If you use the world wide web, you most likely encounter one of two things every ... well, few minutes: a) spam email and/or b) "pop-up" advertisements. Both are unsolicited, both are incredibly annoying. The trouble is, there are actually people behind the world wide web who believe these technologies are innovative and even useful. Argh. Having discussed spam email before, I am going to focus a bit more on pop-ups here, and will try to keep things as non-technical as possible.

As you go about navigating around the web, you may notice windows spontaneously opening up all around you. These pop-ups usually contain advertisements for anything and everything, and unless you specifically clicked a link that said something like "clicking this will open a new window" you have just been forced to view an unrequested pop-up. There is a difference here that will be relevant shortly; when developing a website, programmers can make it so when you visit a given page an ad is automatically created and displayed to you. Annoying, yes? Well, not at first. But after spending an afternoon hopping around the web, you may soon discover literally dozens of pop-up ads floating around your screen. To add to the frustration, website programmers can cause more pop-ups to appear when you try to close one.

So what can be done? Given that the vast majority of computer/internet users are fully non-technical, you may be surprised to hear that steps can be taken, with minimal headaches and attainable software installations. First, I can say quite confidently that you are most likely using Internet Explorer to browse the web. Go read my writing regarding different web browsers. Internet Explorer has ZERO built-in capability to block any unrequested pop-ups. In fact, it allows certain programming code to more easily create pop-up windows (JavaScript, on by default). If you have been around the internet world for a few years, you may remember the "browser wars" between Netscape and Internet Explorer. IE won that battle, and Netscape has become an embarrassment to itself. The Opera and Mozilla browsers are now the biggest contenders, both coming prepackaged with one (of many) great feature: automatic pop-up blocking! I won't go into technical detail here about how these browsers block pop-ups, but I will say that they do not block requested pop-ups; obviously, the assumption is that if you ask for it, you are willing to accept whatever you may get.

Additionally, you have probably heard some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Earthlink and AOL offering independent pop-up blocking software or services. You can also search Yahoo! for "pop-up blocking software" and find ... yikes ... 69,000 hits. My own words of caution: I would generally avoid free blocking software found in and around the world wide web. There's an entire malicious subculture of the Internet devoted to hacking, trend monitoring, and web behavior analysis. Occasionally (but not always), free software will come from unreliable or even malevolent sources and will install more than just a pop-up blocker on your system. ISP services, from what I understand, are generally useful and otherwise "safe." Also, if you're devoted to using Internet Explorer the Google search company offers a "toolbar" which along with other nice features provides a pop-up blocker. I use this myself, and have found it to be a great add-on.

In general, efforts to block pop-ups are worthwhile and effective, but it raises the same issues as spam; why are we forced to create band aids instead of killing these problems at the source? Who thinks it's good marketing strategy to have someone visit a website, force an advertisement upon them, then have them back away never to return again? But I digress. Joe Internet can enjoy the world wide web but sadly, he must accept the fact that a few minutes need to go into preventing these minor marketing annoyances.

If you need any assistance installing or configuring blocking software or a non-IE browser, I'm here to help.

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