by John McDevitt

Created on: May 02, 2009   Last Updated: May 04, 2009

When it comes to Internet ads, there's a fine line between informative and annoying. Keyword advertising uses the latest technology to pop up context sensitive ads as you scroll through web pages. But when you're reading along and an ad pops up and blocks your view of the text...

Websites that bring you free content support themselves with advertising revenue. They couldn't exist without the ads. But there's a limit and you should have a choice. You should have the ability to turn off the ads if they bother you. Fortunately you can and it's easy.

The video ads that you see popping up as you pass your mouse over double underlined text in the content you're reading are the brainchild of Vibrant Media.

Vibrant Media claims they identify what they term "core words of interest" by analyzing over 50 million articles each week and use this information "to deliver the most relevant display advertising experience possible." That depends on your perspective. If you're a reader and an ad window jumps up in your face while you're engrossed in an article, the experience is more likely to be highly disruptive and annoying.

These ads pop up when web page authors use a script on a page to call the intelliTXT script which finds and double underlines keywords on the page you are viewing. Then when your mouse passes over one of these keywords a video ad pops up and obscures the underlying text. In other words, you're reading along and BAM there's an ad in your face and you can't see what you were reading.

You do have a choice and you can shut off their intelliTXT advertising on your browser when you know how. It's easier than you might have thought.

If you use Internet Explorer 7 (IE7): Download and install the free IE7Pro enhancement for IE7. It has lots of features to extend the capabilities of IE7, but you want to choose "Ad Blocker" from the IE7Pro preferences. Then simply select filter type "URL block filter" and add intellitxt.com and vibrantmedia.com to the rules.

Opera users can use the filtering built into the browser. Open tools / advanced / blocked content and add http://*.*.intellitxt.com/* and you're done.

All you need if you're running Firefox is a simple add-on. Download and install the Adblock plus add on for Firefox. It's easy. Go to Tools / add-ons, then click on Get Add-ons in the pop up window. Search for and install Adblock plus. You'll have to exit Firefox and reload for Adblock plus to run. If you want to block all ads, you can choose a subscription. If you're only interested in blocking intellitxt, simply go to preferences, click add a filter and enter *.intellitxt.*

Advertisements are a necessary fact of Internet life. They can be informative and steer you to products you might be interested in. They can also mar your Internet experience. You have the ability to shut them out if you chose. That's fair. After all the Internet is all about choice.

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