The Pros and Cons of Pop-Up Windows
When most people think of pop windows in their browsers, it is the negative vision of countless banner ads either they have experienced first hand or heard from friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers. As with most forms of technology, it can be used for helpful or annoying purposes. While the pros most likely outweigh the cons, the negative stigma around pop-up windows is hard to ignore.
Let us start with the pros of pop-up windows:
- The most original use is that a user may want to visit a new page without navigating away from their current webpage. As with viewing description on items you are shopping for. It is nice to have a new box pop-up with the detailed description come up, rather than having to leave your place on the main page.
- Many websites now use virtual help staff that appear in a pop-up box and ask you if you have any questions you need answered.
Pop-Ups get annoying and improperly used when:
- They are used to create a series of ads. Some websites will bombard you with numerous pop-up ad windows as soon as you go to their page. Annoying as this is, it is the website owners method for making advertising revenue. Anyone who clicks on these ads, is justifying the purpose of them being there.
- Though most pop-ups were ads, some were links to more malicious content.
The abuse of pop-up ad windows led to the creation of Pop-Up blockers on pretty much all web browsers.