M4i1 H4ck!

You can thank Joe McKay for this interesting hack of the ads that crowd your Gmail...y'know, the ones that generate from the programs that scan your messages for keywords to determine what ads to post...

Are you a Gmail user, or do you have friends who are? Do you resent the "Sponsored Link" advertisements that come up next to the incoming mail? Now you and your friends can do something about it!

The solution is simple, when sending an email to a gmail user include a sentence or two that mentions catastrophic events or tragedies. Google does not use humans to read your email, only computers. These computers search for keywords that trigger the advertisements, however, if they hapen to find a catastrophic event or tragedy Google errs on the side of good taste and removes the ads altogether. You may want to make mention of what you are doing so the recipient is not alarmed by your sudden Tourette's-like outburst. You can link to this site by way of explanation if need be.

Before:
After:
Of course, Google still slips in some non-generative ads too, just for good measure.

Turns out, these are not ads either but "Web Clips" which you can turn off in preferences so the dream of ad free gmail lives!

If the message runs long google turns the ads back on, however, if you add another "sensitive" word they go off again. After extensive testing I've discovered you need 1 catastrophic event or tragedy for every 167 words in the rest of the email. I usually toss in a couple extra for good measure. I've been told by an early adopter that the very elegant and self explanitory "These words are designed to kill advertisements" works wonderfully.

Very cool. And also because putting something like PS, Suicide death 911 murder in your messages is both hilarious and hardcore.