Annoying pop-up ads on Pink News
I’ve finally had enough of the advertising pop-up windows on Pink News! Grrrrr - enough already!
Here I am, trying to blog about something completely different (Stonewall’s vehicle registration FIASCO, as it happens) and when I try to open a new window on the tab next to Pink News’ ghastly in-my-face pop-up advert for some gaudy crap I can’t even remember, but let’s say a mobile phone package, my browser crashes and I lose all my internet pages and have to set up all over again.
Now, to be fair, the Pink News money-making ad may not have been the cause of my browser crashing, but that isn’t really the point. The point is these pop-up ads are highly invasive, look tacky as hell and cheapen Pink News’ image, and are very annoying.
Pop-up ads have a poor online reputation anyway (many blog directories refuse to accept you if you employ such tactics on your blog), and they are at the very least an inconvenience for the user. Not only do you have the flash of irritation when you see something going on your computer that you have no control over, but you are distracted by the ad, and you have to take the time to close the window.
What a bloody cheek!
UPDATE 7 October! The Pink News directors have today issued a statement to the Mothership Blog:
“PinkNews is proud of its reputation of consistently high quality
journalism the LGBT media space. We are a public service content
provider which does not make profit. All directors are unpaid and all
revenue from advertising is utilised to fund our paid professional
journalists.Our site rejects all forms of adult or provocative advertising and has
consistently turned down pop-ups.However, the interactive agency UTarget.Fox sell a limited number of
pop-under advertisements for PinkNews which provides an extremely
small amount of incremental revenue. They should be capped to no more
than one per day but most pop-up blockers including those built into
Firefox would prevent these from opening.We welcome comments on the issue and will consider the issue again.
Next month we will be announcing a new key advertising agency selling
on page advertising only.”
Mothership Blog says: there is something unsettling about a visit to a website opening a completely fresh browser window (pop-up, pop-under, whatever) without your consent. It is invasive, intrusive and inconvenient. Contrary to the statement issued by Pink News, the Internet Explorer browser pop-up blocker on this Mothership PC is enabled and works fine, but still we get the Pink News pop-unders. Internet Explorer is used by around 75% of internet users.
It looks like Pink News are reviewing their policy, and the pop-unders may finish when they change advertising providers. We think this is great news for Pink News readers, and will benefit the Pink News website too.
A Pink News pop-under that involuntarily opened on a Mothership PC today
By David Abrehart
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
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What do you think about the Pink News advertising pop-up windows? Comment here:
October 6th, 2009 at 10:52 am
They are not popups. Pinknews randomly opens new instances of the browser for advertisers. Very, very sloppy. I can’t think of any other site that does that.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
haha sister mary!
thanks Howie - i do actually block pop-ups - but the windows seem to open when i leave a pink news page, regardless!
anyway you’re missing the point i think - what i’m saying is their advertising shouldn’t consist of pop-ups at all! There haven’t been any for a few hours now, so maybe that will be the end of it!
October 5th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
hehehe u and pink news again, maybe it’s your browser …. or your anitvirus may not have an embedded pop up blocker. Try spyware terminator its free os some other spyware free pop up blocker.
I don’t have that problem though although I use avant browser instead of firefox or explorer. It has a pop up and ad blocker built in.
Howie
GLBTQ Jamaica
October 5th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Didn’t you mean Stonewall’s vehicle registration F14SC0 ?