Most pop-ups - be they spam or useful “further information” type windows, have a link on them saying “Click here to close this window”.
My question is why? What’s wrong with the little X in the top corner (or red traffic light when I’m on my Mac)?
I suspect that some of the less trustworthy spam pop-ups are set up so that the “click to close” link actually takes you to another site (I don’t know cos I never use them), but why do legitimate pop-ups bother?
Yes, popup developers will use the “close this window” just so another window opens instead. Yes, you really did close that first window; you were not told by doing that another would open.
In my experience, most computer users have never had any training (formal or otherwise) in the use of a computer, let alone took more than a cursory look at the manual (if they got one) when they acquired their computer.
I just worked with someone today who wanted to use Windows Explorer to move a file from Place A on one server to Place B on another server. Every time she clicked on a directory name to navigate through the network resorted in another Explorer window opening! The individual had no clue on how to change their settings to have every instance open in the same window, let alone have two instances of Explorer open - one for Place A and another for Place B so they could take advantage of drag-and-drop.
“Drag and drop? What’s that?”
For a web developer one must often lead their users by the hand. It’s a common courtesy but it also reflects upon their users who are really clueless.
Because typically users are stupid, incompetent, and unable to perform even the most rudimentary tasks on their computers for which they haven’t been specifically trained. I know that sounds harsh, but I can’t even count how many “experienced” computer users I’ve taught to use the little “x” in the top corner. Many users learn to use the File/Exit menu, and they will fail to adapt to any other situation, even a rewording to File/Quit.
Of course, the “Close Window” link or button does provide opportunity to perform actions which may or may not be handled well by automatic window-close event handlers, but I think it’s basically a usability issue to keep people from getting confused.
It’s because web designers have to develop things for the lowest common denominator of user skill level or people will complain. There are people out there that haven’t figured out how to get rid of a window without quitting the whole application. And they complain about things like that.
In addition, by clicking on their close window button and not the OS close window button, they may be sending a quick little request back to their servers. That way they can get a sense of how long people are keeping their window open, which can give the marketing people a sense of what’s making an impression on people and what’s not. Though you can get javascript to do stuff even when the OS closes the window, it’s not as reliable.