Tech4all group blog: [tech4all] Fixing the yahoo groups hovering ad problem

Sunday, July 05, 2009

[tech4all] Fixing the yahoo groups hovering ad problem

Yahoo groups ad container is obscuring mail content

Ever since Yahoo groups adopted the box type advertisements on top of email, users are irritated by the advertisements that hover over the email content rather than flowing with the content.
Yahoo groups adds these advertisements to all emails processed by the groups' system.
So, the email that comes via yahoo groups end up obscured,that is,partly hidden behind yahoo's own advertisements.
Every service need advertisement revenue,but ads should not be over the content.
Ads should not mask the content.The

elements are having absolute positioning values and they hover over the content.
This is predatory advertising.

Notice the green arrow,it points the advertisement.
This screenshot taken at 1600x900 resolution with latest Firefox.

This screenshot taken at 1024x768 with latest IE 8

This screenshot taken at 1024x768 with latest Firefox.

In all the screenshots, the ad masks the content of the email.
It masks images as well as text.
Atleast, this box should have a close or hide button.
Else,it should be positioned relative to the content.

I have contacted Y! groups, lets see if they correct this.
Y! ads spoilt the first ever earth rise photo by placing their ad over the image in my mail,
:-(

Update:
Y! has responded to my complaint, here is the response from yahoo.

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Hello Bharath,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Groups.

I understand that the box in the upper right-hand corner of messages
from your group is covering text within the message. I apologize for
any inconvenience.

The details you have reported have been passed along to the proper
support group for further testing.

In the meantime, if you switch from "fully featured" emails to
"traditional" the box will not show up when you are viewing messages.
There are 2 ways to change this setting:

Option 1:

- Go to any page in the group

- Click "Edit Membership" towards the top of the page

- In "Step 3" select "Traditional" and click "Save"

Option 2:

- Send an email to groupname-traditional@yahoogroups.com (Replace
"groupname" with the full name of your group).

- You will receive a confirmation email, reply to the confirmation email
and your settings will be changed.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know. We're
always more than happy to help and we appreciate all feedback that helps
us identify ways to constantly maintain and improve our services.

Be sure to check the Official Yahoo! Groups Blog for more information
and the latest updates about Yahoo! Groups.

http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/

Regards,

Naddy

Yahoo! Groups Customer Care

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Comparison between "Fully featured"(left) and "Traditional"(right) mail delivery.