Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Web ads re-directing you to an app on the App Store

YanniDepp

YanniDepp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 10, 2008
556
132
Hello,

Obviously, Apple have special web links that, when clicked, open a certain app in the App Store.

I've noticed this being abused quite a lot online lately, and wondered if anyone else is getting really annoyed with it.

There are certain banner adverts that appear on websites that detect if you're using an iPhone or iPad. If you are, they launch a Javascript redirect to an app store link.

You'll just be browsing the web in Safari. Suddenly, Safari will slide off the screen and you'll be looking at a random app in the App Store. It's almost always Candy Crush, Jelly Splash or Clash of the Clans.

In fact, it's not just websites. I was using an app with banner ads at the bottom of the screen, and suddenly the app closed, and took me to Jelly Splash in the App Store. And no - I didn't click the ad.

This is incredibly irritating and Apple really need to do something to stop this. It isn't a fantastic user experience if an ad can sneakily use Javascript to launch the app store and interrupt what you're doing.
 
It happens on its own without any interaction from you? Can't say I've seen it work like that.
 
Yep. These things are re-directing entirely on their own.

Apple lets you create special links that automatically open iTunes or the app store when they're clicked. These ads are using Javascript to open these links, which throw you out of Safari and straight into the App Store on your device.

If you disable Javascript, the ads stop doing this. But a lot of sites require Javascript these days, so that's not a solution.

These adverts have appeared on a few websites. The Guardian (a British newspaper) was doing this a few weeks ago. Cheezburger Network (who run Failblog and I Can Has Cheezburger) were also running these ads.

Apparently, they've appeared on IGN as well, as this forum thread shows.
 
Web ads re-directing you to an app on the App Store

Yeah, those ads are really annoying. I have noticed them occurring more frequently recently. I don't really see the point in them anyway. It seems counterproductive for the ads to behave in this manner. When I get ripped out of what I was doing and am thrown to an app's page in the App Store I sure as hell am not going to purchase/download that crappy app. In fact, it ensures that I will never purchase/download it. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way.
 
Last edited:
In a way glad to have found this thread. Spotted it for the first time at the weekend and was concerned that I'd picked up something somewhere. Hideous practice.
 
In general I'm finding a lot more ads showing up on my i devices and find it more and more annoying.
 
I had that on a Twitter client (The free version of Echofon) - it was automatically redirecting to the App Store, usually gambling apps, Candy Crush etc. It was annoying enough for me to uninstall the app and I went and bought a paid client. To be fair Echofon picked up on it when I mentioned it on Twitter - they said they would look into this. Never heard anything further.
 
got this crap too. I don't and won't download your stupid little school girl game!!! I almost said, WTF...I got spam on my iPhone.
 
I am glad that I'm not the only one this is happening to. Back during the 7.0 betas I brought this up in a thread and some members kept saying that it's me clicking on a link. Now I know its java script. It is very annoying.
 
sammy-boy said:
I had that on a Twitter client (The free version of Echofon) - it was automatically redirecting to the App Store, usually gambling apps, Candy Crush etc.
Click to expand...

It's been happening to me on the web for a while, but today is the first time it's happened in an app.

I was using a free app that had ads in it, and suddenly the app closed and re-directed me to Jelly Splash on the app store. When I re-opened the app, there was an ad for Jelly Splash at the bottom of the screen. And no - I didn't touch the ad by accident.

Apple really, really have to fix this. If more malicious ads appear, this will be ten times worse than the 'iOS 6 Maps' problem.
 
YanniDepp said:
It's been happening to me on the web for a while, but today is the first time it's happened in an app.

I was using a free app that had ads in it, and suddenly the app closed and re-directed me to Jelly Splash on the app store. When I re-opened the app, there was an ad for Jelly Splash at the bottom of the screen. And no - I didn't touch the ad by accident.

Apple really, really have to fix this. If more malicious ads appear, this will be ten times worse than the 'iOS 6 Maps' problem.
Click to expand...

It is unfortunate that developers have to resort to this - it gives good developers a bad reputation and makes people less likely to experiment with free apps. Maybe Apple should allow you to report it? Or put a review on the app and mention that it sends you to the app store without intervention?
 
I've had this happen to me as well. All I can say is, is that I won't be installing ANY app that redirects me like that. Something shady going on for sure.
 
Cougarcat said:
No, but if they can make it more difficult for these links to be abused, then they should do that.
Click to expand...

How exactly?

It's a link to an app!

A free app can bring in money from in-app purchases and advertising.
A paid app can bring in money from sales.

The abuse is so simple that it's difficult to stop - and remember that Apple can make money from these things too, so it's not really in their interest to stop it.
 
Daveoc64 said:
How exactly?

It's a link to an app!

A free app can bring in money from in-app purchases and advertising.
A paid app can bring in money from sales.

The abuse is so simple that it's difficult to stop - and remember that Apple can make money from these things too, so it's not really in their interest to stop it.
Click to expand...

So it's in their interests to annoy their customers? Apple make most their money from hardware sales so if people get sick of stuff like this and move to another brand, this won't be helping them.
 
3bs said:
So it's in their interests to annoy their customers? Apple make most their money from hardware sales so if people get sick of stuff like this and move to another brand, this won't be helping them.
Click to expand...

Apple's desire is to see web usage decline - they want people to use Apps instead.
 
Daveoc64 said:
Apple's desire is to see web usage decline - they want people to use Apps instead.
Click to expand...

While true, this in no way obviates his point. It is not in Apples best interest to have a web experience poorer than the competition.
 
Daveoc64 said:
Fix what?

The web is an open platform. It's not up to Apple to police it.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with your reasoning. Yes, the web is an open platform. But we still have pop-up blockers, antivirus packages (well, not us Mac users) and anti-spam systems to keep annoying things away from us.

Apple have made a system that is easy to abuse, and is very annoying when it is abused. They could do something similar to WebKit desktop notifications. Those can only be 'switched on' if the Javascript is initiated by a user action, such as clicking a button. They can't be automatically requested by Javascript running in the background (e.g. on page load).
 
Daveoc64 said:
Fix what?

The web is an open platform. It's not up to Apple to police it.
Click to expand...
Just like the browsers shouldn't be doing anything about abused pop-up ads and phishing sites and all that, right?
 
Daveoc64 said:
Fix what?

The web is an open platform. It's not up to Apple to police it.
Click to expand...

The police apps - there are many that haven't been allowed or removed from the store if they didn't meet Apple standards. One of the main reasons that these used to be very clean apps. Apple reviews all apps and could stop this if they wanted to.
 
CTHarrryH said:
The police apps - there are many that haven't been allowed or removed from the store if they didn't meet Apple standards. One of the main reasons that these used to be very clean apps. Apple reviews all apps and could stop this if they wanted to.
Click to expand...


It is not an app specific issue. It seems to be shady advertisers doing this. It doesn't just happen in App Store apps. It also happens in Safari.
 
It is frustrating, I open up safari and all of sudden, it opens up the app store. I hate it.
 
Daveoc64 said:
Fix what?

The web is an open platform. It's not up to Apple to police it.
Click to expand...

It's incredibly easy. They just have to disable links to their app store that automatically leave Safari and open the app store. Another, less intrusive example of this is when you google an app on your computer, and it takes you to a landing page for the app on apple.com. You can click a link that opens the app in iTunes. Same thing is happening to OP, except the links are automatically redirecting to the App store instead of waiting for a link to be pressed.

I don't know what these are called but whatever it is when clicking a link can open an application - that part is 100% under Apple's control in the Safari browser.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back