The thing flashes and rolls and blinks and…, oh my. Even when you open an email to read, the banner sits pat and for every new email you open, a new ad shows up. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that this is about money, but do we have to go blind because of free email accounts? Google does not think so.

Compared to Gmail, Yahoo! email on the web is a Flash and JavaScript haven!  Gmail serves ads on GMail, but they are subtle and small portion of the right side of the screen. More important, the ads are without images. Yahoo! Mail pushes ads at you and they are in your face like you won’t believe. Even when you sign out, the onslaught does not let up.

Here’s what I mean:
Here’s an image of Yahoo!’s initial screen with JavaScript and auto images on – notice the billboard. Then look at Gmail’s initial screen after login.

Yahoo!:

GMail:

Google offers free email accounts, up to seven Gigabytes per user, I might add, and they do not attempt to destroy our vision by bombarding us with all kinds of flashing images, text, and anything else that they could lay their programming fingers on, including solicitation from unknown women:

And last time I checked, Google was making money.
I got sick of dealing with the Flash and JavaScript annoyance and finally decided to fight back and the tool of choice was Mozilla’s Firefox. Firefox has a quick and easy way for you to turn off JavaScript and freeze those annoying dancing boobs. Opera has an even faster way (Tools | Quick Preferences | Enable JavaScript).

But it looks like Yahoo! (and most Flash and JavaScript dependent websites for that matter) has wizened up to the fact that their antics might tick off a few folks and force us to take drastic measures (like turning JavaScript off and putting a leash on Flash) so they now also have images that still dance even if you turn off JavaScript. My counter, turn off automatic loading of images or install an add-on to do it for you.

Here’s how you turn off JavaScript. In Firefox, click on Tools | Options. Click on “Content” at the top. You now have the options to block pop-up windows, load images automatically and enable JavaScript. Uncheck the boxes for “Load images automatically” and “Enable JavaScript”. Click OK and refresh the browser. All those annoying images will go to sleep while you read your emails in peace. You can always enable JavaScript and automatic image loading when you need them.

Another option is to install an add-on called Flashblock – “an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content.”

Here’s what happens after the Flashblock tool is installed:

The good thing about this tool is that you can enjoy the benefits of Flash and JavaScript without the scrolling texts, rotating banners, flashing images that are so annoying and tend to hurt the eyes. Not to mention the fact that they are a major distraction.

Opera and Chrome browsers may also suffice, although I have not used them much. Google won’t let me download Chrome without JavaScript and agreeing to some “contract”, so I passed. I have not used Opera in a while, although I hear version 11 is good. Internet Explorer is not an option here because of the way access to features are “hidden”. The hassles of turning things on and off in IE are just too much. And the major factor here is speed – being able to turn things on and off quickly.

How would you like to see a video of the web sites you visited, emails you sent and received, chats and instant messages, keystrokes typed, documents printed etc? There are tools available now that promise to “detail what an employee is doing every step of the way”. These tools are so advanced and detailed that they can answer questions like:

• Which employees are spending the most time surfing web sites?
• Who is spending time on shopping sites, sports sites or adult sites?
• Which employees chat or use anonymous email services like Hotmail and Gmail?
• Who is sending the most emails with attachments?
• Which employees may be leaking company confidential information via removable media like flash drives, CDs and DVDs?
• Which employees are printing sensitive documents?
• Who is arriving to work late and leaving early? Who takes long lunch breaks?
• What are my employees searching for on Google, Yahoo and MSN?

Now the question is, how does this affect employee morale and sense of privacy? I am not sure I would be comfortable working in an environment that actively monitors my every single move throughout a work day. For those working in a high security position, or in environments that mandate strong security compliance (like the federal government’s requirement for keeping records of transactions and communications), there may some justification for this kind of paranoid Big Brother activity. If the end result, however, is to minimize internet abuse, there are moderate software and hardware solutions that do a decent job of keeping time-wasting web sites of your network. I mean, when is it really necessary to know:

• What web sites are being visited most frequently and who is spending the most time browsing the web? Are these web sites work-related?
• Which employees are engaging in chat or instant messaging? Is it work-related?
• Who is using Hotmail, AOL mail, Gmail or Yahoo mail to communicate sensitive documents?
• What are employees searching for on Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL?
• Who is sending the most email with attachments and where is it going? What is contained in those attachments? Is the employee authorized to send out this information?
• What are the top programs being run and are any of them non-work-related?
• Which employees are playing games like Solitaire at work? How much time are they spending playing games?
• Who is transferring the most files and what exactly are they sending out and to whom are they sending these files?
• Who is saving confidential information to removable media like flash drives or CDs or DVDs?
• Who is printing company sensitive files?
• Who are the top violators of those keywords that indicate abuse (e.g.: sex, guns, gambling)
• Which employees type the most?  Which type the least?
• Which employees use the most network bandwidth and why?
• Who is arriving at work late and leaving to go home early?
• Who takes the most breaks throughout the day?

Internal espionage in corporate environments is nothing new. Many companies put systems in place to help prevent or uncover data loss by tracking users sending sensitive files as attachments or copying them to removable storage devices such as USB keys, iPods, or CDs. So if you work in a major corporation that can afford killer internal employee monitoring software, you may want to be careful about those “business” emails to your massage therapist.