Pop-up Killer Review

Tests

Last updated: Sep 9, 2005

In many cases there is no formal difference between an advertisement popup window and a usual new window. Let's formulate some rules, which can allow us to distinguish the advertisement popup windows from usual new windows.

• Clicked New Window: If the new window opens when the surfer clicks a link, such window is useful. The visitor has demonstrated the desire to perform some operation and appearance of a new window is this desirable operation most probably.
• OnLoad Popup Ad: If the new window opens immediately after the parent page has been loaded, such window is a popup advertisement window.
• Delayed Popup Ad: If the new window opens suddenly without previous user's activity, such window is a popup advertisement window.
• OnQuit Popup Ad: If the new window opens when the user quits the parent page, such window is a popup advertisement window.
• Camouflaged Popup Ad: This popup ad appears together with the page that you request. Since this popup ad appears as a result of clicking, it looks like Clicked New Window.
• Interstitial Ad: It is not popup ad! Interstitial ad 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.
• Windowless Flash and InVue Popup Ad: Windowless Flashes and InVue ads are similar to popup ads - they appear up front, blocking website content behind it. The difference between old popup ads and Windowless Flashes/InVue ads is that the latter one is actually a part of the page and can not be moved outside its borders.

Intelligent popup killer should distinguish these sorts of new windows. Intelligent popup killer should accept useful new windows but stop the popup advertisement windows. In my opinion the most relevant property is the ability to allow useful new windows and only then the ability to stop popup ads. I can sustain that popup killer will not stop a few popup ads, but I shall be angry if it will disable a single useful window only. So, a popup killer must preserve the presumption of Popups' innocence: the new window is useful unless it's clear that this is a popup advertisement.

To stop popup ads a popup blocker changes standard browser behaviour. We will check a popup blocker doesn't cripple useful browser functions. A good popup killer shouldn't cripple useful browser functions!

There are 2 groups of tests to calculate PKIQ (popup killer Intelligence Quotient): 1)Accept Useful New Windows and 2)Stop Popup Ads. Every test weighs 1 or 2 points. All tests from the first group weigh 13 points and from the second group - 28 points. To calculate PKIQ simply add points of the passed tests, then divide the result by weight of all tests (13 or 28, respectively) and multiply by 100%.

You can ask me - why a simple test weighs 2 points and a sophisticated test only 1? Let's consider an example. The program A has passed all tests except simple test, hence PKIQ=100%*(13-2)/13=85%. The program B has passed all tests except sophisticated test, hence PKIQ=100%*(13-1)/13=92%. Is the program B better than program A? Yes! The program A has made a mistake even in a simple frequently occuring situation and it should be fined more. Therefore a simple test weighs 2 points and a sophisticated test only 1.

I divide popup windows into several kinds:

• ordinary windows, which open when the browser executes a Java script operator window.open() and loads them from Internet
• synthesized windows, which open when the browser executes a Java script operator window.open() to create an empty new window, but doesn't load them from Internet and instead constructs them directly by a Java script.
• modeless (modal) dialog windows, which open when the browser executes a Java script operator window.showModelessDialog(). Such windows are almost identical to ordinary popup windows, but Internet Explorer doesn't fire any internal events, which are usually hooked by intelligent popup killers to receive a notification about new window creation. As we can see, most of intelligent popup killers don't recognize such popup windows.
• Adware pop-ups, which are opened by other applications (for example, by intermediate flash). Internet Explorer doesn't fire a "NewWindow" internal event for such windows, therefore popup killers, which are hooked to this event, can't track down such external windows.