rmutt, Apr 19 2000

Removing crappy Office Assistants http://www.regedit.com/detail/346.html
How to make sure those annoying Office Assistants (Paper clip, etc.) go away for good. [hippo, Apr 19 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

WWW Shield http://me.in-berlin...trot/wwwshield.html
WWW Shield is an HTTP proxy server that intercepts connections from your web browser to the Internet. It contains a simple language for writing macros that rewrite web page requests, reply headers, and the HTML markup in the returned page. It is primarily useful for deleting banner ads, useless images by URL, cookies, referers, and other things that are either slowing you down or are privacy invasions. [johan, Apr 19 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

iCab http://www.icab.de
iCab is a browser that allows this -- control-click on an image and click "Filter Image..." You will be presented with a list of options, like to block by size, server, path name, etc. Matching images are replaced with a little "Filter" icon. Control-click and select "Load Image" to get a filtered image back again. [aswartz, Apr 19 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Firefox Adblock http://adblock.mozdev.org/
Baked! You Mozilla guys rock! (and before any more people get all "baked!" on my ass, NOTE THE DATE OF THE IDEA. kthxbye [rmutt, Feb 22 2005, last modified Nov 01 2006]

I like this idea...IE 5 has the ability to put sites in 'restricted access', so if you go to a, say, Geocities site, you put 'www.geocities.com' into the restricted area, and poof, no more popup ads. Doesn't work on Yahoo's Java crapplets that stick the window in the top left corner of the browser, though, and being able to spank them would be nice...
-- StarChaser, Apr 20 2000


oddly enough, the original technology for the microsoft "assistants" did indeed work this way. if you ignored them or rebuked them often, they eventually stopped bothering you. the assistants in earlier versions of office didn't seem to have this feature, but the one on my desktop at work (office 2K) does. first it tries offering help, and if i decline once or twice, it changes its tune: instead of actively offering help, it just acts enthusiastic. if i ignore it, it stops being interested in helping with whatever-it-was i was doing. but it's still there to help out if i try a new task that i find awkward, and the assistant says "oh, try it this way next time".

of course, i use the dog instead of the paperclip...
-- big_lunk, Jun 02 2000


You can sort-of do this with ad-filter software, but I can see a use for having more information available within the browser about cookies and other third-party bits like web-bugs.... have a list pop-up to show you who's sent you what, and you decide whether to trust them, let them in just the once, or bar them for good.

Regarding the Office Assistant, I changed it to the cat (Scribble in Office 97, Links in Office 2000) so it's less annoying.
-- MonTemplar, Aug 24 2000


Spank Technology. I like that. Mabye there could be a Windows BASIC and you could write: 10 FOR x=0 TO 40976167 20 POKE x,RND*255 30 NEXT X
-- Amishman35, Feb 25 2001


In 95/98, you can create/edit a file called "c:\windows\hosts" [other version of Windows may name the file something else or put it elsewhere]. For the site you wish to blacklist, create lines thus:

0.0.0.0 evil.org
0.0.0.0 ads.x10.com
0.0.0.0 www.halfbakery.com # just kidding

Any site so listed in the hosts file will no longer be accessible by name,
-- supercat, Aug 09 2002


This is pretty baked I think.

I've got Agnitum Outpost Firewall and it came with probably at least 100 address strings where it blocks anything containing any of those strings. Then, anytime an ad gets past, you add the domain to the list and it never comes back. That, combined with Opera browser, and Proxomitron, makes it so you see fewer and fewer ads, no popup ads ever, and a ton of other customized stuff. I don't see how anyone can stand to go on the web without something to this effect.

I am all for eradicating the freaking paperclip. I use msworks only when necessary (almost never!) and I turn that obnoxious thing off. Somebody should make a program that lets you torture the paperclip if it accidentally appears (shoot it, throw it in a blender, light it on fire, poke out its eyes).
-- dj_photon, Jun 29 2003


Mozilla Firebird can ban all the images from a server by a right click on the banner/image
-- alexgarcia, Nov 08 2003



random, halfbakery