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 Pop-Up
Ads
As a regular user of netTrekker d.i., you have probably become accustomed to quick
and efficient web surfing. You know that you can get the reliable information
you're looking for fast. But every once in a while, when you go to a site from
a Search Result, you
encounter pop-up ads. Pop-up ads, annoying little browser boxes that spontaneously
appear on top of or under websites, are clogging computer bandwidth.
Why Pop-Up Ads Exist
Unfortunately, pop-up ads will not stop of their own accord because, no matter
how irritating they are to most Internet users, they get noticed. The very
fact that the user must take some action to make a pop-up go away guarantees
that the ad gets more attention than a static banner ad. And more attention
adds up to more sales.
netTrekker d.i.'s Policy on Pop-Up Ads
Advertisements are a fact of life for many good websites. The economic reality
of the Internet demands that websites need to make money. Even educational
sites, if they are not sponsored by colleges and universities, need to find
ways to pay for their domain names and server space. We at netTrekker d.i. make
every attempt to include only those sources that either have no ads or, at
the very least, have control over inappropriate or obnoxious ads. A website
that has no pop-up ads one day, however, might have them the next, as the site
owner seeks ways to defer the costs of presenting valuable material.
netTrekker d.i. is working on various technology solutions in order to thoroughly
block pop-up ads without eliminating the valid and educational websites which
spawn such advertising, but our research and development of such a tool has
not yet reached the point that we can offer these solutions to our users directly
through our product.
For more information about how netTrekker d.i. sites are chosen, see netTrekker d.i.'s
Website Criteria.
What You Can Do About Pop-Up Ads Right Now
Fortunately, there are many Internet browsers and browser-based solutions that
are free and at your disposal. Although netTrekker d.i. neither owns
nor endorses these software solutions, you may find them helpful
for the near future:
Internet Explorer Solutions
Internet
Explorer (Free; Windows)
Internet Explorer offers personalized controls that allow you to disable
popups for specific websites or for the web as a whole. (To learn how
to disable Active Scripting in Internet Explorer, click here).
Pop
This! (Free; Windows)
Pop This! is a basic, no-nonsense pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer.
Just click, download, and install - the program immediately begins running
in the background and no further work is needed. Once installed, finding
the program on your computer and turning the ad blocker on and off, however,
is non-intuitive.
Other Browsers with Solutions Already Built-In
Mozilla
(Free; Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)
Mozilla browsers are full featured and easy to use. Select from a variety
of specialized browsers, each of which includes comprehensive pop-up controls,
tab browsing, and simple privacy controls. Because these browsers install
with ZIP files (instead of the standard EXE file), installing and uninstalling
the software can be difficult.
Safari
(Free; Mac OS X)
Safari, the default browser on all Mac OS X systems, has been designed
for speed and functionality. Part of its streamlined construction includes
a very effective pop-up ad blocker, a tabbed interface, and advanced bookmark
functionality.
Software Solutions For Your Computer (All Computers, All Browsers)
WebWasher
Classic (Free; Windows, Linux, Mac OS 8 & 9)
WebWasher Classic is an Internet filter that works with almost all computer
systems and all browsers. Customizable features include two different ways
to block pop-ups, as well as the ability to block banner ads. Although
extremely effective, WebWasher has a bit of a learning curve. This software
is free for home and educational use.
More Information About Pop-Ups
Most browsers enable their users to turn off client-side or Active Scripting
such as VBScript or JavaScript, which is the technology through which most
pop-up ads are created. The biggest problem associated with this solution is
that websites sometimes use client-side scripting as well, so users might have
to turn it back on to get the full use of those sites.
There are other pop-up ads of a more pernicious nature that infiltrate your
computer unbeknownst to you as you view a particular site. The mere action
of surfing the web can trigger automatic downloads onto your machine which
then automatically spawn pop-up ads, regardless of what website you are on.
It is very difficult, in these cases, to know what site initially caused the
download. One free program that can be downloaded and used to find and remove
these applications is called Ad
Aware. Again, netTrekker d.i. neither owns nor endorses this solution.
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