Popup Advertisements
Created | Updated Sep 19, 2002
It was late at night. Somewhere in the wired world, a man was surfing the Internet. Innocently, he clicked on a link. The page hadn't even finished loading when suddenly, he was assaulted by a barrage of assailants. They weren't armed with guns, or knives, or bats. No, their very existence was an attack on the innocent computer user. They weren't spiders, they weren't small children, they weren't even members of a boy band. Yet they provoked more fear and disgust in the man's soul than can reasonably be described. What were they? Popup advertisements.
Granted, the presence of popups isn't usually quite so dramatic. But they (along with their cousins, popunder adverts, which open in the background and appear when one tries to open a window) do constitute a major annoyance to many people.
How Do Popups Work?
Popups are banner advertisements that open in new windows when a website is opened. Popups use JavaScript's window.open command to create new windows containing banner advertisements. Some popups spawn other popups when the user tries to close them, which spawn still more popups and so on, forcing the user to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete (on the PC) to exit his or her browser.
Popunders, also called blur popups, are popups that are created behind the open browser window, so the user views them when he or she closes the window.
Timed popups, like popunders, can be set to open several seconds after the page loads or is closed. They are used to interrupt the user in the middle of reading a page.
So, Who's at Fault?
Popups are powered by JavaScript, a scripting language developed by Netscape in 1995 and 1996. The popup, created in early 1997, takes advantage of the window.open command in JavaScript*.
Popup space is sold by lots of websites, most notably web-based email services and free webhosts. Geocities is one of the webspace providers most (in)famous for using popup ads. Tripod and Angelfire also use popup ads heavily. Yahoo! and Hotmail, among other email providers, assail the user with ads once he or she is logged in.
Gator, a piece of freeware that automatically fills in forms and remembers passwords, generates popups in the corner of the screen based on what the user is searching for. So, for example, if Bob is searching for beer online, an advertisement for Guinness might appear.
Creating Websites Without Popups
Considering the high annoyance value of popups, it's no wonder that they can be a problem for webmasters who don't want to discourage potential visitors by letting them be assaulted by popups. But most free webspace providers, and some paid hosts too, generate popups. So how does a webmaster avoid popups? There are a few ways.
- Find a host that doesn't use popups. They often use less intrusive forms of advertising, such as banner ads.
- Find a pay host with no advertising. (A list of ad-free webspace providers can be found here, or here.) Services like Geocities usually offer a few paid options with benefits including increased storage space and no ads. Ad-free paid hosting is usually sold for $5-$20 US monthly, and setup fees are sometimes charged as well.
- Provide suggestions to anyone viewing your page on how to stop the popups. You could link to the website of a piece of software that kills popups, or recommend anything that you have found to work well for you.
- Insert HTML code in your website that stops popups from working. The JavaScript code for popups is sometimes enclosed within the <body> </body> tags, or within the <head> section. Either way, inserting <noscript> </noscript> tags around your page can remedy the problem by tricking the browser out of reading the code as JavaScript. (This trick requires basic knowledge of HTML. If you don't know HTML, relax, it's fairly simple. Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML, hosted by the World Wide Web Consortium, is a good place to start.) Counterexploitation provides a list of free web providers that use popups, and scripting tricks to stop them. It should be noted here that using these tricks may violate the terms of service agreed to when a free hosting account is first registered, and could get your site kicked off of its hosting service. Check the terms of service before you try to eliminate popups from your website.
Will They Ever End?
As popups have spread, so has annoyance at this obtrusive form of advertising, and lots of software that blocks, or 'kills', popups has become available. Some of these popup killers are freeware; others are shareware or must be purchased. A list of popup killers can be found here. It should be noted that some of these applications may let a few ads through, or block JavaScript-generated new windows that you want. Some work well for a short time, and then stop blocking advertisements. Also, they run constantly in the background, using up a computer's RAM, and they can cause other problems with a computer as well.
A couple of browsers also have the capability to block popups. Mozilla, which can be downloaded at mozilla.org, can block popups if the user clicks Preferences in the Edit menu, opens up the Advanced menu on the left-hand side, selects the Scripts & Plugins item, and unchecks the box next to 'Open unrequested windows'. This instructs Mozilla to prevent scripts in websites from generating new windows, unless a link to another site that opens in a new window is clicked.
Abolimba Multibrowser is a browser that adds features to Internet Explorer, including an ad blocker and a popup blocker, both of which have to be configured. (This can be done by clicking 'Ad Blocker' and 'Popup Blocker' under the Tools menu and entering the domain names on which the banners and popups are hosted, such as ad.doubleclick.com.) Abolimba is shareware, with a 28-day free trial period. Registration costs $20 (US).
Opera is another browser that can block popups. It can be downloaded at opera.com. To block popups with Opera, click on the File menu, open the Quick Preferences menu, and click 'Refuse pop-up windows'. This blocks JavaScript from opening new windows, so this command should be disabled when you are clicking a JavaScript enabled link (such as 'Who's Online' in h2g2). One disadvantage of Opera is that the free version constantly displays an advertising banner in one of the top corners of the browser.
If all else fails, disabling JavaScript will prevent popups from opening (unless they are enabled by a different scripting or programming language). To do this in Netscape, open the Preferences window under the Edit menu. Click on the Advanced tab and uncheck the box next to 'Enable JavaScript for Navigator', then close the window by clicking OK. Directions for disabling JavaScript in Internet Explorer can be found here.
A Few Redeeming Values of Popups
Although most Internet users consider popups to be a nuisance*, it is important to note that they do have a few redeeming qualities. Advertisers view the intrusiveness of popup ads as a positive attribute, since the most intrusive advertising is often the most effective. Advertisers have continued to purchase popup space for more than five years, so the format must generate some sales*. Occasionally, popup ads might expose consumers to a new, useful product or service. And importantly, revenue from sales of popup space is one way for some services to continue being free instead of becoming pay services*.
