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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...."
What's the point? Among others, Proxomitron is free, takes 5 minutes to set up, and is massively configurable for popup/banner/script/etc. blocking.
The strange thing here for me is why Microsoft would do this from a business perspective. I would think they're drawing a fair amount of income from their MSN portal advertising. Maybe it doesn't work for MSN? Or they're only blocking popups because the don't plan on having them on a MSN linked site anyway?
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
And maybe in a couple more years we'll get mouse gestures too!
fp
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
Or they'll just exploit one of IE's 40 billion security holes to get the pop-ups through and everyone else will be just fine.
Soon pop-up ad companies will be hiring lawyers to attack Microsoft for blocking ads...
Who do we cheer for then? (grin)
Davak
IE To Block Pop-Ups; Slashdot to not post dupes; Hell to freeze over
Can I get my $5 back? I cant believe I paid for this shit
If Microsoft was patenting this technology, most /. users would call it evil, right? But, you claim Mozilla/Opera should patent it, and that would be good, right? Somehow I don't quite follow the logic here.
where will i download smiley emoticons and locate old school mates from?
~~
I never have a problem shopping online while blocking pop-ups.
Anyway, the companies that use shopping carts relying on pop-ups will just have to adapt or die. They need our money, right? Not the otehr way around.
Mozilla should sue Microsoft for theft of intellectual property.
Right. Sue them for the idea they took from Opera.
I suppose Mozilla should go sue Google too, right?
No, they can't do that, because you can't spell Google with a dollar sign like you can with "Micro$oft", and you just wouldn't get the same laughs from the Slashdot crowd.
evil adrian
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.
My favorite pop-up blocker is google's toolbar.,
If I'm going to have some stupid something sitting my windows toolbar section, it might as well do some useful stuff--search google, block pop-ups, and give me pagerank.
I love free software.
Davak
...is that they plan to have Clippy jump up and say 'It blocked a popup window for you. It looks like they were trying to sell you Viagra.' every time a popup is blocked.
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.
Mozilla and Opera block automatic popups.
The shopping carts you describe prompted by the user clicking somewhere.
And in case you are afraid of false-positives, Mozilla alerts you whenever it blocks a popup (small icon at the left of the browser status bar) and you can unblock it.
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
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.
The campaign will use pop-under windows as the core of their advertising campaign. Utilizing a little-known bypass for their banner pop-up blocker mechanism in upcoming versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft will take 100% of the available pop-up banner impressions available for users. "This is a great day for Microsoft," said Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates. "Finally, our users will be able to view only those ads that our company sees fit to display to users."
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
If I have *one* person tell me, upon downloading this, "Hey, did you know that they can block popups now??", I think I *WILL* kill them.
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
You can actually download a *powertoy* from Microsoft that will allow for up tp 4 virtual desktops in XP
alias dir='rm -rf
Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the [popup blocking] technology
"Method for not opening a new browser window when asked to"?
Prior art: Every browser before Netscape 2 did this, very effectively!
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
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.
MYIE2 is a 3.3 MB download addon to Internet Explorer that adds pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, super drag and drop, customized searches from the address bar, aliases, and is highly customizable, so in a way, you already can get those things in IE.
I understand that it doesn't fix CSS or any of the security flaws, but it is a nice option for the hopelessly addicted IE user. Oh, and its free.
Don't panic. It won't work until version 3, so there will be plenty of time for businesses to work around it.
They'll still be able to make Notepad Popups
If IE blocks popups like Mozilla, Opera, Konqueror, and everyone else, then advertisers will just use much more invasive, hard-to-block ads. It will accelerate the arms race between marketroids and Internet users. Maybe ads will use Flash, Java, or some random security hole. As long as the unwashed masses are vulnerable to popup ads, they will be advertised to with popups and those of us who use good web browsers (read: not IE) won't see much invasive advertising.
It's an operating system, not a religion.