BotSpot ®: How to block pop up ads

The lowdown on pop ups and pop up killers

The problem: pop up ads. The solution: pop up killer software. A pop up killer is a software tool that is able to automatically detect and block pop ups, leaving you free to surf the Web without disturbance.

In order to help you choose the best solution, BotSpot has tested and compared 5 leading programs that block pop ups. All can be downloaded for free and tried out at home. Check out the detailed results of BotSpot's pop up killer test, along with our evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses.

Click here to enter the pop up killer laboratory!

What is a pop up?

A pop up is an advertising page that appears in a new browser window while you are surfing on the Internet. Pop up windows are an aggressive way to ensure that the Web surfer sees an advertisement.

Why do advertisers use pop ups and pop unders?

Over time, Web surfers have become accustomed to the presence of the static rectangular banners, to the point where this type of ad is more or less 'invisible'. As a result, their Click Through Rate (the number of clicks per hundred impressions of an ad, a measure of the ad's effectiveness) has dwindled to an infinitely small percentage. Advertisers started to look for a way to get Web surfers' attention - by force if necessary. Hence the development of the pop up.

But experience has shown that when a advertising window appears in front of their eyes, the ungrateful Net surfer often closes the pop up window instantly, without even viewing its contents! The pop under ad is a more insidious response, as in this case the advertising window is not immediately visible, but remains in the background until the user closes their current browser window.

A subsidiary fact, but one which has its importance, is that since pop ups and pop unders are generally served from the advertiser's domain, each impression counts towards the advertisers overall unique visitor statistics. That's how X10.com suddenly emerged in June 2001 as one of the Web's most-visited properties, according to research by Jupiter Media Metrix.

Despite their universally recognized nuisance value, research shows that users still click more often on a pop up ad than the classic banner, and so advertisers continue to use it. Meanwhile, new advertising formats have been developed, such as Flash ads that float across the screen, full page TV-style ads, etc. Advertisers are inventive people!

Why do pop ups appear on my computer?

Pop ups can be delivered in two ways:

By the Web site you are visiting

By a software application installed on your computer

Many Web sites use large advertising networks to serve ads on their site. This is very common practice on the Internet today, as the site earns money each time the ad is shown, or clicked on, or each time a specific action is performed. Depending on the site, a pop up can be displayed just once during each visit, each time you open a new page, each time a particular page is shown, etc.

Ad-serving software applications (adware) such as Gator are commonly bundled with free software that a Web surfer chooses to download, notably with file-sharing applications like KaZaA, Morpheus and Bearshare. The popularity of this type of software means that adware programs have come to be installed on many millions of computers, often without the knowledge of their owners. Adware is able to identify the sites that are being visited, and deliver related advertising.

Comparative tests

AntiPopUp for IE
PopUpCop
Pop Up Dummy
PopUp Sweeper

Smasher

For example, the pay-per-click search engine Overture uses Gator to display pop up ads that overlay search results on leading search engines such as Google. Subsequently, the publishers of this type of application have been accused by many content producers of infringing their copyright, and are currently the object of multiple legal procedures. In the meantime, the ads continue to be delivered... CNET has pointed out that pop up downloads could be the next menace, where a pop up window invites users to download a (generally undesired and undesirable) piece of software.

How does pop up killer software work?

The first generation of pop up killers required users to provide them with a list of sites to block. All pages sent from these servers were automatically blocked. Since then, pop up killers have become more intelligent. By observing the communication between a Web page and a Web server, they can detect when a pop up window is invoked by a Web page, and close it immediately. But they are usually smart enough to know that when you click on a link pre-programmed to open in a new window, or use the 'Open in a new window…' contextual command, it is because you truly want to do so. Therefore they allow these pages to open, but are ruthless with the ads.

A second level of protection is included with 'block' and 'allow' lists that override the pop up identification system if you require special treatment to be given to a particular site. But generally the software is already fully operational and requires little or no fine-tuning.

The ideal pop up killer will block all the advertising pop ups but still allow links to be opened in a new browser window. It will be lightweight and unobtrusive, but will provide comprehensive information about the tasks that it has performed and contain sufficient options for personalization.

What other solutions are there to this plague?

Apart from installing a pop up killer, you could try :

Adware applications such as Gator and FlashTrack can be detected and removed using the excellent Ad-Aware software. The free evaluation version will give your system a thorough check-up and remove any unwelcome adware programs. Upgrading to the registered version of Ad-Aware offers 24/7 screening to prevent any attempts to install adware on your machine.

Faced with complaints from users, many major ISPs are introducing ad-blocking tools. AOL is one of the latest big names to take action to stop pop ups on its site. Google is another major site making a visible stand against pop ups, with its no pop up ads stance.