Pop-up Ads

Day 238 / 365

Kids these days using the internet with all the great adblockers don’t know the horror that was the popup ads a decade ago. There was no way to avoid them, they were everywhere. You go to download an mp3 for a song but you can see 10 different download buttons on the page, not knowing which one to press. Press the wrong one and you will be treated with a virus or an additional toolbar on your browser. It was actually quite fun to guess which button was the correct one.

How did popup ads get invented?

The origin story of the popup ads goes back to the 1990s. Ethan Zuckerman was working on a website called Tripod.com. Like other websites, this one had ads on its pages as well. Some of these ads were NSFW, and many users complained about this.

Ethan wanted to solve this problem, and he thought about using Javascript, which was all the new craze at the time. His solution to the problem was simple, he would open a new smaller window using JavaScript and show the ad in the window. Thus the pop-up ad was born, and the rest is history.

What was supposed to be a simple solution, quickly became an even bigger nuisance for the end-users. The internet was soon filled with pop-up ads, and many with sound as well.

Zuckerman later even issued an apology for playing a role in this, saying that “his intentions were good”.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Discipline and Freedom