Pop Ups are still popping up

If you think pop up adverts had gone away, I'm sorry to tell you they are still alive and kicking.

Last August Microsoft launched a comprehensive security toolkit for its Windows XP operating system, including a blocking facility. Whilst this is currently keeping pop ups at bay for MS Explorer users, there has been a switch to "pop unders" by the spammers. A pop under opens itself, would you believe, under the browser and fools the browser into believing that it is not a pop up, as it uses different code.

One would have thought that it would not take a team of geniuses to sort the problem, but they have still not managed it.

Now around 30% of all US house holds have ad blocking on their computers. One suspects that sooner or later the lucrative income stream from AdWords on Google could come under threat. Basically the consumer wants to avoid adverts wherever it can, and summarily pressures dictate that adverts must be pushed.

It will be interesting to see who wins. The dynamics of the web dictates that there is unlikely to be a cut and dried final battle with one side winning and one losing. Too much money is at stake, and skirmishes will undoubtedly continue for years