For some unknown reason, non-porn commercial sites have decided to start using pop-ups! Some examples being the sites of The Sci-Fi Channel, Internet Movie Database, and Snopes. Who was the fucking genius who decided that this was a good idea? Does ANYONE with half a brain EVER look at one of these annoyances? I like to maximize the site’s window when I click and the pop-up causes it to snap back to regular size. Then I have to close the ad window and re-size the main window. Granted this is not the end of the world, but Jesus H. Flipping Christ! I’d almost rather see the site charge admission or go out of business than see this trend contiuning. It’s greed I tells ya, pure money-grubbing greed! I hope the person who created the code for pop-ups gets eaten alive by rabid wolves on Christmas day in front of his children!
I wish they’d add a feature to Internet Explorer that you could check to turn off pop-up windows. I find the pop-ups to irritate me more than anything. I have never and will never buy anything off one of those stupid forced popup ads, simply because I don’t like to support intrusive advertising.
Apparently some people still like them:
(from this article – there’s also more on this here)
Course, I don’t like them either.
I’d be willing to bet the reason the click-through rate is higher is because of the bloody pop up popping up in front of a link you’re about to click. I know I’ve come close to doing it several times.
Satanspawn, they are. And now that they’re appearing on more mainstream websites, I often think “I thought this site was legitimate?” They just cheapen a site’s worth.
BTW, I DID complain to the webmasters of said sites even though it is unlikely I’ll get a response.
But that’s the whole point. The advertiser doesn’t care how you got to them, just that you did. Statistics tell them that the clickthrough rate is higher with pop-ups.
Mind you, it’ll be highly amusing seeing just how sustainable an advertising model that relies on pissing people off can last.
http://www.sluggy.com has some points as to how to get rid of the dratted X10 camera thingie. Don’t know that it will work for other pop-up ads, though.
Be careful about anti-pop-up software, though, particularly if you’re using Netscape. I used some of it and it worked for a while, but eventually killed Netscape’s ability to show any popup, which was kind of annoying for some of the games sites I visit.
No, I don’t remember which one I used.
[sub]Oh, and Sluggy’s one of the coolest internet comics out there[/sub]
As a marketing and media director, I refuse to advertise with pop-ups for the same reason that I don’t use non-opt-in email lists: Annoying someone into coming to your site, or getting them to do it accidentally, is pissing away your already too meager budget. I love it when new online ad reps try to pitch me pop-ups. By the time I get through ranting at them, there’s zero risk of them ever bringing up the topic again.
I think the popup adds themselves broke IE and caused them to stop popping up. Which has the added disadvantage of not being able to open new browsers through html
TURN OFF JAVASCRIPT. Go do it NOW.
It’s that simple, folks. They can’t pop up ads on
you without Javascript. Turn off cookies while you’re at it, so they can’t track you from site to site. (What, you think that stopped? Think again. The marketers want to screw you any way they can.)
“But my favorite celebrity wank-wank site’s “worst nose hair of the millenium” poll doesn’t work without JavaScript!”
Well yes, that’s ANOTHER benefit of not having Javascript enabled. You’ll stop going to moronic sites that were so poorly designed they require JavaSmack in order to operate.
(/rant)
-Ben<whine>But my bank’s website requires Javascript</whine>
No problem - I turn off Javascript for most sites; turn it on again for the few sites where I need it. If I was a bit more ambitious, I would add them to my trusted sites list so it would be automatic.
I agree with turning off Javascript. Turning off cookies makes some sites impossible to use though. If you do decide to leave cookies turned on, you can clean out the ones which are used to track your browsing by using Ad-Aware. It’s free, and in addition to cookies, it gets rid of the stuff that programs like Comet Cursor place in your registry. It’s just peachy.
I’ve been using WebWasher for years, now. It’s freeware and it gets rid of banner and pop-up ads. Plus, you can add new URLs to its filter list whenever you want.
–Nut
I call it “No-Pants Wonderday,” but it turns out the police just call it “Thursday.” Go figure.
Um…
I ran Netscape 4.7 for the longest time, with JVM and Javascript turned off.
I still got the occasional popup.
Just FTR.
One of the sites I forgot to mention was Ain’t It Cool. I sent an e-mail to let them know of my distaste for the pop-up and here’s their reply:
I replied: Well, with that kind of attitude, what do YOU think?
I’ll save them the trouble of one more intrusion into their traffic.
You can also get AdSoft at this new web site for lava soft: Ad-Aware. IMHO, this is a much cleaner and easier to read site. Just thought I’d let you know. 
While we’re plugging commercial products, I’ll put in a plug for Anonymizer (www.anonymizer.com). If you pay the (fairly cheap) fee for the subscription service, it’ll filter out popups, give you “safe cookies” to protect you from being tracked, and all sorts of other fun stuff.
not only kill javascript, kill Iframes too. This little nugget can tuen HTML into DOSShell/Windows Explorer that is controlled by the webmaster. Imagine your own files being deleted before your eyes. it is not a pretty sight.
popups . . . annoying enough.
NOW . . . NOW they have popup windows that TALK!
Thanks Beowulf. I just felt like introducing an international flair to the subject by directing folks to the site in Germany.