Revenge of the pop-ups

Found on CNet News on Saturday, 16 October 2004
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Some publishers, still clinging to the ad revenue from pop-ups, are exploiting a workaround in IE and other Web browsers to send pop-up ads despite blocking software. In one example, visitors to the Drudge Report Web site who use the Service Pack version of IE or Mozilla.org's Firefox browser with a pop-up blocker will nevertheless receive a pop-under ad if they click a link on the page.

Pop-ups have played a controversial role in the world of online advertising since the dot-com bust, when the ads started coming out in force. At the time, Net publishers of all stripes were starved for ad revenue and willing to let advertisers get in their visitors' faces. Consumers complained loudly, and publishers slightly acquiesced by introducing the less-intrusive pop-under, which springs up behind a Web page.

Falk eSolutions, which sells technology to deliver online ads, has said its software will deliver "the guaranteed pop." When its ad server detects pop-up blocking software on a person's machine, it will deliver what's called a floating ad, or rich-media ad, instead. Many publishers such as Ifilm and AtomShockwave are practicing this technique so as not to lose ad revenue.

They just won't give up with those extremely annoying popups. Luckily, users can always fight back. Make use of your hosts file, fill it with the ad-servers and block the connection that way. My best suggestion however is to use a local proxy to rewrite the websites before delivering them to the browser. Even if a popup makes it through, it won't have a second chance since you can easily add another rewrite rule to filter that crap out. With all that, I don't see popups anymore.