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IE To Block Pop-Ups
smd4985 writes "Next year MS will release a XP service pack that enables IE to block pop-up ads. Only a few years late. Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the technology to make it hard for Bill 'embrace and extend' Gates to kill those XCam ads...."
If Microsoft was patenting this technology, most /. users would call it evil, right? But, you claim Mozilla/Opera should patent it, and that would be good, right? Somehow I don't quite follow the logic here.
I never have a problem shopping online while blocking pop-ups.
Anyway, the companies that use shopping carts relying on pop-ups will just have to adapt or die. They need our money, right? Not the otehr way around.
Mozilla should sue Microsoft for theft of intellectual property.
Right. Sue them for the idea they took from Opera.
Why would an intellectual property suit against Microsoft be OK? Just because Microsoft is loathesome doesn't make intellectual property suits right.
Stand up for what you believe in and don't make exceptions.
Now it they could only stop spyware and crap that integrated with aps in nasty ways you can't remove.
Bloody registry entries..
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
This is REALLY bad news for the rest of the world. This means that since most people will be able to block popups, the popup companies will resort to new methods of spawing, such as java windows, automaticaly executed ActiveX controls, and hijacking the browser window through their ads. While the middle wouldnt be a problem for anyone other than IE users, the other two could pose a serious threat to my abiltiy to use the web.
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
*sigh*
You people just don't get it, do you?? You could have a massive button on IE's toolbar labelled "DISABLE POPUPS," and I would bet half of IE's users would never think to click it. Unless a feature is turned on, by default, and works without thinking about it, most users won't use it.
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the technology to make it hard for Bill 'embrace and extend' Gates to kill those XCam ads....
I mean really, why is it necessary to make such an unproductive comment? The only thing that sort of comment accomplishes is making Open Source advocates look bad.
No, the ad companies will just go on to more intrusive advertising, like full page click-through ads like on some sites. This is actually a bad thing since IE's idiot customer base was actually still generating some decent revenue for the popup spammers. Now once that dwindles off they'll need to find new and more annoying ways of advertising. Full screen Java commercials anyone? Yes, I know, shut off Java/Javascript/Flash/animation, etc. We can all go back to HTML 1.0 and Lynx right?
Or even features as mundane as full CSS compliancy and PNG transparency. I'm sure the innovative wonders will never cease from the IE camp.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
I think the point is that MS sees that pop-up killing is quickly become a killer app. I don't think that they are worried about third party apps like Proxomitron because only a small subset of users can/will install them anyway. You could argue that this is being done partly to prevent a drift towards alternate browsers, especially Mozilla, but again only a relatively small audience have the knowhow or desire to change from IE.
Personally I think this is more about reigning in the power of Google, specifically the Google Toolbar which can block popups. Joe User knows Google (they do not know Proxomitron) and the Toolbar is easy to install and it is very popular. I bet the Google Toolbar is installed all over Microsoft's campus.
Google used to be just a search engine, now it does much more, including supplying software to Microsoft's end users. Have any of you checked out the new Google Deskbar. Think about it: this is an application which bypasses the browser.
I think Microsoft is very afraid of Google and thats why they made an offer to buy them. They were turned down, so now watch what happens, on Longhorn there will already be a "MSN Search Deskbar" on bootup. This is an opening salvo in a Microsoft war on Google.
"99% of off the shelf shopping cart systems now rely on this behaviour. This will surely alienate even more corporate customers, where the hell are Microsoft going?"
Nope. The solution is real simple: only call popups that are triggered by a mouseclick. Opera's done this for a while now, and I imagine Mozilla works similarly.
"Derp de derp."
Perhaps Microsoft is doing this so ad companies will pay it to not have their pop ups blocked? Most users will not know (or care) how to turn off this pop up blocker. (I'm sure most of them don't want pop ups anyways.. I know I don't.) So an ad company would basically have to pay Microsoft to survive.
hey!
Perhaps they'll start writing their new ads in sparkle, knowing that microsoft will be unwilling to block off a new format they're trying to push. It'd be a win-win scenario for non windows users as lack of support for a new format turns into a feature.
Everything will be taken away from you.
I wish I could remember the link to this interview. But a while back I read an article dealing with the upcoming new version of IE for longhorn, and the person doing the interview asked if they were going to fix the problem with png transparency. The microsoft representive replied with "No comment". How hard can it possibly be to fix this issue that they're spending years on the new release and once again are likley to not finish png support. You'd think the bad press alone would be cause to fix it.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Well, when it comes to IE he's got a point. Development quality took a massive nosedive when it reached it's currentl level of the market. Look at their png support for example.
Everything will be taken away from you.
In Safari, this option is very well hidden (in a Menu) and still almost everybody enables it immediately.
Of course you didn't mean to say Mac users are more intelligent than Windows users.
I think, therefore I am...I think.
Won't this have somewhat of a reverse effect on the advertising industry? Since Internet Explorer is the most widely used browser, if it doesn't allow popup ads, that should motivate advertisers to look for different methods of annoying us, and the new ads would almost certainly be more intrusive than what we have now.
Look at history. First, there were simple banner ads that simply linked to a page. People didn't like the idea of being tracked, so they just copied the URL and put it in the address bar; bam, no referrer ID. Then, advertisers wised up and linked the ads to a CGI script, but the arguments were still plaintext, so people would just view the source of the page and get the URL from that. Now, advertisers once again have gotten around that by using IFRAMES for banner ads, so it's not nearly as easy to look at the source. Popup ads were immediately closed by the user, so advertisers developed popdown (or popunder, but popdown seems more antonymic) ads. Now, since popunder ads (and popup ads, as well) will be completely bypassed by anyone who uses Internet Explorer, advertisers will simply evolve as always and find the next way to pitch penis enlargement to us.
Later,
Patrick
Keep in mind that Microsoft has had built-in internet searching via the Windows Shell through the Start Menu's "Search..." function for a few years now, so I don't think this is a huge surprise for anybody.
I also don't think it takes an incredible leap of imagination to think they might put an "Internet Search" control on the new Longhorn Sidebar. Claiming that by doing this they're trying to defeat Google's impending grasp on the desktop is a bit paranoid.
I mean, what else would they put on the new sidebar? A big clock? :-)
This isn't going to solve anything, it'll just force pop-up vendors to move to DHTML for their popups. If you've never seen one in action, the once at tek-tips.com comes to mind. It's a pretty reasonable "please sign up" type popup that occurs once per visit, until you register and let the cookie do it's thing. Mozilla doesn't block this, and it might be a long time before it ever does. I doubt that it's as easy to recognize these as advertising algorithmically as it is with JavaScript popups.
I know this is meant as a joke, but how much do we really benefit from all those fancy-shmancy extensions like Flash or JavaScript? I would argue that mostly advertisers benefit. For the rest of us (at least for those still sitting behind a dial-up connection), they just result in slower browsing. Of all the more advanced "web technologies", the majority of web sites I visit maybe use frames, but that's about it.
The internet was originally designed to distribute information quickly and efficiently. Now more than 90% of the bandwidth is probably taken up by fancy eye-candy and ads, both of which I could live without.
Anybody notice that this will only be offered with SP2 for XP?
Looks like a not very subtle shove toward XP on Microsoft's part. "Upgrade to XP, and get pop-up blocking!" Or keep your current OS and use Mozilla.
On a related note, I thought I heard that Office 2003 only runs on 2000 and XP. I see a trend here. Soon the only software Microsoft will offer will be Windows XP and Office.
Too few articles mention all three and articles mostly fall into one of two categories: Usually the articles praise Mozilla and Opera for features, usability, flexibility, support of standards, stability, security and multi-plaform support. Or they go on about the problems specific to MSIE, while implying that MSIE is the alpha and omega of web browsers, and finish by giving the bad advice to sit still and obediently wait to buy the next upgrade, service pack, bug fix for MSIE. At the same time, users and administrators tied to MSIE are prevented from learning unresolved problems. There are also further costs if company data, such as customer lists, are compromised as a result.
Clearly censorship is not the optimal long term nor even short term solution. IT staff can save time and money now by migrating their users to Mozilla and Opera.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Or when it comes with your computer.
Er, that's known as the windows tax and you paid it. You bought your copy of Windows.
OT (On topic): I don't think they have to know how the thing they are trying to use works. I'd rather
say the thing they are trying to use must how the user works or would like to work.
OT (Off topic): You provably don't know how to grow the very crops that you eat everyday, you don't know how to build a working version of a car, you don't know how the account deparments process your salary so that they are fine with the law requirements. Even if you know some of these, you provably don't, and can't know, even a mere 1% of how things work, but other people know.
Your point is very centric assuming everyone has to know the one field you think it's the base and final goal of human life. If you relax the asumption, you'd know your just being pedantic.
"Don't care to learn? that would make you an idiot."
Look at how many things you don't know, and I am pretty sure you'll have a slight perspective on how idiotic everyone is.
(note: I don't care if you care. I just want to clarify your point, that is a very common)
unfinished: (adj.)