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AOL can also require all its advertisers to sign a pledge. It would ban them from using popups anywhere.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Ban popups? For AOL, that's just a start


Oct. 30, 2002


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, The Post-Standard

   America Online says it's going to stop putting popup windows on the screens of AOL subscribers.
   Big deal. I'm not impressed.
   AOL invented the popup window. I'm glad it decided to come clean -- after all, Web browser popups are surely the most annoying things on the Internet. But I'm not satisfied.
   America Online needs to set things right. It needs to help get rid of the mess.
   If my neighbor dumped trash on my lawn every day for three years and then told me he wasn't going to do it any more, I wouldn't be cheering him, just as I'm not jumping up and down with a sis-boom-bah for AOL.. I'd demand that my neighbor cart away the all the trash he put on my property.
   AOL needs to help clean up the mess, too. It can start by offering free software to anyone who wants to block popup windows from any source. All of us who use standard Internet providers deserve help getting rid of the popups AOL invented, whether they come from AOL or not. It can also stop playing games with Netscape users. You might not know that
   Netscape, the original Web browser, is now owned by AOL. When Netscape 7 was introduced a few months ago, AOL removed a built-in popup stopper from Netscape. Users of Mozilla, the browser that Netscape is based on, get the popup stopper, but Netscape users were cheated.
   The two browsers, Mozilla and Netscape, are almost identical -- except for the popup stopper in Mozilla. Netscape has a hole in its code where the popup stopper was.
   Put it back, America Online.
   AOL can also require all its advertisers to sign a pledge. It would ban them from using popups anywhere. In other words, if Amalgamated Acme wanted to advertise on AOL, the company would have to agree to a no-popup pledge, meaning no popups anywhere, for any reason.
   That would be a real start in getting rid of popups. Maybe others would follow AOL's example.
   What do you say, America Online?
   
   Want to get rid of popups now, without waiting to see if AOL's decision will ripple through the industry? My favorite popup stopper is WebWasher, a free program from www.webwasher.com. There are versions for Windows, pre-OS X Macs and Linux PCs. (OS X Mac users can block popups using built-in popup stoppers in the OmniWeb, Mozilla or Chimera Web browsers.) Be sure to read the instructions on how to use WebWasher before you finish setting it up.