No, I'm running it as tester. There is no effect at all.

I installed it since my post above, and I couldn't get it to list or block any third-party JavaScript at all. Maybe it only blocks if the third-party site tries to set a cookie, which AdSense doesn't try to do.

I don't know what the deal is, because Microsoft doesn't bother to explain anything. Anyway, the InPrivate mode is rather clumsy to turn on, and I predict that no one will use it even if they like IE8 in general.

Anyone who is smart enough to figure out how use IE8's InPrivate features effectively, is probably smart enough to have abandoned IE long ago in favor of a browser that isn't so bloated. There was also a "anti-piracy security scan" of my XP installation that was first required, by downloading another piece of MS bloatware, before IE8 would even continue with the installation. That put me off, to say the least.

I restored my XP back to my old IE6 after I tested it. I've lost all interest in InPrivate.

[edited by: Scarecrow at 11:00 pm (utc) on Aug. 28, 2008]

If Google's ads were ever in danger of being blocked on a massive scale, they would do something about it. Nothing to worry about.

Stout is right. They could reinstate firefox referral or invent their own browser. :)

If now all browsers can block Pop Ups Ads, why not to block all type of advertising and to show a clean site? I do not see anything illegal on that. Of course I would not like it.

<<why not to block all type of advertising and to show a clean site?>>

Why do people assume that consumers do not like advertising? If they didn't advertising as a way to promote would have been long gone. On the contrary, advertising is thriving.

Also people somehow assume that the world would still be the same if advertising just disappeared. Has anyone ever paid for a premium cable channel or rented a DVD as opposed to watching a movie on a channel that has advertising? Has anyone ever picked a local newspaper or magazine for free?

Consumers are not stupid; they understand that advertising is part of life if they want other things for free. It has been proven over and over again that consumers will pick free with advertising than otherwise. They know that all the wonderful content on the web (which definitely makes are lives better) will disappear overnight if publishers couldn't run their business through advertising.

--If Google's ads were ever in danger of being blocked on a massive scale, they would do something about it.--

Microsoft themselves might land in hot water if their browser blocked a major rival's source of income.

--why not to block all type of advertising and to show a clean site?--

In moral terms, because most professional websites depend on advertising to exist. If all browsers blocked all advertising, it would either wipe out much of the web, or force everyone to pay subscriptions in order to see content that used to be free to view. It would turn much of the web into the text equivalent of pay TV.

In technical terms, it isn't always possible to distinguish a content element from an advertising element. If you tried to block absolutely all advertising you might end up blocking quite a lot of content too.

And if all conventional adverts were blocked, ad-supported sites would be forced to make advertising even more intrusive by integrating it into the content itself. That would make sites much messier and less pleasant to browse than they are currently.

Consumers are not stupid; they understand that advertising is part of life if they want other things for free. ... They know that all the wonderful content on the web (which definitely makes are lives better) will disappear overnight if publishers couldn't run their business through advertising.

I don't think people make the connection between ads on TV and in newspapers, and ads on websites. I don't think they understand that ads support the content they see on the web, because, for the most part, they don't know the ads are ads. It's all just content to them.

Unless the web ads are interstitial (like TV ads are). But don't we all hate those "click here to view the page you really wanted" ads?

If they do block, we will get xml feed or server side ad generation. Ad becomes part of content itself ;)

We've been asking for that for ages, himalayaswater. It means we could do whatever we wanted with the ads, filter whatever we wanted in an unlimited way, format them any way we want. It's hard to believe Google would give up the control necessary to make that an option, even under the pressure of Google-served ads being blocked on a wholesale basis.

Solution:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Cool timing! Microsoft's worst nightmare!