Yahoo! and! Adobe! sign! ad-packed! PDF! pact! Despite my ma always saying ‘if you knew your times tables as well as your adverts’, people today still can’t escape advertising and the problem’s set to get even worse. Yahoo! has signed up with Adobe to incorporate targeted adverts into PDF documents. The scheme is optional, but unfortunately only for the advertiser. …
People still use Adobe Reader? I've found that it became pure unusable bloatware several versions ago, and have gone to several other PDF readers long since (which one depends on which O/S and what context).
Since PDF document reader programs are barred from network access on my system, should prove interesting to see if they try to download anything, or if the advert is embedded into the PDF itself when it is created.
Yet another argument for FOSS in my eyes, then such advert placement can be stripped out easily enough.
"Unless you actually want your monthly departmental financial analysis review PDF content linked to adverts for 30 per cent off stationery and offers to slash the cost of your medical bills."
Uh, doesn't the article state that the ads are optional for the advertiser and have to be inserted through an extra step in the PDF creation process?
This development is only really of use to information product publishers/ebook hawkers who make their products public/for profit than people rendering PDFs for internal distribution... and a lot of those documents already contain advertising.
I haven't used (or heard of Evince,) but kpdf is just about the most useful pdf reader that I've come across on any platform. I especially love how it renders pages in stages so that my slow computers can still scroll at full speed, then I can pause and let the page that I want come out clearly. The only downside that I can really see is that I've got to compile the entire KDE Graphics suite to get KPDF, which spends lots of times on apps that I don't have any interest in running.
You people are still using Adobe Reader, huh?
By removing Adobe and installing Foxit across a 600+ PC domain I:
- improved responsiveness
- reduced support calls
- increased happiness
- made the world a nicer place
And no, I don't work for them.
You can get it from www.foxitsoftware.com it's free, it's fast, it's a hell of a lot smaller than Adobe's shitware, and it doesn't break your file associations, either.
Working within secure networks this has the potential of a security breach. This is very simple for me - If adobe start pumping uncensored materials to our network we will simply migrate.
This is a single point of access for many computers from a hackers point of view, just not worth the risk especially with the other PDF attacks which have be discovered. A sign maybe of just desperate Adobe are becoming - maybe its time to jump ship before it sinks!!!
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