Every pop-up ad blocker (except the Google Toolbar) has to maintain a list of URLs, and the Google Toolbar blocker has made no noticeable difference in the number of pop-ups I see. I would think programming a pop-up blocker would be a simple task defined as ‘Don’t launch a new window’ or, to be less restrictive, ‘don’t launch a new window unless it’s full screen.’ If there is such a program, please point me to it, otherwise could someone explain why such a program doesn’t exist?
They exist. I use Popup Stopper which does almost too good of a job at blocking them. It does not allow any additional windows to open unless you hold down the Ctrl key. This means that when I (for example) click on a link in a thread here on the SDMB it will not open unless I hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on it. Otherwise, it works great.
Mozilla and Opera both have the option built in. They simply refuse to load the javascript snippet that tells your browser to open an unrequested new window.
The free version of Popup Stopper only works for Netscape and IE. It won’t work on Opera and many other browsers. If you’re interested, you can get the free personal version or purchase the full version (which supports all browsers) here.
The premium version also eliminates that CTRL-click problem.
Likewise, simply turning javascript off (you don’t actually need it, usually) will block 100% of popups, quite easily.
I don’t know if it’s possible for popup ads to load without Javascript, but you definitely don’t need it to open a new window. Just specify target="_blank" in the a tag.
That will open a link, that you have clicked on, in a new window, in most recent browsers. It does not open the window on its own; only scripts can do this. Get rid of the scripts, you get rid of the problem, guaranteed.
I have used several popup killers… all were more trouble than the popups.
About a month ago I came across “Another IE Popup Killer”.
It’s a small 16k program that WORKS.
The only time I touch it is when I don’t want one blocked than I just hit the Ctrl key.
Mine has killed over 700 popups in a little over a month
And it’s FREE! 
Read about it, what others say about it and get it HERE.
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A particularly evil method using the OnMouseOver rather than a <script> which I am not sure will get stopped if your turn off the JavaScript function.
I appreciate this is not basic HTML, but I don’t know if turning off JS will also turn off the OnMouseOver method.
<a href="YOUR IMAGE NAME HERE"
onMouseOver="thewindow=window.open('NEW WINDOW','thewindow','toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,width=165,height=450,left=0,top=0');false;">
<img border="1" src="THE IMAGE TO BE TO MOUSEd OVER" width="55" height="75"></a>
Sorry about the horizontal scroll.
Using this manner, all you have to do is mouse over something (even a tranparent image) for the annoying guy to pop up.
Would pop-up stopped stop this pop-up?
Yeah, it would, cause it works by preventing new instances of your browser opening unless you specify otherwise. Of course it’s possible some clever Joe will devise a script that will look for installed browsers other that the one you are using and attempt to open one of those.
Oops…did I just give spammers another idea? Heh.
I use Pest Patrol and have been quite happy with it. It has many other features other then just blocking pop-ups. It even blocks ads on websites, however you can still see the ad if you want to click the image it relaces it with (usually it just says AD, but leaves the link intact).
I got it when I purchased Zone Alarm Pro and I think because of that purchase, Pest Patrol was only $5-10 additional. The additional features it has makes it more then worth the cost to me.
hijack/ how do porno sites manage to make any money when everytime you click on one it tries to take over your computer and just keeps opening multitudes of new windows? /hijack
Kp “I no longer click on porno links” 72110
I’ve been using Netscape 7.01 lately. Its built-in popup blocker has been working rather well. Better than Popup Stopper was working for me.
And, the unbelievable part, I’ve actually been happy with Netscape as a browser in general. I had given up on it after 6.
Once again, Mozilla, Opera, et al.
I have no idea why the more common browsers don’t have this.
I use Freesurfer mkII and it has been very effective for me.
Hiya
The theory with these porn links that produce dozens of popups is that you’ll be so enthralled with the content if you actually find it, that you’ll persevere with clikcing on links that open yet another 12 popups.
Of course, they are dead wrong, and most sensible people just never click on porn banners… but enough do to make the method worthwhile.
If you’re looking for porn, try a review site - there are many out there now, and they have a lot of detail, are often well written and downright useful.
Abby
Proxomitron, is very effective at stopping pop up ads.
EasyPhil, ironically, your link goes to some shopping site that wants to hijack my homepage.
It’s actually www.proxomitron.org. Not ragging you at all, but that’s actually another example of a form of webpage hijacking, using familiar names with a diff domain.
Sorry Klaatu, my mistake, thanks for providing the correct link.
I always presumed the reason it was hard was because blockers were acting as filtering proxies, and had to edit the HTML on-the-fly in some obfuscated situations. OTOH, if it’s built into the browser (like Mozilla, go evangelism ;)), you can just block any calls to window.open(). (And any target using situations too, good point)
That’s my WAG, and now that I’m thinking about it, any new blocker probably doesn’t work this way… it would let you support all browsers, but it would be horribly inefficient, and be an invitation to breakage. :-/
Well, that’s my try at answering the rest of the question!
That doesn’t make any sense, but there is another possible explanation which does make sense. Suppose you have porn websites A, B, C, D, and E. The first four, A through D, are legitimate sites which don’t have popups and do have content, and they make money by selling subscriptions to their content. Since they’d like more business, they also pay for banner ads. Site E, meanwhile, is just some lazy bum who’d like to make some money, but who doesn’t have any content. So he strikes an advertising deal with the owners of A, B, C, and D. Every time site E shows somebody one of their banners, he gets a cent. Then, E writes up his website in such a way that it does nothing but spawn ten thousand copies of those ads. The owner of the popup-Hell site E doesn’t want any money from you, he wants money from all of the real porn sites he’s “advertising”.