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AOL Drops Pop-ups

Surprises

from the it's-a-start dept

Tue, Oct 15th 2002 2:12pm — Mike Masnick
In contrast to Yahoo's stated policy that they want to make advertisements as intrusive as possible, AOL has apparently realized that customers don't actually like it when you bombard them with pop up ads. Thus, they're getting rid of third party pop up ads as part of their new offering. They'll still give uses pop up ads directly from AOL about AOL - and this, of course, does nothing to stop pop up ads when surfing the web, but at least it's a start. It's amazing to me that more companies haven't realized that such intrusive advertising doesn't help anyone. All it does is piss off users, which always seems like a bad strategic move.
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6 Comments

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  1. identicon
    Nancy, 30 May 2003 @ 8:37pm

    I HATE POP UPS

    AOL says they are getting rid of pop ups, but the day they provided their 'Blocking Pop-Ups' Preference, AOL bombarded us with pop-ups! They come up when I'm typing an e-mail, move my icon somewhere else, so I still have to wait for the pop up beginner screen to go away, then click on the last word I was typing to TRY and finish a word or two before the next AOL pop up comes flying in again for them to 'block'. Once I get 23 blocks, my computer gives up the ghost and I have to reboot because there are so many pop ups in the background doing their graphic thing. Then, when I want to shut my AOL down, I have to X out of every pop up that is now on my computer. I call the ones that have telephone numbers, and tell them I will NEVER do business with them BECAUSE they use pop up advertising, and I recommend that everyone do the same thing in order for these people to get the message that everyone HATES pop ups. GIVE ME SPAM EMAIL ANYDAY COMPARED TO POP UPS. At least I can remove spam email at my leisure and it doesn't interfere with my business and letter writing. Pop ups are the VERY WORST FORM OF SPAM and AOL is PROMOTING IT! WHAT A JOKE!

    Nancy

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Shelia Andrews, 10 Jul 2003 @ 8:24pm

    Re: I HATE POP UPS

    I think it a get over when you pay for something and still can"t get enjoyed.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    jim norton, 17 Feb 2004 @ 4:00pm

    Re: I HATE POP UPS

    practice what you preach aol stop with the pop ups

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Kathy Jones, 17 Mar 2004 @ 6:53pm

    Re: I HATE POP UPS

    How do I stop these things? I'm having the same problem as you. Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks, Kathy

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Gail Nobles, 22 Mar 2004 @ 4:20am

    Re: I HATE POP UPS

    One would think that after declining over and over again to subscribe to additional services the subscriber would be releived of the annoying pop-ups. It is truly annoying.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Boycott Pop-Ups!!, 10 Sep 2004 @ 8:05am

    Visit this site and do your part to boycott Pop-Up

    http://www.popupssuck.com/

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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