Pop-up windows are extra browser windows that open usually containing advertising of some sort.
These can be extremely annoying and occasionally harmful. |
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| Pop-ups can be activated in many ways: |
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| Automatic: When a webpage containing pop-up code is opened the pop-up opens too. |
| Links: Clicking hypertext links on a webpage. If you clicked a link then the new window probably contains what you were looking for. |
| Mouseover: One of the most hated ways to activate a pop-up is when you pass your mouse over a certain part of the webpage. Usually you don't realise that you are activating a pop-up as you don't need to click your mouse. |
| Pop-behind: When opening a webpage a new window opens behind it. This can go unnoticed until you close the page you are viewing and see the hidden one. |
| Self spawning: A pop-up opens containing the code to open another pop-up which, in turn, can open another and so on. This can be a difficult cycle to break. |
| Multiple: Just as a webpage can contain code to open one pop-up so it can contain code to open many new windows. |
| Timed: When a pop-up has been opened the code then waits for a set length of time and opens another. |
| Time delayed: A webpage can contain time-delayed code that will not become active until you close the page. This makes it extremely difficult to know where the pop-up came from as it could be many seconds or minutes after leaving a webpage until the pop-up appears. |
| On exit: When you leave a webpage the pop-up appears. |
| On close: When you close a browser or pop-up window another one appears. |
| Slide-in: This is quite a recent development. Instead of 'popping-up' the new window gradually slides-in to cover over the page you actually want to view. This method has been developed as a way to combat anti-pop-up software as it uses the existing window instead of opening a new one. |
| Windows Messenger: Windows XP and Windows 2000 both have software called Windows Messenger installed by default. This allows you to send and receive messages directly from one computer to another. Advertisers are using this facility to send advertisements direct to users screens. These are different to browser popups - see the Toolkit section on Windows Messenger. |
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| Options - Most pop-up windows can be blocked with special software - [click here] |
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