It's the fact that a playing movie usually expects to be on top, combined with the fact that the dropdown does not render until it activates.
We need some limits on what ads can do:
- They must not use up all of the CPU time.*
- They must not do anything when the mouse rolls over them.*
- They must not scroll the screen to show the ad.
- They must not hide the insertion point.
- They must not freeze the mouse.
- They must not expand to cover other parts of the page.
- They must not make sounds.
- They must not prevent navigation.
- They must not advertise anything a child should not see.
And here is a lost of things I would prefer that ads not do:
- No animation. It's extremely distracting.
- No blinking text.
- Any link should be a visible link, not the entire ad.
- Following the link must not destroy the browser history.*
* This should be true for all websites, not just ads.
Nope, that's not it. It's a problem with some Flash-based ads setting their wmode to window as opposed to opaque and transparent. Flash movies in the window mode do not render as part of the page's DOM but instead actually sit in a separate "window" on top of the entire web browser, after the page has completely rendered. Therefore, it's impossible for anything to draw on top of it. (The benefit to this mode is that Flash rendering bypasses being drawn by the web browser and so it's much faster. However, it's obviously not designed for advertising and other Flash elements that are supposed to be integrated within web designs.) Unfortunately, the wmode for an individual ad cannot be set on our end nor do we have the ear of the people who can change it.
Yep, the other day the dell one was being a total idiot.
It was "above" the login thing (you know the popup that comes up when you first visit the site, the one that dims the screen) meaning i couldnt close it. Only after ages did i work that if you clicked the dimmed area, it would close the popup.
Simple solution: Move all the dropdowns so they are below the banner ad, and get rid of the annoying login thing (annoys me as my pc clears the IE every time i logout, and it wont let me login normally until the whole of the site has loaded, and then the popup has displayed)
Unfortunately I have no control of this particular ad. It is through a partner and I have no way of getting in touch with the creative team behind it. However, it should be going away in about two weeks, if you can hold out.
I fixed it on my end when it first happened. I smeared a little dab of ABP ointment on it cleared up the problem instantly. I have little patience with ads that interfere with content. Later---
