I watch TV. Probably more than I should. One of the things the internet is good for is finding about TV shows.
One of the sites I use daily is TV Line. They have a lot of official previews of episodes and upcoming shows.
They post video from the major and minor networks. Most of them run fine, until you run ad blocking software.
The theory of previews is to generate interest in shows to display ads to get you to buy shit you can probably do without.
NBC has figured that they need to shove an Ad in your face before you see the preview.
Meet the three M’s Monetizing Marketing Monkeys.
In FireFox you get to the NBC logo and then it just stops.
IN chrome in private browsing mode, you lose 30 seconds of your life you will never get back to see a preview for a show you may or may not watch is really the height of arrogance.
This photo tells that story
But Wait There’s More!
as the page is loading you are being probed, data mined and fed cookies to track you across the web.
Here are the most recent cookies that TV Line attempted to set.
AddThis
http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js?ver=2#username=xa-4bbd7ba971057c32Adobe Digital Marketing (Omniture)
http://www.nbc.com/js_scripts/s_code.js?v=13
BuzzFeed
http://ct.buzzfeed.com/wd/UserWidget?u=tvline.com&to=1&or=vb&wid=1&cb=1368488146214
ChartBeat
http://static.chartbeat.com/js/chartbeat.js
Crazy Egg
http://dnn506yrbagrg.cloudfront.net/pages/scripts/0011/4414.js
DoubleClick
http://ad.doubleclick.net/N3782/adi/tvline/ros;sz=728×90;host=tvline.com;pos=top;dcopt=ist;kw=fall-tv-preview;kw=trailers-and-promos;kw=video;kw=dracula;kw=ironside;kw=nbc;kw=the-michael-j-fox-show;kw=fall-preview-videos;kw=featured-articles;mtfInline=TRUE;mtfIFPath=/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-plugins/partner/doubleclick/;tile=1;ord=94294976140372450http://ad.doubleclick.net/N3782/adi/tvline/ros;sz=620×250;host=tvline.com;pos=bottom;dcopt=ist;kw=fall-tv-preview;kw=trailers-and-promos;kw=video;kw=dracula;kw=ironside;kw=nbc;kw=the-michael-j-fox-show;kw=fall-preview-videos;kw=featured-articles;mtfInline=TRUE;mtfIFPath=/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-plugins/partner/doubleclick/;tile=2;ord=94294976140372450
http://ad.doubleclick.net/N3782/adi/tvline/ros;sz=300×600;host=tvline.com;pos=top;kw=fall-tv-preview;kw=trailers-and-promos;kw=video;kw=dracula;kw=ironside;kw=nbc;kw=the-michael-j-fox-show;kw=fall-preview-videos;kw=featured-articles;mtfInline=TRUE;mtfIFPath=/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-plugins/partner/doubleclick/;tile=3;ord=94294976140372450
http://ad.doubleclick.net/N3782/adi/tvline/ros;sz=300×250;host=tvline.com;pos=bottom;kw=fall-tv-preview;kw=trailers-and-promos;kw=video;kw=dracula;kw=ironside;kw=nbc;kw=the-michael-j-fox-show;kw=fall-preview-videos;kw=featured-articles;mtfInline=TRUE;mtfIFPath=/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-plugins/partner/doubleclick/;tile=4;ord=94294976140372450
Google AJAX Search API
http://www.google.com/uds/api/search/1.0/5530b85faafd53e1d394092d8d1eb26a/default+en.css
http://www.google.com/uds/api/search/1.0/5530b85faafd53e1d394092d8d1eb26a/default+en.I.js
NetRatings SiteCensushttp://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=us-203220h&cg=0&cc=1&si=http%3A//tvline.com/2013/05/13/fall-2013-nbc-michael-j-fox-show-video/&rp=&ts=compact&rnd=1368488146202
Quantcast
http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js
http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.jsScoreCard Research Beacon
http://beacon.securestudies.com/crossdomain.xml
http://beacon.securestudies.com/crossdomain.xml
http://beacon.securestudies.com/crossdomain.xml
http://beacon.securestudies.com/crossdomain.xml
http://beacon.securestudies.com/crossdomain.xml
http://beacon.securestudies.com/crossdomain.xml
WordPress Stats
http://s.stats.wordpress.com/w.js?21
But Wait There’s More! Your so called Social Sites are tracking you too.
Google +1
Comscore Beacon
Facebook Connect
Google Analytics
Those cute buttons for facebook twitter google+1. Trackers.
ScoreCard Research Beacon is interesting being called 6 times.
Maybe the webmaster is lazy.
If you wonder why your surfing is so slow you can thank the trackers above. All this crap happens before the page loads.
What the world needs is a browser plugin that accepts cookies, and any other information scripting tries to get, rewrites them to Zeros and ships them back.
Fill enough servers and data miners with no information, they will go home.
Bonus Link:
Dark Google: One Year Since Search Terms Went “Not Provided”
It’s a start.