Media websites, JavaScript bloat, tracking, Ghostery monitoring

Jul 4, 2014 - PandoDaily - I just installed a tool which shows how popular websites are spying on me. The results are horrifying

With JavaScript enabled, an article page may take several seconds, maybe more than 10 seconds, to load completely. With JavaScript disabled, an article page will load in under a second.

With JavaScript disabled, as long as the content of the article is displayed, that's all the matters.

If the JavaScript was used only to help the user, that would be okay. But a lot of the crap is ad-based, tracking-based, etc. Cruft.

Some of the JavaScript, however, is meant to improve the user experience, but too many sites are bogging themselves down with trying to create a native app-like experience in the browser. So on older machines, the heavy JavaScript sites use more CPU.

And too much JavaScript meant to improve the user experience can actually hinder the experience.

From the PandoDaily article:

What I didn’t know is how absolutely out of control the number of trackers on popular sites has become. It’s actually horrifying.
Earlier today I met with an entrepreneur who is working on some neat-sounding software that allows us to improve our “related articles” recommendations for readers. To prove how many different sites already use his software, he showed me the results from a browser extension called Ghostery which shows which trackers are embedded in any given page.

Every site he visited contained at least one piece of tracking code, but some showed dozens. That’s dozens of different companies, or divisions of companies, watching you every time you visit a single web page. Those creepy ads that follow you from site to site, reminding you about products you once looked at? Yeah — that’s one tracker. Imagine how much a dozen trackers know about you.

https://www.ghostery.com/en/ - browser plug-in.

The browser that I have used the most in recent years on desktop and laptop computers is Google Chrome.

When I want to surf the web with JavaScript disabled, I use Firefox, since I have JavaScript disabled globally in that browser.

In Chrome, I have rules setup to disable JavaScript for a few sites, such as the ToledoBlade.com.

Reading the Blade website with JavaScripe enabled is a horrible experience. It's offensive to the Web.

The Blade uses too many slide-down and slide-in adds. When copying text, it adds that "read more" crap to the copied text like many media sites do.

I understand the need to generate some revenue, but it's so bad, that the Blade's experience needs a major do-over.

The Toledo Blade website will take 10 to 20 seconds to load completely when JavaScript is enabled, even for an article page. It's terrible. It's piggish and bloated.

But an article page will load nearly instantly with JavaScript disabled. It's a much better experience.

Maybe media sites should offer paying customers a version of their site without all the JavaScript crap. It might be worth a subscription fee if the org produced a pleasant reading experience.

One possible design idea for an article page, read by a paying customer.
Redesign of an actual Blade article:

Feature request: A clean article web page with good typography, good design, little to no JavaScript bloat, super-fast load time, and responsive designed to display comfortably on all devices with no need to install an app nor visit a mobile version.

Jul 7, 2014 - Ghostery findings for the Toledo Blade home page with JavaScript enabled (23 findings):

Adify - Advertising
Advertising.com - Advertising
BlueKai - Beacons
Casale Media - Advertising
ChartBeat - Analytics
Criteo - Advertising
Dotomi - Beacons
DoubleClick - Advertising
Facebook Connect - Widgets, Social
Google Adsense - Advertising
Google AdWords Conversion - Advertising
Google Analytics - Analytics, Analytics
Google+ Platform - Widgets, Social
Lotame - Beacons, Analytics, Lead Management
MediaMath - Advertising
Pinterest - Widgets, Social
Press+ - Widgets, Affiliate Marketing
Quantcast - Advertising
Rubicon - Advertising
ScoreCard Research Beacon - Beacons, Analytics
Turn - Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Lead Management
Twitter Button - Widgets, Social
Zedo - Advertising

On an article page at one of the Blade's subsites, such as this,
http://www.ourtownperrysburg.com/local/2014/07/07/Perrysburg-expands-its-Dixie-Hwy-intersection.html
Ghostery detected 14 trackers.

For this Blade article:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2014/07/07/Police-think-2-shootings-hours-apart-are-related.html
Ghostery detected 34 trackers!! Again, this is probably a major reason why an article page takes so long to load when JavaScript is enabled. Here are the 34 trackers or findings from Ghostery:

Adify - Advertising
AdInterax - Advertising
Advertising.com - Advertising
Adzerk - Advertising
AppNexus - Advertising
BlueKai - Beacons
ChartBeat - Analytics
Content.ad - Beacons
Criteo - Advertising
DoubleClick - Advertising
Facebook Connect - Widgets, Social
Facebook Social Plugins - Widgets, Social
Google Adsense - Advertising
Google AdWords Conversion - Advertising
Google Analytics - Analytics, Analytics
Google+ Platform - Widgets, Social
Lotame - Beacons, Analytics, Lead Management
MediaMath - Advertising
Newsmax - Widgets
OpenX - Advertising
Pinterest - Widgets, Social
Po.st - Widgets
Press+ - Widgets, Affiliate Marketing
PubMatic - Advertising
PulsePoint - Advertising
Quantcast - Advertising
RadiumOne - Beacons, Behavior Tracking
Rubicon - Advertising
RUN - Advertising
Sailthru Horizon - Beacons
ScoreCard Research Beacon - Beacons, Analytics
Simpli.fi - Advertising, Segment Data, Behavior Tracking
Twitter Button - Widgets, Social
Zedo - Advertising

This section:
http://www.toledoblade.com/news
26 Ghostery findings.

The findings vary for some reason. This page:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2014/07/07/Coroner-April-death-ruled-a-homicide.html
has 31 findings.

Reloading this one again with JavaScript still enabled:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2014/07/07/Police-think-2-shootings-hours-apart-are-related.html
31 findings by Ghostery. What happened to the other 3? Maybe when visiting page for the first time, additional trackers are loaded.

Reloading the above page again, produces 33 findings or trackers by Ghostery.

Anyway, it's over 30 findings, and it takes at least 15 seconds for the page to load completely. And then once loaded, annoying ads, quite large and intrusive, will drift down from the top and/or from the left side, covering content.

Now with JavaScript disabled, this page:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2014/07/07/Police-think-2-shootings-hours-apart-are-related.html
fully loads in one second or less, and Ghostery detects only one item:

Quantcast - Advertising

How to disable JavaScript in Chrome browser:

(pulldown menu) -> settings
-> show advanced settings
-> privacy
-> content settings
-> (pop-up menu)
-> Do not allow any site to run JavaScript
-> Done

To disable JavaScript in Chrome for a specific website, do the following:

click the three-lined icon in the upper right corner of the browser.
near the bottom of the menu, click "Settings."
scroll to the bottom and click "Show advanced settings."
underneath "Privacy," click "Content Settings."
underneath "JavaScript," leave the radio button clicked for "Allow all sites to run JavaScript (recommended)" and click the button for "Manage exceptions."
in the text input field for "Hostname pattern," add this text:
[*.]toledoblade.com
and then select "Block" from the dropdown.
click "Done."
click "Done" again.
close "Settings" browser tab.
reload an article page or visit the website.

No more pop-ups. No more slide overs. You won't be able read Facebook comments on article pages, but I don't care about those anyway.

But the biggest change will be in page load speed. Article pages will load much faster without the bloated JavaScript. This I like.

If you want JavaScript working, try visiting their mobile site at http://m.toledoblade.com which is simpler and much less cluttered. It loads faster.

Aug 11, 2014 Cleveland.com

Ghostery detected 43 "things" with this article:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/08/cleveland_better-positioned_th.html

Acxiom
Advertising
Adconion
Advertising, Segment Data, Analytics
AddThis
Widgets, Social
Advertising.com
Advertising
Aggregate Knowledge
Beacons
BlueKai
Beacons
Burt
Analytics
ClickTale
Analytics, Analytics, Behavior Tracking
Datalogix
Advertising
DoubleClick
Advertising
Dynamic Logic
Beacons
eXelate
Beacons
Facebook Connect
Widgets, Social
Facebook Social Plugins
Widgets, Social
Gigya Socialize
Widgets, Social
Google Adsense
Advertising
Google Analytics
Analytics, Analytics
Google+ Platform
Widgets, Social
Integral Ad Science
Analytics
Legolas Media
Beacons
Livefyre
Widgets, Commenting System
Lotame
Beacons, Analytics, Lead Management
Moat
Advertising
NDN Analytics
Analytics
NetRatings SiteCensus
Analytics
Neustar AdAdvisor
Beacons, Lead Management
Omniture (Adobe Analytics)
Beacons
Parse.ly
Beacons, Analytics
Pinterest
Widgets, Social
PubMatic
Advertising
Quantcast
Advertising
Rich
Analytics
ScoreCard Research Beacon
Beacons, Analytics
Tapad
Advertising, Analytics
Tealium
Analytics, Tag Manager
TRUSTe Notice
Privacy
Twitter Badge
Widgets, Social
Twitter Button
Widgets, Social
Typekit by Adobe
Widgets, Font System
Undertone
Advertising
VoiceFive
Beacons, Analytics, Popups
Xaxis
Advertising
Zedo
Advertising

#media - #browser - #javascript - #blog_jr

By JR - 1368 words
created: Jul 07, 2014 - updated: Aug 21, 2015
source - versions