Annoying disturbances slow down surfing

October 5, 2002 1:01 am

A form of advertising that was born in the realm of Internet porn has gone mainstream, much to the dismay of many Web surfers.

It's an in-your-face, against-your-will, freezing-up-your-computer aggressive style of advertising: the pop-up ad.

"I see them right up there with spam and telemarketers," said Jim Wittington, a Fredericksburg resident who once owned a Web-hosting company in Colorado. "I kind of associate it with the bottom-feeders of the marketing world."

Pop-up ads open new windows, often times barging in when a Web browser is viewing something else. Some sites have multiple ads that pop up or under the main window at once, taxing the computer's ability to process information. All pop ads require that you take action to remove them.

Mere months ago, pop-up ads were rare. First, pornography sites used them. Then, the X10 wireless camera invaded via the pop-up ad and is still the top pop-up advertiser online.

But now many mainstream sites sell space for them, like Yahoo and New York Times Web sites. And many popular companies are using them to advertise. Orbitz, the well-known travel site, had the second highest number of pop-up ads for the first seven months of this year.

Even though it may seem prolific, pop ads still make up just a minor chunk of online advertising. Advertisers purchased and launched more than 11.3 billion pop-up and pop-under ad impressions for the first seven months of 2002, equivalent to just two percent of the online advertising market, according to Nielson-Netratings.

So how do you make it stop?

One solution is to install anti-pop-up software. Jon Oringer, CEO and founder of SurfSecret, a New York City-based software company, said his company's "PopupEliminator" software has been hot since its release in February.

He said that's because people detest pop ads so passionately.

"Aside from spam, it seems like the most annoying experience," he said. "I hate them, too."

Oringer believes it's the forcefulness of pop-up ads that aggravates Web-surfers.

"All the years you've been using computers, whatever windows you opened up, you knew you opened yourself," he said. "All of a sudden, it's happening without your control. It really destroys concentration."

Even though Nielson-Netratings show just 9.2 percent of online advertisers use pop ads, Orringer said these ads are the ones most noticed.

"The ones using them are doing it so aggressively," he said.

Frank Catalano, co-author of "Internet Marketing for Dummies" and a Seattle marketing consultant, said there is a reason people are seeing so many pop-up ads: they work.

"Nobody uses a form of advertising for very long if it doesn't work," he said.

He said Web sites that choose to allow pop-up ads on their pages are risking the alienation of their visitors.

"Is it worth the risk for a company to irritate its customers just for short-term gain?" Catalano asked.

Indeed, a Burst Media study showed that more than a third of Americans will leave a Web site if it has too many ads.

Infospace, the owner and operator of the Webcrawler search engine site, decided to take the long view.

Starting in July, they tested eliminating all pop and banner advertising. It was so successful, they've ditched those ads.

Yes, the site lost ad revenue. But more people used Webcrawler, boosting income. They make money through contracts with other search engines, which Webcrawler searches to provide results.

"It was really to reward the user, and they responded," said Steve Stratz, senior manager of public relations for Infospace.

Wittington noted that the dilemma is that some Web sites simply need the money that pop-up ad revenue provides. He is now a machine control manager for the Washington Post.

"There is some money in them if you're looking to pay for your Web site," he said.

Catalano said the tech-industry collapse, which started in early 2001, continues and feeds the pop-up industry. Online ad revenue plummeted, and these sites had to find a new way to bring in income.

He said anyone who wants to take a stand against pop-up ads should really stop visiting sites that use them.

But keep in mind: all this great Web content has to be paid for somehow.

"Unless you're paying for the privilege of going to a Web site, you're going to have to put up with advertising, and it's probably going to be annoying," he said.

Catalano noted that people probably had similar distaste when television shows stopped simply having sponsors and started being interrupted by commercials.

And pop-up ads are probably not the last form of advertising, and maybe not even the most irritating, he said.

"I'm sure some other incredibly obnoxious form of advertising will come our way," he said.