iVillage Renounces Pop-up Advertising

ceejayoz writes "iVillage.com, a popular women's portal, announced today that it is getting rid of pop-up advertising on its site after a survey of their users found 95% considered it the most annoying part of the Internet. Lets hope they can prove there are other, less annoying advertising models that work!"

Comments

No Pop-Ups, but Pop-Under?!

[yorick]

From the article:

"Instead, the company will focus on alternative ad formats, including variably sized standard ad units and pop-under ads, as well as ad placements in newsletters and member mailings."

So instead they're sending you physical junk-mail or having pop-unders. That's a big improvement.

popups are annoying

[Vicegrip]

In fact, managing windows in general is annoying. Popups are also a bad idea because users now have (at least for people using mozilla) the ability to block them easily.

I personally think the best compromise is the large box at the beginning of the story approach: you have to look at it, but since the article wraps around it, the feel is akin to reading a magazine page.

A well targetted add like that gets my attention and often a click-through.

Re:popups are annoying

[KuRL]

Television advertising companies have known about things like this forever -- that's why many commercials employ the same devices as the shows they interrupt and why some stations (read: MTV) make there programming look a lot like commercials (fast cuts; bright colors; constant, catchy background music; etc.).

Mozilla!

[-tji]

This used to be the most annoying aspect of Internet browsing for me. But, since converting to Mozilla, it's a non-factor. No more popups!

To disable popups & other annoyances:

Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Scripts & Windows

de-select: Open Unrequested Windows, Move or Resize Windows, & Raise or Lower Windows

This feature, along with Tabbed browsing, are the web browser killer features.

Re:Better Advertising method....

[rmohr02]

Have such a good product that word of mouth spreads and people buy it

Like Google. AFAIK, they've never done advertisements.

Pop-up and pop-under ads will endure...

[ke4roh]

just as they do in the magazine industry. Blow-in cards (those pesky things that invariably litter your lap as you read) must work or advertisers wouldn't pay for them. The same goes for their online equivalents. At least many sites employ pop-under ads to spare us the immediate interruption.

Kim Brooks identifies the problem well in the article "Advertising: A Cry for Usability." Brooks points out that advertisers are trying too hard to get their message in front of the consumers, and in so doing, they turn off the consumers. She continues suggesting the best advertisements are those designed to help the consumer, enumerating targeted search results, e-mail list sponsorship, and sponsored default web bookmark lists as laudible forms of advertising. If only the advertisers would pay attention!

[BTW: You can get rid of those pesky X-10 ads for 30 days at a time by visiting their opt-out page which I found in their customer service FAQ.]

use mozilla

[ragnar]

In reality, there aren't that many javascript exploits occuring these days. There are many very useful features of JavaScript. Sure, I could live without it, but my solution is to use Mozilla. By doing this I prevent sites from opening windows and doing other nasty things.