My first serious thread in a while... its finally happened

[FalconGuy016]

Im pretty sure everyone knows those newish ads that appear annoyingly in the actual webpage you are trying to view. Fortunally, so far, they were all kind enough to include a "Close Window" button, or if they didnt it at least closed quickly. But I stumbled across the start of a very annoying chain of ads now :( (it had to happen sometime or another, the simpliest and meany thing to do, im pretty sure all you guys got some of the ads before I actually did, but now im sad that I was exposed to it :()

See, when you click on "Clost Window" it still goes to the link

[Restola]

"Only you can prevent pop-up ads"

...by not purchasing anything from that company.

They exist because they work.

[shartley]

I have seen that one too, and it bothers me as well. I have become accustomed to pop up ads (I come to think of them like the inserts that fall out of a newspaper when you open it up), but when they provide a "close" link and it does something OTHER than what it says it does (as that one does) I think they went too far. That is deceptive and just wrong.

As for "they have them because they work".... if they make one sale in 500,000 pop ups, they think it works. Does that justify the ads? Maybe, but to simply say that if you don't buy anything from them they will stop using them is not quite accurate or even realistic. And honestly, I don't know a single person who has EVER purchased anything from a pop up ad. Sometimes things “work” simply because the salesperson who sold them the banner/pop up/ad space convinced them it DOES work, and little more. ;)

In my opinion the folks who make the most out of those types of advertising are the companies that put them in place…. Period. And the rest of us just get annoyed.

[FalconGuy016]

:(

[Cope]

Speaking of pop up ads I have a question...
Have any of you got one of these full screen pop up ads that are impossible to close?
There is no corner to the ad on any side so there is no X to click and you can't close it by right clicking either.
I finally just give up and do an improper shutdown.
What do I do when one of these pop up?
Anyone know?

[Cliffio]

just hit "Ctrl" and "W"

that will close the current top window


Cliff

[FalconGuy016]

all of those I've seen usually if you scroll to the bottom there is a "Close Window" button, I hate those though

[Cope]

Thanks Cliffo!
It'll be a relief to finally be able to get rid of them.
Yeah FalconGuy,some of them have a CLOSE WINDOW option if I scroll down but these new ones that have been popping up for me lately don't even have that option and it was really making me mad,I was trapped in the damn window!
Now I don't have to worry about them anymore thanks to Cliffo.:)

[spazzed]

pop=ups suck. Period.

Have you seen the ones that are basically a screen cap?
I have no pitty for people who actually click on those things expecting them to close.

[Gunga]

I think 'Pop Up Stopper' is the program I use at home to stop those pop up ads from showing up. I'll doublecheck though. It kills the vast majority of the pop ups. It doesn't stop the small tiny ones that don't open in the 'traditional' IE windows though. But that may be because I haven't updated the program since I installed it early this year. I love it almost as much as I love my Mag. :D

http://download.com.com/3000-2366-10170069.html

[Trench]

Buy History Killer... It has a pop up killer built in, and everytime you close all the explorers, it deletes all history... No more erasing after porn :D

[FalconGuy016]

lol wth :)

anyways, who needs internet when you have kazaa dood :p

[spazzed]

Think about that for a sec...

If there were no internet, how would ppl get there hands on Kazaa to begin with? Hmmmm?

/me could go deeper

[MantisMag]

Originally posted by shartley
As for "they have them because they work".... if they make one sale in 500,000 pop ups, they think it works. Does that justify the ads? Maybe, but to simply say that if you don't buy anything from them they will stop using them is not quite accurate or even realistic. And honestly, I don't know a single person who has EVER purchased anything from a pop up ad. Sometimes things “work” simply because the salesperson who sold them the banner/pop up/ad space convinced them it DOES work, and little more. ;)

you underestimate the willingness of some people to buy/join whatever they see. if it pops up and looks interesting they click on it. those contests run from pop-ups get ludicrous numbers of entries. anything that offers something free will get clicked on. and certain kinds of merchandise can be sold through popup. you just have to know your audience. check out the xcam. there are large numbers of people who surf the internet who would love a "sliver" type setup. the xcam appeals to those people. that's why it sold well.

[FalconGuy016]

OMG SPAZZED !!! BAH
you didnt get it, read the post before and mine again, repeat that if nessessary :)

[EsPo]

Originally posted by FalconGuy016
lol wth :)

anyways, who needs internet when you have kazaa dood :p

hehe.. hes right;) :p :D

[shartley]

Originally posted by MantisMag
you underestimate the willingness of some people to buy/join whatever they see. if it pops up and looks interesting they click on it. those contests run from pop-ups get ludicrous numbers of entries. anything that offers something free will get clicked on. and certain kinds of merchandise can be sold through popup. you just have to know your audience. check out the xcam. there are large numbers of people who surf the internet who would love a "sliver" type setup. the xcam appeals to those people. that's why it sold well.
No, sorry. I don’t underestimate it at all.

You see, I have been studying and keeping track of Internet Trends and habits for well over 10 years. ;) SOME of what you say is true, while other parts are not taken in full context of the process involved, or can not be transferred from one product to anyther. You are taking a simplistic view of a complex process. And most of the products we see in pop-ups are crap, with just enough “good” ones to help justify it to potential Pop-up Ad Clients.

Also, you hit the nail on the head with offering FREE things.

I always tell my clients that if you want to give free things all the time, that is the customer you will attract…. those who want something for nothing. And the last I knew, you can’t make much of a living giving away FREE things. ;) Plus, add to that that even I have (out of curiosity) followed some of these FREE things through the “click” process. And what I tend to find is that you never really get anything for free, and if you complete the process all the way through, you will find that “catch” that makes you not follow through with the “order”.

BUT, this would still provide the “numbers” for those who “clicked” through at least the first part of the process. I think if you looked at all the numbers, and put them in context, they would not look as nice as they did when you first looked at them.

I am not saying that a lot of folks don’t CLICK on what “looks” like free stuff, or that people don’t actually buy things from time to time… what I am saying is that those who sell the pop-ups are the ones making the most out of them being online. I am also saying that clicking out of curiosity as well as for the chance to get something free, is much different than actual sales. And the vast majority of those pop-ups are crap, and generate crap. And they don’t care about “knowing your audience” or even targeting correctly.

It is like those theme sites that generate millions of views….. want to bust THEIR bubbles, just tell them who is actually doing the viewing. ;) If you rely on numbers alone, you will get burned every time.

[animal]

I rarely get them anymore. I used a simple windows HOSTS file to remap almost every major ad URL to the local loopback address of my computer (I wish I had thought of it since it's so simple, but I can't take credit). So I just get an error box every time one pops up. They're still there, but I never get those infinite popups that keep spawning themselves :)

Stupid Ads.

[dcmander]

Alt + F4 also closes the top window, along with Ctrl + W.

I hate the popup adds that don't have a close button, and if you click on the X trying to close it, it sends you to more which puts spyware on your computer!!

If you guys have noticed your internet running slower than normal I recommend Adaware. It is a program you can download (use google to find it) and it searches your HD for spyware. Helps out a lot. I scan every week or so, and everynow and then i have .txt files that are from popup ads that contain code sending info from my computer to their sites. Annoying.

There is also a new "personal firewall" program you can use which asks for your permission when ANYTHING is trying to get into your computer/connection. Its probably annoying at first, saying 'Allow' for AIM, Internet Explorer, etc.. But once you tell it once it remembers it, so after the first few days after you use all your common programs it wouldn't be so bad.


Some of you may want to look into these if you have problems with spyware =\ I hate it! My computer/connection got SO SLOW after a few weeks before I used adaware.

[theraidenproject]

I'll say it again, as I do in every pop-up themed thread, Guidescope (http://www.guidescope.com). In about a year, maybe, I've proabbly only seen about 20 ads. However, I just add those to the block list, and I, nor anyone else using Guidescope, ever has to see it again. The only negative is you will start to dread using the net on a comp without it. I know I find surfing at school a chore, now that I have to see ads again.

[darklord]

anyone ever encounter those pop-up ads that are some kind of flash/shockwave-like thing...I've seen a few when I go to access AOL.com, they can't be closed until the animation is done as far as I know...

[spazzed]

sure have.

http://www.maximonline.com/index.html

has one for Skyy, I believe.

Welll... atleast they used too. :confused:

[FalconGuy016]

thanks for guidescope and adaware, really appreciate it

[Trench]

Hum... not bad programs... I am going to try out the Adaware and see what I can come up with...

[bornl33t]

find the Ip, with various TCP dumps and other cute sniffing progies, then set up you're linux box to auto ping them as fast as it can.... see if they care to get pinged 3400 time a minute.... :D


I have no clue if this would work, AND I'm not responcible if you get busted for it... but I sure as heck will laugh my butt off when something happenes...:D

[sneakyhacker420]

when one of the little buggers pops up, dont take any chances clicking on the little runt, just press

Alt + F4 and it closes the selected window, also a nice joke to play on your friends to shut down their computer when they are on their desktop :p

[WicKeD_WaYz]

here you can try downloading this it works for me...

www.webwasher.com

[MantisMag]

shartley- i guess you're right in a way now that i think of it. the majority of companies that actually make money by running pop-up ads are those that get you to join something and then sell your information to other companies. or send you newsletters with more ads which they get paid to send you. so although they aren't the ones creating the pop-ups they're still making money, but through more ads.

then of course there's those dumb people who will sign up for anything if it offers something free only to get hit with a bill a few months later. :mad: they end up paying because they didn't read the fine print. or the company offering a trial period delays the service/delivery of merchandise until just before the deadline to opt out. there's plenty of ways to scam people. and some people will fall for them every time.

[Vegeta]

Oh you have not seen popups like I have.

Enter: Active X + Gay porn popups.

Fifty popups at once, and for every one popup you close, two more open. And after you try to close a few and realize that it is useless, a box appears that says 'active x sucks doesn't it?'. Then once you hit 'Yes' to close that box, another 50 or so popups apear.

Oh yes, Active X is the devil. And it is seemingly easy to program with a copy of VB6 and about five minutes of free time.

[FalconGuy016]

ive had those vegeta... :)