Microsoft could be sounding death knell for pop-ups

USA Today ^ | 11/12/03 | Michelle Kessler

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

One of the most annoying forms of advertising on the Internet

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

My software blocked the pop-up related to this URL. Go to the article and experience hypocrisy.

[Huck]

That's pretty funny. I have pop up killer and ad subtract running at home, little freeware programs. And I use Search and Destroy spybot software, also free.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Geez, I got 3 new popups.

[eyespysomething]

I only got 2, but I get the cannot find server remark in a window because of the blocker/firewall we have

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I went to check for an update for my popup killer, but the guy discontinued the project.

[KarlInOhio]

It's an ad which is placed underneath the window you're using instead of on top of it. That way it will be fully loaded and you will see it when you close your current window. It avoids the problem for the advertiser of users being quick enough to close a pop up window before the advertising images are even loaded.

[StatesEnemy]

What's a pop-under ad?

It's just a popup that sends focus back to the page that generated it - so that it's 'behind' the URL you requested.

[Charlotte Corday]

Now if MS could just put in a key to kill all images (great for browsing FR and all other sites where the text is the content) they'd be caught up to where Opera was three years ago.

[grobdriver]

Advertisers love them because they grab customers' attention.

And pisses them off...

[js1138]

IE has always had the option of text only.

[Malsua]

>Now if MS could just put in a key to kill all images>


Tools-->Internet Options-->Advanced-->Uncheck "Show Pictures" Hit ok.

It's Been in there since the beginning. Netscape/Mozilla also has had it from the beginning. In fact, back in the day when browsing the web with Mosaic and a 9600 baud modem, you pretty much needed to turn off images.

[Bug]

I haven't had an unwanted pop-up or pop-under ad on my screen since switching to Mozilla. It has an excellent spam filtering capability as well.

[Charlotte Corday]

Well,you and js1138 are both right, I stand corrected. But I did notice that in typical MS fashion it takes seven mouse clicks and one scrolling action to do this (in MSIE 5.5 which is what I use when I need to browse pages that don't meet the HTML standard), while Opera can do it with one keystroke while the page is actually loading.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Google and others already offer pop-up-blocking software. But you have to download it from the Web, which takes time and know-how. That's why only about 15% of Web surfers use it, Nail says.

Not entirely. Another major reason that only about 15% of Web surfers use pop-up blocking software is because it's a pain in the ass.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

There is also an image toggler that is available. link.

[kinghorse]

The most annoying form are prelude ads and imbedded Macrovision CRAP. You know the ones I speak of. They follow you down the web page until you locate the tiny time delayed X to close. Since Microsoft will not prohibit these, what's the point. Google already made an elegant fix for popups.

[zeebee]

Netscape has had a built-in pop-up blocker for quite a few versions now.

So does Safari for Mac OSX.

I won't use IE .

[Company Man]

Google toolbar 2.0 does an excellent job as well; it also allows you to override the behavior for an entire site or in a single instance quite easily.