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The Return Of The Pop-Up Ad
SYFer writes "Shortly after upgrading my Macs to OS X 10.3.8, I noticed that I was getting pop-up ads on Safari. It had been so long since I'd seen a pop-up, I completely forgotten how annoying they can be. I went over to Apple's Support site to see if there was a relationship, but learned that the timing is just a coincidence (even though there's a lot of the usual FUD and flailing of arms in the discussion forums). In fact, it turns out that the pop-up advertisers (what's the proper denigrating term here?) have finally defeated the pop-up blocking functionality found in many browsers. MacFixIt is running a front page article on the topic and says 'Contrary to initial reports, this problem isn't limited to Safari; subsequent reports have noted pop-under ads victimizing a number of browsers that provide pop-up-blocking features, including the latest versions of Safari, FireFox, Mozilla, OmniWeb, and Camino.'"
It's sorta like this:
"SCREW YOU, POPUP-BLOCKING BASTARD!! Now buy our cheap cameras.
Hmm...
How does defeating a measure designed to block your ads make good business sense? Does forcing your ads upon someone known to hate your approach produce good results? Does irritation equal a higher rate of return because people who hate your ads see them and have a change of heart? Do they say, "Hey, I had no idea those hateful ads were so interesting and useful to me. I think I'll buy their product."
Cuz my instinct is that when a person takes active efforts to banish you from their lives, forcing your way into their living rooms isn't a cost-effective approach. But hey, I don't work in advertising, as anyone who reads my About page on the headlines site knows. I like advertising in its place, but c'mon, if I kick you out of my house, stay there, please.
Just turn off javascript in the browser you use. If a site requires javascript then don't go there.
That is not a viable option. 95% of the sites I (and almost every other web user) visit use javascript in some way, shape, or form. I don't want to take the mindset of "Flash is evil, images are a waste of bandwidth, java is pathetic (even though it is, but that's beside the point). The Internet is full of crap so I should just use Lynx." I like to see things other than plain text and images. I can deal with a couple of pop-up ads here and there until the next version of Firefox comes out.
--guru
Even better, try flashblock. It's an extension for firefox that will block flash files from being loaded until you click on them, get it at flashblock.mozdev.org
Out of Cheese Error:
Please reboot universe
What gets me is that advertisers must realize how incredibly irritating popups are, and how much people hate them, yet they continue to use them to advertise. Won't this build ill-will against the product/company being advertised?
If folks go through so much trouble to block the darn things, advertisers should realize that it's not a good way to advertise, and switch to a less annoying method.
Same idea applies with spammers and spam filters. Why do spammers try so hard to get through to people who hate spam enough to block it? They're definitely not going to be customers!
-Z
It wouldn't surprise me if the advertisers aren't trying to do more than just find ways to get the pop-ups to show. Depending on what products they are trying to sell, I'd think they'd try to circumvent a certain browsers blocker.
If you know that your demographic is more likely to use Firefox or a Mac, why waste time getting around IE's defenses?
What does this button do...
Of course advertisers know this annoys most people. However, the situation is the same as spam -- someone is clicking on those ads and buying the products. The number of people doing this is enough to make it worthwhile for them to continue doing this.
Well, considering how long it's been going on, despite how god damn annoying it is, it must be making them money - otherwise, they would stop, correct?
Wouldn't that also block user-initiated javascript popups? Many sites use these legitamately (though they are annoying).
This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
Popups killed Yahoo, at least for me. Before I got reliable popup-blocking from Mozilla, Yahoo slammed me with popups every time I visited. So I quit visiting. Even when I got good popup blocking, I'd found other services to fill those needs, and Yahoo isn't, nor will it ever again be, my default "portal" for everything. I hope what they made with those popups was worth the ill will from me and (I'm certain) others like me who just quit visiting.
... a jerk ... when it comes to stuff like that. If a salesman is being pushy or otherwise "slick" I'll say so and walk out of a store, no matter how good the deal might have been. If a supermarket has long lines, I'll drop my stuff and leave. And if a website wants to make money by obtrusive advertising, I'll find another website that doesn't.
.... people?
You know those cool X10 video cameras? I'm sure you saw the popups for those too. I might have gotten one if they weren't frickin' synonymous in my mind with popup advertisers. (Just like I'm never going to refinance my mortgage with a spammer, no matter how good a deal I'm going to get.) They look like a neat little geek toy, but I'm going to have to wait for another company to make them before I'll get one.
I guess I'm a little bit of
I know there are trade-offs and deals must be made in order to have low prices or provide good content for free. But there is a point at which I really feel like a place sucks, and at that point, I am willing to go through the inconvenince of finding someone else to deal with, rather than give money to those who would abuse me. It may work for other people, but if you don't serve me well, you don't make money from me.
It's not like there aren't other businesses who will take my money (or in the case of websites, my eyeballs) and give me what I want.
I wish more people did this, then maybe megacorps would treat people like
The requested URL
> people using pop-up blockers do not want to see their ads
Advertisers don't give a damn about that.
They know that some of those people -- admittedly a minute percentage, but in a game of millions a 0.1% click-and-buy rate can make you rich -- do not maintain the minimal essential commitment of an online citizen and refuse to ever buy something as a result of invasive, unsolicited advertising.
This is also the reason the telemarketing associations oppose the "Do Not Call" lists. They know that a portion of the people on these lists can still be persuaded to buy things from them.
Why do we want to surrender functionality? Don't give up the web to those that abuse it. Kick them off it by boycotting. Google has almost singlehandedly re-launched the dotcom boom by getting the eyeballs of people who choose to reward good sites and ignore bad tactics such as pop-ups, excessive banners, animations, and blurring between content and advertizement. You have the power to determine content. Don't bow out by surrending both the content and the functionality.