Posting Date: August 23, 2002

EarthLink New Access Software Helps Banish Pop-Ups -- "EarthLink Inc.'s arsenal to lure away subscribers from its online rivals includes a multimillion dollar marketing campaign and new access software that will let Web surfers banish pop-up ads -- one of the most-often cited annoyances on the Web." (MadMan comments: Till 2000-2001, most sites seemed to be aware that pop-ups annoyed the hell out of people. In the last year or so, however, we have seen an epidemic of pop-ups on the Web. It seemed to coincide with the dotcom bust and falling profits. Suddenly, sites wanted to thrust ads in as many ways as possible. How come they didn't see that they were just as annoying as they used to be?)

Reader Comments...

I see a pop-up, then I leave, never to return.

Anyone sends me a link to a poppy page, without apologising first, then they sleep with the monkeys.

The only type of pop-ups that dont annoy me are the lightweight ones that display themselves completely off the screen.

Posted by: Mac on August 23, 2002 01:05 PM

I don't see pop-ups. I use Pop-up Stopper and Proxomitron (thanks MadMan).

Proxomitron kills a ton of stuff, include pop-ups, but it does so silently. In addition, I use Pop-up Stopper because it plays a sound when it makes a kill.

Posted by: Jack on August 23, 2002 01:20 PM

Sites use pop-up ads mostly out of desperation, and it probably doesn't help that X10 supposedly profited from their vast campaign of pop-ups/unders.

I'm strongly anti-pop-up generally, except where a new window is genuinely helpful, yet some clients really want them and even add them after we've developed a pop-up-free site.

Posted by: Matt Round on August 23, 2002 01:52 PM

Pop-ups rate well on the click-through, and vexation, meter.

Posted by: Jack on August 23, 2002 03:48 PM

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