The
Popup Problem
Tech Tips. Vol. 2004 No. 10
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There probably isn't a user on the face of the earth who isn't
annoyed by popup ads that disrupt Internet browsing. In response,
vendors, shareware and freeware providers have brought forth
a host of "popup killers"-software that attempts to
free you from this annoyance.
The Popup Challenge
The first challenge facing any such software is that there
are 2 kinds of popup windows, one of which killer software
ideally should always allow, and the other which it should
always disallow:
- Useful popup windows are those that are incorporated into
a site that you visit, and that open as a result of a deliberate
action you take (usually clicking on a link) because you
want to view what's in the window. Killer software should
always allow these.
- Annoying windows (usually ads) that open on their own,
in which you have no interest, and which should be disallowed.
Complicating the problem is that, as popup killer software
has appeared, advertisers have responded by trying to give
their software the capability to detect and work around it.
So another challenge for popup killing software is to avoid
detection and circumvention by popup generating software.
The ideal popup killer
By definition, then, an ideal popup killer will always open
windows you ask for, never open windows you don't, and be
able to escape detection and circumvention by popup generating
software. To this list of ideal "killer" traits
we would add, " be easy to install, easy to use, and
discrete in operation." As you might expect, there exists
no perfect popup killing product. Fortunately, however, there
are some that are very good, allowing all (or nearly all)
legitimate windows to open and killing the vast majority of
the ones you don't want. Within this group are several products
that incorporate fairly effective "stealth" strategies
to avoid detection, and within that select group (of less
than half a dozen) is one that's. . .FREE!
Our Choice: Popup Manager
Our small group of admittedly unscientific testers lived with
several free popup killers for weeks or months. We all agree
that Popup Manager is very easy to use and works pretty darn
well. You can download it at www.endpopups.com from one of
two sites listed in the upper right corner of the site. (When
the download is complete and the "open or save"
dialog box appears, close all open browser windows and select
"open it" to proceed with immediate installation.)
In use, Popup Manager appears as a discrete, narrow, vertical,
colored bar called a "widget" along the left margin
of you browser window. When it blocks a popup, the widget
changes color. (You can temporarily disable Popup Manager
at any given time by holding down the control key.) Place
your cursor on the widget to learn about a blocked window;
left click the widget to open a blocked window. Right click
on the widget to bring up a menu that allows you to:
- Tell it how to behave whenever you visit the current site.
(Options are: allow all popups on this site, or allow none.)
- Disable/re-enable Popup Manager.
- Update Popup Manager, which you should do periodically.
- Control a variety of options, including the widget color
scheme, size, and position.
Copyright 2003-2005 by Shulman Clark
Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.
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