So... what's up with the new advertising?

[Clarity]

Shouldn't be. It wasn't in HTML, was it?

 

[ochre]

Just had the page load freeze up for 5-10 seconds or more (it was quite noticeable). Relevant (perhaps) infoz:

It froze up with that sponsored links section being the last element (not the whole thing, just the top bar of it). The URL at the bottom was

http://c13.zedo.com/OzoDB/e/u/495796/V1/onedegree_OSU_728x90.swf?clickTAG=http://xads.zedo.com//ads2/c?a=495796;x=3613;g=172,0;c=377000334,377000334;i=0;n=377;s=121;p=8;f=552714;h=503232;i%3D33%3Bu%3DQ88-XgoBABQAAGRG5rUAAAAA%3Be%3Di%3Bs%3D121%3Bg%3D172%3Bw%3D38%3Bm%3D54%3Bz%3D0.17747478233635627;k=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.onedegree.com%2Fosusweeps%3Futm_source%3Dbuckeyeplanet.com%26utm_medium%3D728x90%26utm_campaign%3DOSU%2BUltimate%2BBowl%2BGame%2BSweepstakes

The relevant source code for that area was:

<!-- 6110931 -->

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="100%" align="center" style="margin-top:6px;">
<tr>
    <td class="thead" style="line-height:1.5em;">
        
        Sponsored Links
    </td>
</tr>

<tr>
    <td class="alt1" style="text-align:center;">
        <div>
            <!-- PUT THIS TAG IN THE head SECTION -->
<script type="text/**********" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js">
</script>
<script type="text/**********">
  GS_googleAddAdSenseService("ca-pub-0884451537128936");
  GS_googleEnableAllServices();
</script>
<script type="text/**********">
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-0884451537128936", "BuckeyePlanet_160x600");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-0884451537128936", "BuckeyePlanet_300x250");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-0884451537128936", "BuckeyePlanet_728x90");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-0884451537128936", "BuckeyePlanet_TextAd");
</script>
<script type="text/**********">
  GA_googleFetchAds();
</script>
<!-- END OF TAG FOR head SECTION -->

<!-- PUT THIS TAG IN DESIRED LOCATION OF SLOT BuckeyePlanet_TextAd -->
<div align="center">
<script type="text/**********">
  GA_googleFillSlot("BuckeyePlanet_300x250");
</script>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<script type="text/**********">
  GA_googleFillSlot("BuckeyePlanet_TextAd");
</script>
</div>
<!-- END OF TAG FOR SLOT BuckeyePlanet_TextAd -->
        </div>
    </td>
</tr>
</table>

 

[Clarity]

Just had the page load freeze up for 5-10 seconds or more (it was quite noticeable). Relevant (perhaps) infoz:

Thanks, very complete reporting, and that's greatly appreciated.

Deety and I have been talking about that IE and Chrome-specific delay, and we've got some ideas in regards to how to fix it.

It doesn't happen in Firefox, and doesn't seem to in the IE8 beta. Which isn't to say it's not our problem, I suspect it has to do with some less-than-tidy code I've cobbled in over the years, and some unfortunate table nesting and ad handling -- all of which Firefox handles better, and hopefully IE8 will as well.

Still, this is one of the items towards the top of our priority list, and I hope to be able to make some progress following the holidays. Apologies to the IE-folk if and when this pops up, and please don't hesitate to continue to report and detail problems like this. The more detailed info we have, the easier it is for us to wrap our heads around it.

 

[ochre]

Actually this was in firefox (ubuntu 8.10).

*first time I've noticed a delay like this (midpageload)

 

[Gatorubet]

Shouldn't be. It wasn't in HTML, was it?

Sir, you have surpassed my technological capacity when you ask if the whatchmacallit is you know whating.....

That said, the picture that was in my sig, that always worked, won't, and the newly uploaded photos will not either.

No biggie, but if it means anything...

edit: one second later it shows up. Miracles and Angels!!!!!

 

[Clarity]

Actually this was in firefox (ubuntu 8.10).

*first time I've noticed a delay like this (midpageload)

Oh... Hm. We're not loading that 300x250 ad in an iframe, which could mean that if it's slow to load from the source (and there are dozens through google's script) that it could slow the rest of the page down.

Was it just the one time, is it happening to you on every load, or with some sort of mixed frequency?

 

[ochre]

Oh... Hm. We're not loading that 300x250 ad in an iframe, which could mean that if it's slow to load from the source (and there are dozens through google's script) that it could slow the rest of the page down.

Was it just the one time, is it happening to you on every load, or with some sort of mixed frequency?

Just one time. It was definitely the URL that I copied that was in the load status area. As you can see from the chopped up screenshot, nothing rendered in the DIV, where, I assume due to the sequence of events, it was trying to load that SWF file (onedegree_OSU_728x90.swf). I downloaded that SWF file (18.6KB) and it wouldn't play in any of the separate players I have available on this machine, so it might just be that this particular file caused that hang.

 

[Clarity]

Just one time. It was definitely the URL that I copied that was in the load status area. As you can see from the chopped up screenshot, nothing rendered in the DIV, where, I assume due to the sequence of events, it was trying to load that SWF file (onedegree_OSU_728x90.swf). I downloaded that SWF file (18.6KB) and it wouldn't play in any of the separate players I have available on this machine, so it might just be that this particular file caused that hang.

Okay great (well, not great, but this should be easy to fix), then it should be as easy as sticking that ad in an iframe so the rest of the page can load even if the ad itself chokes.

I'm sure there's a better way to accomplish that than iframes, I just don't know what it is. If anyone knows, I'm all ears.

Thanks again for all the details, ochre. Huge help.

 

[generaladm]

Count me as one who favors the new in thread ads over the skyscrapers. I first noticed them last night, and was hoping that it was gong to be a substitute for the skyscrapers. Also, I think I read something about it before, but is there a required number of hits that the site is supposed to produce for each type of ad?

 

[ochre]

I think you are definitely on the right track. Here's an excerpt from a document covering similar issues:

Best Practices
Rich Media ads are typically served with J avascript ad calls that do not work with AJAX and other dynamic
coding frameworks. In addition, the ads may make calls to document.write which interferes with the rest of an
AJAX-based webpage. In order to solve these problems, the Ad Ops Council recommends a Friendly IFrame
(FIF) solution which is further detailed below:
Publisher Creation of Friendly IFrame
There are two methods that Publishers can use in their environments to create the Friendly IFrame, based on
operating systems and browsers:
- For Windows Operating Systems with Internet Explorer 6.0 or Higher
- Create an IFrame element and place it into the document with SRC set to about:self
- Create a Script element and place it into the IFrame document with SRC set to the ad delivery
system
- Generate a variable called inDapIF = true in the IFrame document to identify to the ad code that it
is running inside the Dynamic IFrame.
- Windows Operating Systems with Internet Explorer 6.0 or Higher OR Firefox 2.0 or
Higher
- Create an IFrame element and place it into the document with SRC set to a small adpage file in the
same domain as the page.
- Create a Script element and place it into the IFrame document with SRC set to the ad delivery
system
- Generate a variable called inDapIF = true in the IFrame document to identify to the ad code that it
is running inside the Dynamic IFrame.
NOTE: The IFrame should not be created using document.write as this may cause problems with AJAX pages.
The Script elements can be created using document.write as they are within the IFRAME and will not interfere with
the page content.
The first method has the advantage of not requiring a hosted file, but the second method has been found to be
more reliable and it supports the increasingly common Firefox browser.
If the browser or operating system of the user is not one of those listed above:
- Use a normal J avascript based ad call which will not support reloading
- Use an image based ad call that will support reloading, but will not support rich media
- Use a standard IFrame call, which can reload with in-banner rich media only but does not provide
support for expandables

That's from the pdf on this page.

 

[Dryden]

FWIW, I was locked out of threads for about 10 minutes this morning as I could not get past the first post due to the hang on "transferring data from c13.zedo.com" or whatever domain it was, at the sponsored link.

I see others are having this problem too.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

FWIW, I was locked out of threads for about 10 minutes this morning as I could not get past the first post due to the hang on "transferring data from c13.zedo.com" or whatever domain it was, at the sponsored link.

I see others are having this problem too.

Ditto that. Refreshing the page seems to clear it up (or maybe just results in a different ad being loaded that doesn't hang like that?).

Usually it clears up before I pass out from my panicked hyperventilating, so it's not too serious.

EDIT - in Firefox

 

[ochre]

I think those ads are probably dynamically rotating (j a v a s c r i p t) (which gets *'s like it is a dirty word :)), so the refresh is probably just kicking off of the one (zedo.com) that is freezing the page.

What OS/Browser for those others that it has happened to?

 

[Clarity]

Sorry about the lock-ups today and last night with the 300x250.

I've now wrapped it in an iframe, and hopefully that will spell the end of such issues. If you have any after the time of this post -- please let us know here.

If you had threads that wouldn't fully load a couple minutes ago, ending with a "page not found" error inside the ad box, that was just me getting the iframe put in place.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Just one more thing for your info: