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War against popup blocker software
Microsoft has announced in the end of 2003 that the new Internet Explorer will include popup ad blocker. Naturally, it was foreseeable that popup advertisers are likely to start developing software to bypass it.
Java-scripts for popover ads was the first technology to react. Popover ads, also known as
hover ads, floating ads, inview ads and some other names, are not new and are already used on many websites, like Yahoo-Geocities.
In the beginning, tools that allow webmasters create popover ads quickly appeared.
Below is a small list of the manufacturers that have software for easy popover ad creation.
My understanding is that this software was not tested for compatibility with "industrial" ad engines and is created for use by individual webmasters and for simple banners.
Then, big boys joined the fight. In the end of April, I was sent a link to a site that displayed pop-up ads that were not blocked by several popular popup blockers. After examining their methodology, I came to a conclusion that FastClick (that's the name of the famous
advertising service) started using methods for identifying popup blockers and using alternative popup delivery methods, if
popup blocker is detected. Namely, displaying popup in modeless dialog window and (if that did not work), showing popover ad. The effectiveness of this strategy is extremely high - when I saw how easily some of the very best popup blockers are tricked, I came to a conclusion that the war is declared and it's just a question of time when other advertisers pick this technology up.
Searching the Internet resulted in finding some very interesting links:
A quote from "Can't stop the
pop-ups"
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Research shows the ads have only become more predominant since the rise of pop-up guards. In the last two years, the number of pop-ups and
pop-unders delivered to Web users has more than tripled. (Pop-ups appear over a Web page, while
pop-unders appear behind one, but otherwise they function the same way.) They made up 6.4 percent of all online ads in April of this year, compared with 1.8 percent in the same period of 2002, according to data from researcher Nielsen
NetRatings.
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Publishers willingly allow pop-ups or pop-unders because they command higher prices, and they're in high demand by advertisers. Ad executives say they can cost advertisers about $10 per thousand sent for top-rated sites. That compares with between $2 and $3 per thousand for a static banner ad that appears on the same popular site.
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Blocking software typically suppresses a new window. It detects a command known as
"openwin" for opening a new window, which would be written into the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) of a Web page. That command calls on a third-party server to deliver the pop-up or pop-under.
Deflating pop-up blockers
Some new pop-up techniques simply avoid that command, thus subverting blockers that rely on suppressing it. For example, some advertisers are sending pop-ups through a "user initiated command" triggered when people mouse over an object on the page, according to ad executives familiar with the technique.
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Many ad-delivery companies are now using technology to detect whether or not a computer or visitor has installed a pop-up blocker. If one is detected, it will deliver a floating ad to the page instead. Burst Media, for example, is one company that is experimenting with the overlays.
"Instead of a pop, they float over the page," said Jarvis Coffin, CEO of Burst Media, which represents ad sales for about 2,000 sites.
Undertone Networks, one of the largest distributors of pop-under ads, with customers including Yahoo Personals, HBO and
Orbitz, uses pop-up blocking detection technology from Zedo, an ad delivery company based in San Francisco.
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A quote from SearchEngineJournal
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WebAdvantage.net reports "A California rich media company has launched the
Popstitial, a new way for advertisers and Web publishers to serve popup style advertising to web users who have popup blockers on their computer.
The "Popstitial' has been developed by FPBA Group, a rich-media technology company. While the popstitial doesn't defeat pop blockers, it instead determines whether a popup blocker is being used. If so, Popstitial then serves up a full-page advertisement that can either be a separate ad - using Flash, video, animation or static images - or the same style as the missed pop-up/pop-under. Fastclick and some other advertising companies currently serve a similar ad medium, using Flash or DHTML to serve an on screen advertisement which cannot be stamped out by popup blockers."
Seems like this basically sniffs out whether a popup blocker is being used and if so, serves the DHTML or Flash ad. After looking at FPBA's site, seems like they have some BIG clients, including The Onion and ABC News. We may see a return to legit popup advertising, unless someone develops a
Flash/DHTML blocker:.ugh.
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Let us wait and see how it all develops. My belief is that when new "popup blocking" IE comes out, more aggressive popup display methods are likely to emerge to bypass the defense.
We can try to guess what methods are likely to be used. The traditional popup ads use java-script's open() operator, so all intelligent popup blockers intercept this operator and block its execution at that moment. Another known strategy is showModelessDialog() operator. This one can't be intercepted, but it works only if user uses IE. Technically, replacing this operator is very easy, and the effect is felt instantly, but many popup killers don't do such popups yet. The next likely step is opening ad inside a specially constructed intermediary object.
Java applets and common ActiveX controls (Macromedia Flash, Microsoft Help etc) are likely to be used.
These new windows will look like adware pop-ups. From the popup blocker's point of view
such popups are created not by browser but by some external program
(see: popup blocker tests). Most tested popup blockers are not capable of stopping them. So the second half of 2004 is going to be very interesting.
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