By The Way...

Here's something interesting for anyone who spends any time on the Web -- results of a survey asking people what sort of intrusive advertising they hate the most. Not entirely surprisingly, pop-up ads lead the list: 95% of Web users hate them (and the other 5%, I would guess, work for a pop-up company).

Interestingly, though, it's been a fairly long time since I've really been bothered by a pop-up. Between AOL blocking pop-ups when I'm on the service and using the Firefox Web browser when I'm not on AOL, I've pretty much shut down all routes of pop-up access to my computer screen -- and of course, that's exactly how I want it. It's enough that when I hear that pop-ups are still so hated, even if I don't dispute the truth of it, I'm still mildly surprised, because my own personal experience is devoid of them.

Do pop-ups still clutter your screen? Do you still hate 'em?

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #5 Comment from ladydriversammie 
  12/16/04 6:52 PM | Permalink

  Between AOL's pop-up blocker and my firewall I rarely get them, but I remember before I started using software to get rid of them I couldn't even get anything done for the pop-ups in the way.  In fact, I fell asleep once with the computer on and by the time I woke up a couple of hours later there were something like 100 pop-up screens open.  Ridiculous.
  
  Sammie
  http://journals.aol.com/ladydriversammie/MovinOn
• #4 Comment from rubyslipers4me 
  12/16/04 4:24 PM | Permalink

  Yes, those 5% sneaky, tech savvy, rude, trying to make a living, bugging us with their advertisments are not getting thru to me anymore. Whew! What a total relief. Like you John, I've loaded "TOTO" up (MADE YOU SMILE, lol ) with some of the best offered popup blockers and spyware and, most of them are free. It is disturbing, especially when your trying to concentrate, not to mention your privacy, then somebody want's you to refinance and mortgage your home. Or go on one of the top new hot DIET'S. Go away! Phaleezzz....The uneasy feeling of not being able to treat them like you would your regular junk mail.  Hail to the shredder!
• #3 Comment from mommysquiettime 
  12/16/04 2:26 PM | Permalink

  Honestly, I have not had a pop-up problem because of the pop-up blocker options that are now available on AOL and other software.
  
  BUT...recently, in an attempt to find some cool graphics for my journal, I downloaded "Freeze Animations" from Freeze.com.  It's free because ads pop up on your computer no matter what.  They are annoying and come at the absolute worst times.  Needless to say, I'll be visiting the Add/Remove List soon. :-)
  
  Micheyle
  http://journals.aol.com/mommysquiettime/RedFlannelPajamas/
• #2 Comment from pixiedustnme 
  12/16/04 1:29 PM | Permalink

  I rarely ever see a pop up - and when they do sneak through they are those annoying ones that MOVE, and then you can never find how to click them off >GRRR< -Kelly
• #1 Comment from justcherie 
  12/16/04 11:22 AM | Permalink

  I still seem to get them, even using AOL's popup blocking, and Netscape's when I'm not on AOL.  AND I run Spyware detection a lot, so it's pretty frustrating, I can't figure out why they show up.  But they're pretty rare nowadays, maybe once or twice a week.  What I really hate are those java ads (I think they're java anyway) which seem to not be technically a popup, but are ads that take over the whole browser window and you have to click on an x (which is sometimes hard to see) to get rid of it.  I come across three or four of those every day, usually on the pages for news agencies.