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Yahoo Shark Jumpage [Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:18 PM]
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[music |Aphex Twin -- Xepha]

Today is the day when Yahoo News Photos finally jumped the shark. They changed it so that clicking on any thumbnail opens a popup window via JavaScript instead of being a "real" link; this means you can't use middle-click to queue a bunch of images to load in the background in their own window or a tab. Also, the JS code re-uses the same window every time, so even if you left-click on a bunch of thumbs, it only ends up showing you the last one you clicked.

So basically it's utterly useless now.

What other "current news photos" sites are there that I should be using instead?

(Google News is totally no good for this, since its photos are incidental to the articles. I want something photo-oriented, not article-oriented. You know, like Yahoo News Photos used to be before they fucked it up.)

Hint to idiots who think that using <A HREF="javascript:..."> is a good idea:

    It's not.

    But if you insist on going down that dark road, do it like this instead:
    <A HREF="http://real-url..." OnClick="thingy(); return false">. That makes left-click do your JS BS, but lets middle-click do something sane, and also lets your page continue to function if JS is turned off. And spiders work, and bookmarks work, and basically you avoid ass-fucking the web. Ok? Thanks.

Update:

linkReply

Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]mactavish
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:20 PM (UTC)

(Link)

AUGH I hate not being able to load images while I'm still reading a page!
[User Picture]From: [info]endquote
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:22 PM (UTC)

(Link)

In your "better" example, the "javascript:" is not necessary (and might actually break it).

Generally I do:

<a href="actual thing" onclick="return thingy()">

And then let thingy() return whatever true/false.

Knowing Yahoo, I bet their stuff works in some (probably crappy) if you don't have JS on. You might just try turning it off. Or wait for someone to write a Greasemonkey script to fix it.
[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:29 PM (UTC)

(Link)

I'd rather just vote with my mouse and use a different site entirely.
[User Picture]From: [info]hub_
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:35 PM (UTC)

(Link)

"a href" not "A HREF". XHTML is the future, let's comply by using the lower case :-)


[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:36 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Fuck you.
From: [info]rm76
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:40 PM (UTC)

Oddly enough

(Link)

I believe the onclick syntax didn't work in ns 4.x..... Only the href="javascript:" syntax.......
[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 3:42 PM (UTC)

Re: Oddly enough

(Link)

Wrong.
[User Picture]From: [info]mark242
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:04 PM (UTC)

(Link)

http://news.myway.com/photos/id/top.html

I was going to make that a javascript href, but you're pissed off enough already.
[User Picture]From: [info]waider
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:07 PM (UTC)

(Link)

You could try BBC's "News In Pictures" which isn't bad and turns up the occasional gem, or you can fling this at greasemonkey:
// ==UserScript==
// @name          YnewsDieJs
// @description   No more skanky js
// @include     http://story.news.yahoo.com/photos
// ==/UserScript==

(
function(){
  var links = document.getElementsByTagName("A");

  for( i = 0; i < links.length; i++ ) {
    if ( links[i].href.indexOf("openSS") != -1 ) {
      links[i].href = links[i].href.replace( "javascript:openSS('", "http://story.news.yahoo.com" );
      links[i].href = links[i].href.replace( "')", "" );
    }
  }
}
)();
[User Picture]From: [info]thirdwired
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:58 PM (UTC)

What he said

(Link)

Or almost as good, page authors could actually use this code in the JavaScript behind an onload handler. Retrofitted for document.links (or served conditionally?) this would work all the way back to Netscape 3, maybe even Netscape 2.

All hail robust code!
From: [info]zhixel
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:08 PM (UTC)

Amen.

(Link)

I think with the advent of tabbed browsing and the change it has brought to people's browsing habits, window.open has jumped the shark in general. There's very few instances where I can imagine there being a good reason for a website to spawn a new window. The only one off the top of my head being for some type of verbose help while filling out a form.

Speaking of retarded window methods, sometimes I really wonder who's idea resizeTo/resizeBy and moveTo/moveBy was. Ugh.
[User Picture]From: [info]editer
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 6:01 PM (UTC)

Re: Amen.

(Link)

I don't know about that. Unless IE added tabbed browsing while I wasn't looking, a large majority of Web users haven't changed their habits. Sure, all the cool kids are using Firefox or Opera or some such, but how many is that, after all?
[User Picture]From: [info]duncanmak
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:12 PM (UTC)

Use greasemonkey to fix it?

(Link)

You should be able to write a greasemonkey script easily to rewrite the page back to how it used to be, right?
[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:13 PM (UTC)

Re: Use greasemonkey to fix it?

(Link)

Read before posting, dude.
[User Picture]From: [info]evan
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:13 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Jesus, your comments hurt my brain. I don't know how you can deal with it.

This will fix it:
http://neugierig.org/software/greasemonkey/yahoo-photos-shark-jump.user.js
[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:16 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Only half an hour later and already this post seems to be the biggest fucking IDIOT MAGNET I've stumbled upon in months. Which dipshit receptor did I inadvertently emit here?
From: [info]sjn
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:15 PM (UTC)

photos

(Link)

None of these are probably exactly right, at least when compared to yahoo's news photos, but here are a few I have bokmarked.

First is Corbis
http://pro.corbis.com/default.aspx

This is a stock photography site that is really very comprehensive and up to date. If you do a search by news (or anything else) and sort by date added you will get more than you could ever need. No registration required to look at the images. There is a watermark on them though. If you register (free if I recall) the watermarks goes away.

National Geographic
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/media/photography/
Some really pretty shots, but it's National Geographic, so nothing really interesting/weird.

New York Daily News
http://www.dailynewspix.com/
2.5 million photos they claim, again water marked, no idea if you can get rid of them, also images are not that big.

Washngton Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/
I like the size of their pictures. The content is good or bland. The biggest downside is that they do it as a flash slide show, so when I have gotten (stolen) images from them I have to do it via screen shot.

On all of these, your results will of course be your own, I am usually looking for images I can use to patch another image or to use as deep back grounds. Good luck.

PS: I prefer "A EhFr" but I am dyslexic
From: [info]sjn
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:19 PM (UTC)

Re: photos

(Link)

Just to reply to myself with a question, does LiveJournal always chop up URL's like above? Is it me? Is it my machine?

I am seeing:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co
as clickable and the remainder "ntent/photo/" as regular text.

Becareful clicking on links.
[User Picture]From: [info]candid
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:22 PM (UTC)

(Link)

A lot of the best YahooNews photos came from AFP.

Their website seems to keep the last 12 around:

http://www.afp.com/english/news/?pid=photos
[User Picture]From: [info]josephgrossberg
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 4:35 PM (UTC)

two thoughts:

(Link)

(1) I'm so habituated to middle-clicking Yahoo! Photos that I've done it three times today, only to realize that I have empty tabs.

(2) At least they didn't do it in Flash.

(3) Hey, have you heard of this great new thing called GreaseMonkey? It totally removes your right to complain, because you can just put in the work to make someone's site operate the way it should have in the first place, and .........
[User Picture]From: [info]pavel_lishin
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 8:00 PM (UTC)

Re: two thoughts:

(Link)

Re: 2) Great, now someone will read it and do it. :(
[User Picture]From: [info]bifrosty2k
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 5:17 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Just to chime in, I hate it too.
I would be happy if Javascript drowned in its own vomit.
[User Picture]From: [info]benmarsh
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 6:25 PM (UTC)

I hate this too.

(Link)

I don't know whether you use firefox but anyway. My solution to this problem is this extension in firefox called tab browser preferences. When javascript tries to open a new window the url comes up in a background tab instead like what happens when you middle click something.

The selection of the following options in the "tab browser preferences" extension is necessary.
"Load windows diverted into tabs in the background"
"Open these requested JavaScript popups in tabs.
After loading the extension they can be found in Tools -> Options.
[User Picture]From: [info]cetan
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 7:15 AM (UTC)

Re: I hate this too.

(Link)

As a work-around, this seems to work well. JWZ will hate it. :)


[User Picture]From: [info]fo0bar
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 7:02 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Also related are sites that do <a href="#" onClick="some_crappy_popup()">, again, without returning false. Thank you for temporarily fucking up my ability to click "back".
From: [info]rnd_user_name
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 7:13 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Heh. Jwz's rant reminded me of this.
[User Picture]From: [info]fantasygoat
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 12:38 PM (UTC)

(Link)

Actually, I think that applies more to the people who comment here than anything.
[User Picture]From: [info]krick
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 9:04 PM (UTC)

(Link)

There might be a Proxomitron filter that will rewrite the URLs for you when the page loads to remove the javascript links.

Check the Prox-list...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prox-list/
[User Picture]From: [info]lohphat
Thu, 28-Apr-2005 9:34 PM (UTC)

wtf?

(Link)

I'm still getting over jwz using the term "jumping the shark".

I feel so...so...unclean.
[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 3:07 AM (UTC)

Re: wtf?

(Link)

We must all confront and destroy our inner Fonzie.
[User Picture]From: [info]imnewtryme
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 5:49 AM (UTC)

middle click!?!?!?!?

(Link)

holy crap
I've been right-click-OpenInNewTab'ing the whole time i've used firefox
my life is so much easier now!
so excited.
[User Picture]From: [info]ronbar
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 7:19 AM (UTC)

Re: middle click!?!?!?!?

(Link)

I think the middle-click-for-a-new-window/tab thing started in either Netscape 2 or 3 for unix/X... maybe put in there by jwz. Ever since then I've habitually middle-clicked on links whenever I've been on a machine with a middle mouse button or clickable wheel.

I was happy they kept that functionality in mozilla. It was pretty much the only reason I put up with those horrid mozilla betas in the Grueling Years, even when I had to use windows. The worst of those betas was better than Netscape 4 in unix.
[User Picture]From: [info]stenz
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 6:55 AM (UTC)

(Link)

Ahh, that would explain why the scripts I have which feed the pool for this site have been dying every time they run. I have been too busy lately to look into it at all - but starting yesterday sometime I think they all started failing - they can no longer scrape the page I guess. Too lazy and not enough time to look into another way of grabbing the data at this point.

[User Picture]From: [info]flan53
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 9:17 AM (UTC)

(Link)

go to sfgate.com and click on the day in pictures. not as many as yahoo, but nice
[User Picture]From: [info]d1663m
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 10:29 AM (UTC)

(Link)

They've totally whacked their news site! I mean not just the javascript mess. Many links off the main news page (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news) are just plain broken.

AFP (mentioned above) looks good, Reuters does too :

http://photos.reuters.com/pictures/newsgallery.aspx?type=News

From: [info]gecampbell
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 3:22 PM (UTC)

thanks for your suggestion

(Link)

I apologize that I am such an idiot, but we've adopted your suggestion and it should be live in the Yahoo! News site shortly. I apologize for any inconvenience.
From: [info]lherrera
Fri, 29-Apr-2005 3:38 PM (UTC)

Re: thanks for your suggestion

(Link)

That was fast.

Nice clown! Here's your cookie :)