That is a good analogy Cameron! I totally agree. I've been doing we design since 1997 and one of the foundations of good design is that you don't irritate the user. Not to say that is isn't done all over the place, but when I was first learning, I had it hammered into my head that pages need to load fast, be presented in an appealing way and not offend, harass, annoy, badger, berate or generally irritate the visitors. One thing about these ads that jump out like that - if they weren't effective, they wouldn't be so widely used. Now, I'm not sure if their effectiveness is measured in clicks or in sales, but if it's clicks - a lot of those are false. Also, since so many people are annoyed by them and the fact that they are tricked into visiting the sponsor, I can't imagine that it has a positive effect on sales. I'm glad that you guys told me about AdBlock Plus. If more people knew about it and used it, then probably they'd see a decline in the clicks (false and otherwise) and have no choice but to deduce that the ads are ineffective because people hate that kind of thing. /rant

Once and for all: How to stop the iVillage ad onslaught. First we need to understand how it's done: iVillage doesn't bother to try and buy ads directly from all the various companies that show up on the pages of GW. Instead they use large ad-service agencies like doubleclick, akamai and pointroll. You can visit some of these sites if you'd like to see who's behind the ads. http://www.akamai.com http://www.doubleclick.com/us http://pointroll.com This makes it easy to block out all or almost all of the ads very easily, just block the originating sites. Right now all the ads on GW come from: http://amch.questionmarket.com http://a820.g.akamai.net http://iv.doubleclick.net http://i.ivillage.com http://m.2mdn.net http://tste.ivillage.com http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com http://ads.vmirror.com http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com http://ads.pointroll.com The Universal Solution.This will work on Windows systems for all browsers; IE, FireFox and Netscape. The Windows operating system provides a system-level method to block specific IP addresses before they even get to the browser. To effect this solution you need to edit a Windows system file called hosts. This file is located in the directory: Windows XP: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC Windows 2K: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC Windows 98: C:\WINDOWS Open the file in Notepad. Cut the following from this post and paste it to the end of the file. 127.0.0.1 amch.questionmarket.com 127.0.0.1 a820.g.akamai.net 127.0.0.1 iv.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 i.ivillage.com 127.0.0.1 m.2mdn.net 127.0.0.1 tste.ivillage.com 127.0.0.1 img-cdn.mediaplex.com 127.0.0.1 ads.vmirror.com 127.0.0.1 cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com 127.0.0.1 ads.pointroll.com Edit each entry so that there is a tab between the IP address 127.0.0.1 and the URLs. Save the file and you're finished. Close and re-open your browser and all the ads will be gone. Unfortunately, iVillage may in the future buy ads from a new source. In this event the new ad source will have to be added to the list. The IE solution.Most of the ads are placed using Java$cript. You can remove the more offensive ads in IE with the browser settings. You can't however remove them all. To improve GW using IE do the following: From the menu select Tools -> Internet Options -> Security and click on Custom Level. Scroll down to the end of the list and you'll see an entry for Scripting. Disable all the sub-entries. Now select the tab labeled Privacy. In the bottom of the box that appears check on the option to block pop-ups. I recommend you also click on the button Advanced and select the option to block Third-party Cookies. NOTE: By disabling Scripting you will also effect the way other websites behave. You may need to get used to switching scripting on and off as desired. That's why this is the least desirable of these various options. The FireFox solutionThis is an excellent choice -- it's the fastest...

Bobbi, you are simply experiencing the difference in 3000 yrs. of civilization, vs. 300 yrs. of civilization. It really does make a big difference. For me, I found the differences in Europe very preferential to those in the US, in many ways. However, that was 40 yrs. ago, and like the US, things have changed. (I monitor the BBC on a daily basis.) Also like the US, the governments there, really don't have a clue, about what needs to be done in today's world, to save the planet, or make the world a better place, or if they do, they aren't willing to take the necessary steps to make the changes happen. Be assured though, that in many countries today, people have become over educated. If you look hard at the numbers, you will find entirely too high a number of college graduates, and even those with advanced degrees, working well below their educational levels. There are a number of reasons for that, but it isn't likely to change any time in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, the probabilities are strong that even more of our population will be working below their educational level, in the future. The divisions between the rich and the non-rich will continually cause people to attempt to improve their situation, but in fact, that will be difficult to do. The "American dream" is now more of a myth than a reality. I don't see that much of a difference in Great Britain, to be honest. They will be following in the same sort of path, and so, it is only sensible that they consider a practical approach to educational levels. I have watched the erosion in the US, over the past 50 yrs. of a country with great strengths, to a country with little more than great ideals. The strengths are gone, the lifestyle is far worse, and the future prospects are very limited. Such is the impact of far too extensive, and far too rapid growth, in world population. Since no one is doing ANYTHING about that problem, there is little chance of future improvement in today's conditions. On the contrary, the probability is very high, that conditions will actually worsen. So.....the practicality of being a plumber, an HVAC technician, etc., is certainly something to consider. After all....almost all of the jobs in this country today are medical or computer related....and the computer industry is reaching its plateau, where advances are going to slow down considerably. So....unless you can qualify to get into the medical field, as a doctor, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, etc........which typically requires very high GPA's in high school and very high scores on the college entrance exams, your ooportunities are going to be very limited. The odds of that are 15 to 1 against you. (At least in my medical college.)

NHB--the others who are more computer savvy may be able to give more pointers, but I even forget that I've changed to Firefox because to me it looks so similar to IE (other than the ads not appearing now). Yes, you can still get hotmail--I use that also. I've never used just hotmail to store my mail though, so I use Windows Live to actually receive it on my computer though that's not necessary--just my preference since I have Windows 7 operating system. After installing Firefox, you just would likely want to select your home page (as you do with IE) and personalize the toolbar so it has the menu items you use most (as you do with IE, also). I love the faster page loading time and now--this adblocking is absolutely great! If you download Mozilla Firefox and don't like it, you can always uninstall. I downloaded it, tried it first, then after seeing it worked fine for accessing the internet, I quit using IE altogether. Thanks again to gr8day for asking your question (even though that particular ad wasn't hassling me) and to the others for the tip.