Tag archives: pop-ups

How Google saved us from pop-ups

Since the introduction of text-based advertising from Google a few years ago, the usage of pop-ups has started to decline. As the IHT writes, thanks to Google, there are no more monkeys to punch.

“Without intending to do so, the company set multilateral disarmament in motion by telling its first advertisers in 2000: Text only, please. No banner ads, no images, no animation. Just simple words.”

Among the online marketing agencies, Avenue A/Razorfish, says that about 30 percent of the more than $400 million advertising budget from its clients will be spent this year in text ads on search pages.

File under: google, pop-ups, text-based ads

Banner trends in France

Le Journal du Net (in Frech) has a good article on the “trendy” online advertising formats in France. The traditional banner popularity is declining (-9,3 points in 2005) but this is still the most used format. The 468×60 banner is still alive because it’s a complentary ad format, which works good when associated to the emerging rich media (skyscrapers in particular). Generally speaking, intrusive ads such as pop-ups and pop-unders are disappearing from the French scene, with advertisers rather preferring ads which fit into the editorial content. (see also Static banners aren’t dead)

File under: france, online advertising, pop-ups

Operation Enduring Freedom (from pop-ups)

After the Rich Media Task Force, we have the Pop-up Task Force. I love (!?) Americans taking everything as a question of life or death. Why don’t we simply call it “Operation Enduring Freedom (from pop-ups)”? On MediaPost, Jim Meskauskas talks about the latest guidelines presented by the IAB to help users and the industry managing the “pop-up question”. Let’s wait and see when the Anti-Spam Task Force will be created…

File under: Pop-up Task Force, pop-ups

Pop-ups better than spam

Focus RH (in French) presents an extensive overview of Bunnyfoot Universality’s recent report about pop-ups. In a qualitative research the behaviour of 36 internet users has been analysed in details, offering the following results: - only in 2 percent of the cases the brand name appearing on the pop-up has been noticed - 50 percent of pop-ups have been closed before loading was completed - 35 percent of pop-ups have been completely ignored I tell you one thing, if you find a way to defeat spam, I’ll be more than happy to accept pop-ups appearing in every web site I visit…

File under: pop-ups, spam

Dynamic Logic presents AdReaction Study

Dynamic Logic has released the first part of its annual AdReaction Study, measures consumers’ perceptions towards advertising. Consumers feel the “appropriate” number of ads that appear over Web content, such as pop-ups, out-of-frame and floating ads, on the pages they are browsing is 2 per hour on average. A full summary and comment on the study is available on iMediaConnection.

File under: dynamic logic, pop-ups

MSN UK stops pop-ups

MSN is going to ban interruptive ad formats. New Media Age reports that the ban will take immediate effect in the UK, Nordic regions and Belgium, stopping the serving of pop-ups and pop-unders through the network.

File under: msn uk, pop-ups

The future of pop-ups

Microsoft is planning to add a pop-up blocking feature to the next release of Internet Explorer. As NetImperative reports that the pop-up blocking feature would be available as part of an updated version of Explorer with Service Pack 2, which is scheduled for release during the first half of 2004. What will happen to pop-ups? Will Microsoft’s move declare the death of this advertising format? I believe the question will be also connected to the possible problems that will arise will all pop-ups in general, not only the ad ones. In the Company I work for, we are experiencing quite a lot of problems with the Google Toolbar the pop-up windows we launch with Javascript in our e-learning courses.

File under: blocking pop-up, browser, microsoft, pop-ups

Debating about pop-ups

On MediaPost Larry Dobrow focuses the attention on pop-ups, starting his analysis from the recent ‘Clicks, Ticks, and the Destiny of Pop-Ups’ session at Ad:Tech. I found particularly interesting the opinion of Avi Naider, CEO of WhenU, who said:

“Pop-ups are not a monolithic entity. e mass market accepts TV commercials, but that took 50 years. Remember, two years ago, people were writing off the online medium completely”.

File under: opinions, pop-ups

Again, against pop-ups

It seems like everybody can’t talk about anything but pop-ups these days� Anyway, here we go with another article against poor pop-ups, which I link because I like the title: Pop-up ads head to technology graveyard.

File under: pop-ups

Reconsidering pop-ups

As a user, I must admit it, I found them annoying. Not as bad as pop-under, but disturbing most of the times. I’m reading and getting quite a lot of opinions on pop-ups in these days since I’m writing a column for an Italian portal on the topic. Someone predicts that pop-ups will disappear in one year time (exactly like e-mail marketing, see this post) and I agree with this opinion if I refer it to big portals, while I believe pop-ups will still be used by many small and medium size Web sites. Anyway thanks to a link on Marketing Profs I’ve also found an academic paper on pop-ups that investigates timing of pop-up promotions that customers encounter while browsing informational websites. They might not be as bad as they appear to be. Timing as well as context are important issues when talking about advertising and online advertising in particular, and might offer interesting points in order to reconsider the future of pop-ups. The study is by Wendy Moe of the University of Texas and can be downloaded for free here (.pdf). Eventually a free academic paper! Thank you Wendy for sharing!

File under: academic papers, advertising timing, pop-ups