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[Ben Thompson]

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Subject: UKNM: Advertising might actually be dead

Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:17:39 -0000

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One of those things I noticed in my daily search of all that is or might be

vaguely useful (along with an addition to XML called ICE that will be very,

very

useful in about Jan 2000).


Solid Oak maker of CyberSitter has announced a new banner advert eating

program. There was a previous program of this type but it dead amid legal

threats two years ago.


This by itself is not that important (the vast majority of people will not

know how to implement it) but Navigator 5 is freeware and is enhancable /

reprogrammable (I assume everyone is aware of that). This is where the

problems begin.


One of the weaknesses of Navigator is that its HTML parser (the code that

displays the HTML page) is not as forgiving as its IE competitor. Changes

made to the HTML parser are likely to be the most popuar enhancements in non

Netscape versions of Navigator. Most people I know looking into re-writing

Netscape are looking at this area more than any other.


Now the code needed to identify and remove banners from an HTML page is not

difficult. You merely remove any reference to graphics sized 468 by 60

pixels or redirect the request to another site (say your own). The problem

has always been accessing the HTML parser that processes and displays the

page. Previously this has not been possible and so there has been little

reason for people to try.


Unfortunately this is no longer the case. Any half decent C programmer who

can read annoted code, can find the HTML parser and add their own search,

replace routine.


All that is required is for the idea to be planted in people's minds (and it

has been) and we will see banner eating browsers. Most people probably would

not even realise it was being done.


Anyway sleep well folks,


Ben

__________________________________________

Ben Thompson

Mendip Services Ltd

0976 768221

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