Pop-up windows on the web are driving me crazy. Every website has them now. Sang sent me a link to this great free software that allows you to easily disable pop-ups while surfing. It was just a matter of time before someone came up with something like this. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Pop-ups are proof that the bell-curve of intelligence exists just as much in the world of advertising as it does in any other profession. If the technology existed, today we'd have commercials popping up while watching television and blocking our view of the screen. While flipping through a magazine and reading an article, suddenly a new page would appear containing an ad for vodka or apparel.
I'm running Pop-Up Stopper on my Windows 2000 machine with IE6 and it's working like a charm. Occasionally I visit sites where pop-ups are essential, for example when I do Windows Updates on software. In those cases, you can easily disable the Pop-Up Stopper by double clicking an icon in the Windows tray in the lower right-hand corner of your screen, where all the other Windows "lint" resides. To turn it back on, just double click again.
Sites that depend on pop-up windows to convey key messages or functionality to their users are going to have to consider alternatives. It's unfortunate when the rotten eggs corrupt a good thing, because pop-ups are useful in some cases. But as they say, it just takes one little kid peeing in the pool to send everyone out of the water.
Well, maybe they don't say that. You get the point.