How do Pop Ups work?

You’ve watching the latest Bennedict Cumberbatch movie on the internet (managed somehow), and every time you even move the mouse pad a bit, an annoying advertisement pops up onto the screen. How irritating does it get when you’ve got to close each window before you can proceed to see the actual content you intended to open?

Pop up ads were initially introduced to grab the consumer’s attention, because they suddenly appear onto the screen. When the user has spent some time on the website, cookies that are saved onto the Web browser sends out information about the browsing habits of the user, and accordingly related pop ups may appear, even across different websites. Even though pop ups have been found to be extremely intuitive, most businesses still prefer it more as compared to banner ads. It is believed by most of the marketing firms that a pop ad gets more clicks (on average about 30 clicks) than a static ad (just about 5-10 clicks). This may not actually be completely wrong, because every time an ad does pop up, you do glance at it for a second, and if at all there is something that interests you, you would like to keep it under consideration for future use, even if at the moment you aren’t ready for it. There are different types of pop ups- entrance pop ups (the ones that pop up as soon as you open the website, without giving you any time to even go through the website; the rudest kind), timed pop ups (the ones that show up after a while), scroll- activated pop ups (as you scroll down, the ad pops up when reach a certain section of the page), reader’s choice pop ups (the ad doesn’t pop up on your face, rather it is presented in a subtle manner) and the last kind, exit pop ups (asking the user to subscribe to the site when he/she is about to close the tab or window).

Most pop ups are Java applications. These days hackers send malicious codes and spyware through these pop ups, which may infect your computer or phones with a virus. While the business firms still prefer the pop up advertisements, the users have voted this to be most annoying manner of online marketing. So, you may want to download an AdBlocker.