I am getting pop-up ads on woot today for bing. I can't decide which is more annoying, bing, or pop-up ads. Both suck infinite amounts. Could we do something about the ads, though?

Anorion wrote:I am getting pop-up ads on woot today for bing. I can't decide which is more annoying, bing, or pop-up ads. Both suck infinite amounts. Could we do something about the ads, though?

Woot is definitely not hosting Bing pop-up ads. If you are seeing those on Woot, it's likely due to browser software you may have accidentally installed. You might consider running a spyware detector like Spybot Search & Destroy. We have no connection to them, but they seem to be well-regarded:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Running Ubuntu Linux, so spyware should not be an issue. And I don't see any suspicious threads in the process list. The popups are actually from google-analytics, so that's pretty weird.

I've occasionally been redirected to some stupid survey site.

Here's the url:

http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://www.woot.com/

I've blocked their cookies and it seems to have stopped but holy scaffolding was that annoying.

talljay wrote:I've occasionally been redirected to some stupid survey site.

Here's the url:

http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://www.woot.com/

I've blocked their cookies and it seems to have stopped but holy scaffolding was that annoying.

this is a bummer to hear - we've always refused to allow pop-ups and have never done third party surveys. I'm still hoping it's limited / unrelated third party software set to react to visiting woot. let us know if you see this elsewhere.

if anyone else saw this today, please also mention.

Anorion wrote:Running Ubuntu Linux, so spyware should not be an issue. And I don't see any suspicious threads in the process list. The popups are actually from google-analytics, so that's pretty weird.

As fond as we all are of Ubuntu, it is still possible that your browser has had a toolbar added that you may not be aware of. I'd do the following, myself:

1. Clear all the cookies, and check all the rules per site
2. Clear the cache, and clear the history
3. Download a new version of whatever browser you are using

BTW, Google doesn't do popup ads. Someone may be serving up google ads, but it's not google.

Does Chrome even do toolbars? I assure you there is nothing on my end doing this. It has stopped as of a few hours ago, but I even got out my wife's laptop with a fresh install of Win7 on it to confirm that it was on the server end before I reported it.

Anorion wrote:Does Chrome even do toolbars? I assure you there is nothing on my end doing this. It has stopped as of a few hours ago, but I even got out my wife's laptop with a fresh install of Win7 on it to confirm that it was on the server end before I reported it.

Was it still the Chrome browser you were using, on the win7 install? There have been recent serious vulnerabilities reported with Chrome.

http://www.us-cert.gov/current/#google_releases_chrome_4_0

shrdlu wrote:Was it still the Chrome browser you were using, on the win7 install? There have been recent serious vulnerabilities reported with Chrome.

http://www.us-cert.gov/current/#google_releases_chrome_4_0

I am using the latest version of Firefox and I too was just redirected to the survey site.

Snapster wrote:this is a bummer to hear - we've always refused to allow pop-ups and have never done third party surveys. I'm still hoping it's limited / unrelated third party software set to react to visiting woot. let us know if you see this elsewhere.

if anyone else saw this today, please also mention.

I got a popup in Chrome/Windows 7 to this url just now
http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://woot.com/
I did some searching and it may be a popup from one of the ads on woot. I'm also doing a malware scan of my system just to be safe.

vcn wrote:I got a popup in Chrome/Windows 7 to this url just now
http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://woot.com/
I did some searching and it may be a popup from one of the ads on woot. I'm also doing a malware scan of my system just to be safe.

Download a NEW version of Chrome. Unless you have acquired this version in the past day or two, download a new version.

shrdlu wrote:Download a NEW version of Chrome. Unless you have acquired this version in the past day or two, download a new version.

It's new. This copy of Windows 7 was freshly installed last weekend. I have the new 4.0 release of Chrome. The only extensions/plugins i see in the Chrome task manager are flash and evernote.

I ran a couple scans in safe mode using MS Security Essential and Malwarebytes Antimalware. Both showed nothing. I haven't gotten any pop ups since last night. It may be a fluke with woot's advertisers. However, I'm still a little iffy and may just reinstall the OS again.

shrdlu wrote:Download a NEW version of Chrome. Unless you have acquired this version in the past day or two, download a new version.

I just saw your post about the Chrome vulnerability and want to confirm that I am running patched version of 4.0.249.78.

vcn wrote:It's new. This copy of Windows 7 was freshly installed last weekend. I have the new 4.0 release of Chrome. The only extensions/plugins i see in the Chrome task manager are flash...

Flash is evil. There are flash cookies that are set when you access sites, and are not easily accessible to the average user. I'm not sure whether your spyware users are going to recognize them either.

C:\Documents and Settings\{me}\Application Data\Adobe\Flash Player\AssetCache\ZZHNV4UX

C:\Documents and Settings\{me}\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\LXKPZZ24


These are some places where they usually are. I don't know about win7, not having that particular OS around (and I probably won't, since I'm retired, and it doesn't make any sense for me to add one in).

BTW, I'm also trying like crazy to replicate this, but so far, no go (not even on Vista + Chrome).

I just had an update for Java come in, and one of the (cleverly hidden) "options" is to install a Google toolbar. It is automatically set to install, unless you click out of it.

Did you by chance, accidentally install it with this update?

I just got it as well:
http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://woot.com/default.aspx

using Firefox - no toolbars installed. I installed windows7 4 days ago

mikeysweet wrote:I just got it as well:
http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://woot.com/default.aspx

using Firefox - no toolbars installed. I installed windows7 4 days ago

Interesting. This is starting to look like a win7 problem, rather than a browser problem. Pity I don't have a win7 install.

Confirmed on Google Chrome 4.0.302.3 (dev channel) using Windows XP.

I got it in fully-updated Safari 4.0.4 on OS X. Same questionmarket.com thing. Weird and annoying.

http://amch.questionmarket.com/in_banner/684323/?site=22&from_aicode=600001295791&from_url=http://www.woot.com/

using ff 3.5.7
using xp home 5.1.2600 sp 3