Ok, I realize that a business will do almost anything if it brings in more customers, but why do websites use pop-ups, and even spam email?
Do people actually give business to those annoying sites after having seen a pop-up or spam mail? If so, who are these people, and why are they allowed to use computers?
Personally, in the rare times that I make the effort to read anything in a pop-up, the only thing that results from it is me resolving to never visit the site. I’m having a very hard time seeing how these could be beneficial to an internet business.
Regarding pop-ups, it’s a good question. It’s hard to imagine pop-ups bringing in much business. Even in novice web users I’ve observed, I notice that the instinct is to IMMEDIATELY start frantically clicking the X when the ad pops up, sometimes before the page even loads. Why, because it’s in the way of course.
And from the perspective of web veterans (the most likely to actually shop online), I think many would agree with you that the pop-ups ads actually DETER business. Personally, I know I sure as hell won’t ever buy an X10 camera.
I wonder when we can get back to the good old banner ads. No, the click-through rates aren’t dynamite, but at least when you get a click-through it’s probably someone who is genuinely interested in what you are offering. Pop-ups are guaranteed hits, but they’re empty hits. They don’t help. And half the battle when it comes to a banner ad is just getting your name and/or logo out there, into the web surfers’ minds, whether they notice it or not.
Instead, the trend seems to be going towards methods even more intrusive than the pop-up, such as those animations that cover up whatever you’re trying to read, and have a hard to find Close button if they have one at all!
I like popup killer too, but it also has a tendency to kill the “confirmation” popups, like those that say: “Are you sure you want to submit blah blah blah now?” It sits in the tray though, so you can right click and disable it when you need to.
If you associate sounds with it, it gives off a nice gunshot sound whenever it kills a popup. Very satisfying.
I make it a pont to not visit any place that sends me spam, and report all of it. Usually it doesn’t help, but I have nothing better to do than harass those that harass me.
Go with Pop-up stopper, it will leave the “confirmation” popups more often than not, and it’s free.
In addition Ad-aware will cut down on the number of pop-ups you get when browsing if you run it regularly. It’s a software that searches through your registry and hard drive and removes any “adware” that it comes across. Also free.
I’ve tried Pop-Up Stopper, but I like AdSubtract a lot better!!!
It gives you a lot more control, eliminates the pop-ups, and even hides the Ads on the internet pages (most of 'em anyways)!
They have a 30 day trial period, and it’s about $30 if you want to buy it. But wait a few days after buying it…you’ll get a special offer to buy it for only $20, if you downloaded the trial version from Cnet Downloads!!
I’ve had it for about a month now, it works like Da Bomb!! The only problem I’ve had with it, is when writing messages on certain MBs. When I went from editing to posting on Yahoo’s MB, the message appears all scrambled!! LOL!! All you have to do to fix that is click on the AdSubtract icon in the task bar, and it’ll turn off!! But, you’ll certainly want to turn it back on again as you’ll visit other web pages!!
Another good one I have is SurfPal! This one is also NOT free, and is actually installed as a toolbar on your browser for even greater control. It will also eliminate cookies, delete your history, has a Hotlinks button in case you’d like to store all your Favorites off site!! I loved this one when my 'puter’s hard-drive crashed a while back, but I was able to access all my fav links!!