Pop-up ads or
pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
intended to attract
web trafficWeb traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site. It is a large portion of Internet traffic. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages they visit...
or capture email addresses. It works when certain web sites open a new
web browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
window to display
advertisementAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
s. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by
JavaScriptJavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within both the client application and other applications. It is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript, implemented as an integrated component of the web browser, allowing the...
, but can be generated by other means as well.
A variation on the pop-up window is the
pop-under advertisement, which opens a new browser window hidden under the active window.
Pop-up ads or
pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
intended to attract
web trafficWeb traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site. It is a large portion of Internet traffic. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages they visit...
or capture email addresses. It works when certain web sites open a new
web browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
window to display
advertisementAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
s. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by
JavaScriptJavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within both the client application and other applications. It is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript, implemented as an integrated component of the web browser, allowing the...
, but can be generated by other means as well.
A variation on the pop-up window is the
pop-under advertisement, which opens a new browser window hidden under the active window. Pop-unders do not interrupt the user immediately and are not seen until the covering window is closed, making it more difficult to determine which web site opened them.
Pop-up blocking
OperaOpera is a web browser and internet suite developed by the Opera Software company. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying websites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, IRC online chatting, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds...
was the first major
browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
to incorporate tools to block pop-up ads; the
MozillaThe Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
browser later improved on this by blocking only pop-ups generated as the page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except
Internet ExplorerWindows Internet Explorer , is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995...
allowed the user to block unwanted pop-ups almost completely. In 2004, Microsoft released
Windows XPWindows XP is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience"...
SP2, which added pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer.
Most modern browsers come with pop-up blocking tools; third-party tools tend to include other features such as
ad filteringAd filtering or ad blocking is removing or altering advertising content in a Web page. Advertising can exist in a variety of forms including pictures, animations, text, or pop-up windows. More advanced filters allow fine-grained control of advertisements through features such as blacklists,...
.
"Pop-ups"
- Certain types of downloaded content, such as images, free music, and others, can cause pop ups, especially pornographic sites' pop ups. Also, the pop ups will sometimes look like ordinary web pages, and the name of the site will show up in a search bar. Many websites use pop-ups to display information without disrupting the page currently open. For example, if you were to fill in a form on a web page and needed extra guidance, a pop-up would give you extra information without causing loss of any information already entered into the form. Most pop-up blockers will allow this kind of pop-up. However, some will reload the page, causing loss of any information that had been entered.
- Some web based installers, such as that used by McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is an antivirus software and computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It markets McAfee VirusScan and related security products and services, including the IntruShield, Entercept, and Foundstone brands....
, use a pop-up to install software.
- On many internet browsers, holding down the ctrl
CTRL may refer to several things:*Channel Tunnel Rail Link, a high-speed railway line opened in the 2000s in Britain*Control key, an input button present on most computer keyboards*Ctrl, an American comedy web series from NBC...
key while clicking a link will allow it to bypass the popup filter.
- Clicking (even accidentally) on one pop-up may lead to other pop-up ads opening, especially pornographic pop-ups.
Circumventing pop-up blockers
Advertisers such as
Casale MediaCasale Media is a Canadian online advertising network, headquartered in Toronto, which specializes in site representation via banner, rectangle, tower, hover, and pop up ads. Casale Media uses anonymous cookie files to control ad delivery factors including frequency and to make adjustments to...
continually seek ways to circumvent such restrictions. For example, some pop-up ads are generated using
Adobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform originally acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages...
. Since pop-up blockers only block the JavaScript method, the Flash method bypasses the pop-up blocker.
A combination of a banner ad and a popup window is the "
hover adHover ads are a special type of pop-up ads created using Dynamic HTML, JavaScript and similar web browser technologies. Because they do not scroll with the web page, they appear to "hover" over the page, usually obscuring the content.- Background :...
", which uses DHTML to appear in front of the browser screen. With the use of JavaScript, an advertisement can be superimposed over a webpage in a transparent layer. This advertisement can appear as almost anything the author of the advertisement wants. For example, an advertisement can contain an
Adobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform originally acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages...
animation linking to the advertiser's site. An advertisement can also look like a regular
windowIn computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape. It displays the output of and may allow input to one or more processes....
. Because the advertisement is a part of the web page, it cannot be blocked with third-party ad blockers such as
AdblockAdblock is a content-filtering extension for Mozilla Firefox- and Mozilla Application Suite-based web browsers. Adblock allows users to prevent page elements, such as advertisements, from being downloaded and displayed....
or by using custom
style sheetsCascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
. DHTML ads can be very
CPUThe Central Processing Unit or processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s...
intensive, sometimes bogging down older computers to the point of unusability.
Pop-under ads
Pop-under ads are similar to pop-up ads, but the ad window appears hidden behind the main browser window rather than superimposed in front of it. As pop-up ads became widespread, many users learned to immediately close the popup ads that appeared over a site without looking at them. Pop-under ads do not immediately impede a user's ability to view the site content, and thus usually remain unnoticed until the main browser window is closed, leaving the user's attention free for the advertisement.
Pop-under ads were first introduced by ExitExchange corporation in 1999. ExitExchange.com filed for the patent in 2000 on pop-under advertising. After years of controversy and numerous articles on the pop-under patent (see references), the patent was awarded by the
United States Patent and Trademark OfficeThe United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is currently based in Alexandria,...
(USPTO) in April and June of 2008. The respective patent numbers are
7,386,555 &
7,353,229. These first patent
7,386,555 is related to the method of opening a pop-under ad from a
toolbarIn a graphical user interface on a computer monitor a toolbar is a GUI widget on which onscreen buttons, icons, menus or other input or output elements are placed....
or software application on a computing device, and the
7,353,229 patent covers the method used to open pop-unders from an embedded script found within a media file (e.g. javascript code found in a web page). Such methods are used by thousands of advertisers on the Internet.
The pop-under ad is the first
Interactive Advertising BureauThe Interactive Advertising Bureau is an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry...
ad unit to have received a patented status. Although the pop-under ad is ubiquitous with annoying methodologies it still is used by major publishers such as
CNN.comCable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is an U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States...
and
Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000...
.
Pop-up dismissal
Users of websites and web applications continuously experience unwanted pop up ads through the course of their normal interaction with a web browser. Ordinarily users respond by dismissing the pop-up through the "close" or "cancel" feature of the window hosting the pop-up. Because this is a typical response, some authors of pop-up advertising depend on this, and create on-screen buttons or controls that look similar to a "close" or "cancel" option. When the user chooses one of these "simulated cancel" options, however, the button performs an unexpected or unauthorized action (such as opening a
new pop-up, or running unauthorized commands on the user's system).
Because the technologies for web development and design allow an author to draw any kind of "simulated" cancel option imaginable, some users refuse to click on or interact with any item inside a pop-up window whatsoever.
See also
- Ad filtering
Ad filtering or ad blocking is removing or altering advertising content in a Web page. Advertising can exist in a variety of forms including pictures, animations, text, or pop-up windows. More advanced filters allow fine-grained control of advertisements through features such as blacklists,...
- Ad serving
Ad serving describes the technology and service that places advertisements on web sites. Ad serving technology companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor progress of different...
- Adware
Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used...
and SpywareSpyware is a type of malware that is installed on computers and that collects information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's personal computer...
- Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code...
- Junkmail
Direct marketing is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media...
- Interstitial webpage
On the World Wide Web, interstitials are web pages that are displayed before an expected content page, often to display advertisements or confirm the user's age....
- 1-800 Contacts
1-800 Contacts is a privately held company based in Draper, Utah that sells various brands of contact lenses, including Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Ciba Vision, Bausch & Lomb and CooperVision...
— which sued an advertising company over its provision of pop-up ads
- Messaging spam
Messaging spam, sometimes called SPIM,is a type of spam targeting users of instant messaging services.-Instant messaging applications:...
- List of pop-up blocking software
- In-session phishing
In-session phishing is a form of phishing attack which relies on one web browsing session being able to detect the presence of another session on the same web browser, and to then launch a pop-up window that pretends to have been opened from the targeted session...
External links
- How To Stop Internet Popups - entry in wikiHow
wikiHow is a wiki-based community with an extensive database of how-to guides. All of the site's content is licensed under Creative Commons ; and the site uses a modified version of MediaWiki 1.12. The site started as an extension of the already existing eHow website, and has evolved to host over...
- Pop-under ads may hit publisher wallets