[karaterobot]

Blocking image ads seems like a relatively well-solved problem. I mean, speaking as someone who can't stand ads, I don't see very many of them anymore when I'm on desktop.

The harder, more pernicious type of ads are the modals that pop up when your cursor moves toward the back button, or when you scroll down a certain distance on the page. "Wait! Before you go, take a moment to give us your email address!"

Those can be blocked, but by the time you've seen them, they've already done all the damage they can do—which is to say, they've annoyed you.

I wish somebody could come up with a way to detect and stop them. I spent an afternoon trying to come up with reusable techniques to detect these popups, but there are just too many possibilities.