2004 - End of Popup Ads?
Last updated: Feb 4, 2005
The essential adware-related event for year 2004 was the new IE update,
released by Microsoft in the end of summer
(click here for more details).
The new update had a pop-blocker that is excellent at protecting you from
the traditional popup ads.
Unfortunately, the new IE version is available to WinXP users only
(it's distributed inside WinXP SP2 package). Nevertheless, as of Januar 2005,
30% of folks who visited this website had IE with a popup blocker installed.
Here is what Popup Killer Review statistics look like - 60% of all visitors
use WinXP, 10% - Win200, 10 - Win98.
One can guess is that the number of folks who use IE with a popup blocker
is to grow to 70% or so in the near future.
What it means is that year 2004 was the one when Microsoft buried popup ads
as the most profitable web advertisement model. One could easily guess that
something new had to fill the niche that was freed. This is exactly what happened.
New ad types entered the arena. They inherited all negative values from the popup ads,
yet became resistant to existing popup blockers.
Now it's pretty clear what will replace popup ads - Interstitials and InVue ads.
Before we start discussing the first one, let us first consider the tricks
such ad windows use to mask themselves as legitimate web pages.
Technically, a popup ad is just a new window. To distinguish "bad" popup ad
from "good" regular windows, the software uses a simple test.
If you clicked and a new window appeared, then it's a "good" window.
If you've done nothing (no clicks) and the window popped up - then it's a "bad" window,
thus we are going to block it.
Folks who developed new web ads knew that.
This is why Interstitial ads appear when you want to go from one page to another
and click to do so. This confuses most modern blockers, that consider click as
a permission to show a new window.
There are two types of Interstitials: a true Interstitial ad that appears
instead of web-page where you wanted to go. This ad is displayed for some time
(15-30 seconds) and then you are allowed to go where you wanted to go.
I was "lucky" to see an Interstitial ad before I knew the term for it.
I was so pissed off, I wanted to take scalp off the webmaster who doped me
into page, looking as something I had no interest in.
Now, when I know that it's a standard advertiser trick, I am willing to spare webmaster's life,
but still I think that this type of advertisement is more annoying than older popup ads.
The second type of Interstitials is Interstitial popups.
These popup ads appear together with the page that you request.
Since these popups appear as a result of clicking, most popup blockers don't react to it.
InVue ads are similar to popup ads - they appear up front, blocking website content behind it.
The difference between old popup ads and InVue ads is that the latter one is actually a part
of the page and can not be moved outside its borders. Obviously, InVue ads can not work
as popunders, because InVue ads disappear as soon as the page that created it is closed.
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