29.4. Pop-Up Blocking

Pop-up blocking was new to Windows XP Service Pack 2. Pop-ups are windows that are generated by a web page to show additional content. A legitimate use for pop-ups may be to provide a glossary term, assistance, or a product photo when users click a link on a web page. This would allow the user to stay on the same page, but gain additional information that was not deemed important enough to have screen real estate devoted to it.

Unfortunately, the legitimate uses of pop-ups are outweighed many times by the more frustrating or downright dangerous uses. Typically, pop-up technology has been used to display advertisements to users in separate windows, to open (or "spawn") additional windows when the user navigates away from a site in order to trap them on the site, or to cover parts of a dialog box so that it appears to users that they have fewer choices—for example, to hide a part of the ActiveX consent dialog (Figure 29-3) so that only the Yes button appears rather than the No and "More info" buttons.