PopUp windows for a PU blocker world?

[hommealone]

I'm interested in strategies for most effectively using PopUp windows in today's PU blocked world - making PU windows with the least likelyhood of being blocked.

PopUp blockers have become ubiquitous. Many people don't know how to adjust / filter / circumvent the PopUp blockers that they have. Yet links that open small windows can still be very useful - not all PopUp windows are ads.

I know that there are a few different kinds of javascripts for opening new, small windows. Are any of these more or less likely to have the window blocked from opening by various PU blockers? And what about links to on-site vs. off-site content: does that effect how likely the link will be blocked?

I need to put links on pages which will open small windows containing (useful!) off-site content. I'd love suggestions on the best way to do that, now that nearly everyone has a PU blocker of one sort or another on their browser. Some blockers seem to block windows that other blockers allow. What gets blocked most, and what least? Any and all strategies and suggestions appreciated! Anecdotal experience OK, authoritative or comprehensive knowledge on this question even better!

What about a test? Does anyone think this would be helpful? Would anyone be willing to work with me to design a test page (with various kinds of scripts for PopUp window links, to on-site and off-site content, and any other variables that any of you can think of), that WPW readers could then test with a wide variety of PopUp blockers, and report back on what works best and worst?

Finally, any other suggestions on how to find out more about this?

I'm all ears; thanks! - Paul

[webmasterjunkie]

I use a Javascript PU code on the home page of one of the sites I maintain. It seemes to avoid blocking pretty well. http://www.homesearch-md.com and then click on "current interest rates" in the middle.

If you find it useful, I'll gladly get you the code I used.

[paulhiles]

Hi webmasterjunkie,

Your "popup" link didn't display for me. I'm not sure whether it was my ZoneAlarm firewall or the Google toolbar that blocked it, but it didn't appear at all, so you might want to look around for an alternate javascript. The perfect popup at the Accessify site might do the job! :o)

hommealone - I think the vast majority of Internet users think of popups that launch as the page loads, hover ads, etc as a real nuisance.

There's also the argument of those wishing to improve website accessibility, I'm sure they would argue that there's actually no need for new windows to be opened at all!

I personally don't see any harm in a small window opening to display additional information such as a map or a technical detail. This is what I would call a requested popup, and shouldn't be blocked (IMO).

As far as Javascript resources go... there's a very neat centred popup window script at the charmingly entitled smileycat site. The author is careful to point out the potential pitfalls by citing the following Sitepoint article.
Beware Opening Links in a New Window

Paul

[hommealone]

webmasterjunkie,
Thanks. For me, the Pop Up worked when viewing your page with IE, but it didn't work at all using Firefox. I find it to be an especially interesting pop up window, in that it is providing content dynamically from an off-site source - that's what I want to do - (the contents of the PU window are not hard coded into the PU window, but are somehow inserted into it / generated dynamically from the off-site source using a javascript!). If I could figure out what is causing the Firefox/Mozilla problem, and a way around it, it might be a very good solution for me. Yes, I would be interested in the code if you could get it for me - thanks!

Paul,
The "perfect popup" article was interesting and helpful. Thanks. My client, a manufacturer, wants to "supply" simple code for links that their dealers can put into the appropriate pages on the dealers' websites, linking to "Product Information" pages that pop up containing content from the manufacturer's server. (The dealers wouldn't want to lose the customers into the manufacturers website, so these pop up pages wouldn't link back to anything else, or show the page url.) And since the various dealer's websites use any number of different computer languages, pop ups seem to be the only way to go.

I plan to make them all requested pop ups only, and will do all I can to make them as accessible as possible.

But I still wonder whether some type of javascripts are less likely to be blocked by various blocker softwares than others. For example, most JS's for pop ups use the "window.open()" method. Less frequently, I see some that use a "forms" method. (Still other methods use more complicated means, like "switchable hidden/visible CSS layers", etc. Given our particular situation - so many varieties of pages that they will launch from, and the need to keep the code short and simple - those don't seem too feasible.)

So, my original question is still out there: do some scripts trigger more blockers than others, and which?

If no one has specific knowledge of this - and my google searches on the subject haven't turned up anything yet - what would you think of a test page using various scripts to pop up a test-pop-up-page so that WPW users could experiment with their many and various different browsers-and-blocking-software combinations - and thus give a more than anecdotal answer to my question?

Or do you think that people in general hate pop-ups so much that they would not want to participate lest they help make this information available (to sleazy advertisers)?

[paulhiles]

Originally Posted by hommealone

For me, the Pop Up worked when viewing your page with IE, but it didn't work at all using Firefox.

Interesting! I found Firefox to be 100% effective in blocking all the popups featured in the links above, whereas IE would work with some, but not others. Any controlled experiment would require a wide variety of scripts and a comprehensive selection of current browsers. Some undertaking! :o)

Originally Posted by hommealone

do you think that people in general hate pop-ups so much that they would not want to participate lest they help make this information available (to sleazy advertisers)?

This was exactly the reason for my hesitation in responding to your post when I first saw it!

Paul

[hommealone]

"Some undertaking", indeed! I guess I'm thinking that I'm just going to keep tinkering and working on this myself for now, and see where it gets me before I try a test like that. If I run into questions or problems, I'll get back to you, if that's OK?

And you're right, this does seem to be a bit of a "taboo" subject. After all, who in their right mind wants to spread information on how to make better Pop-Up windows, for goodness sake!

But like you said, "requested" pop ups really do seem like a much different question than unrequested pop ups. They can be very useful and, as in my case, sometimes the only viable way to get a thing done. I guess the problem is in intent. What ever one could figure out about how to make the best of "good" pop ups could also be applied to "evil" pop ups as well!

One specific question that's coming up:
To make the links usable for JavaScript disabled browsers, the strategy usually goes something like this:

<a href="somepage.htm" onClick="PopWindow('somepage.htm'); return false;" target="_blank" [or: target="NewWindow" or similar]>

The idea being that if JS is disabled, the regular link will open in a "regular" new window. (But XHTML doesn't allow the "target" code.) It seems to me that A) not that many people - who are shopping at an on-line retailer, at least - will actually have browsers with JS disabled to begin with, and B) for those who do in fact have JS disabled, they would probably rather have the link function as just a plain old regular link anyway. So I'm thinking: I should just leave out the "target=..." part anyway. What do you think?

[hommealone]

Somethng else:
paulhiles wrote:

Interesting! I found Firefox to be 100% effective in blocking all the popups featured in the links above, whereas IE would work with some, but not others.

My Firefox (0.9.2) usually just opens "requested" javascript pop ups window into new tabs - my preference - (even though my options screen is set to "block all pop ups"). But I've just noticed that in javascripts that contain a relative url rather than an absolute url,

<a href="javascript:openpopup(somepage.htm)">

rather than:

<a href="javascript:openpopup(www.website/somepage.htm)">

Firefox tries to open "www.somepage.htm" and is (naturally) unsuccessful!

Sounds like I need to ask the Firefox folks about that, huh?

[hommealone]

FYI: Last night I checked the same "relative" url scripted link on another computer running Firefox 1.0 and the pop up worked fine. Probably just a setting or extension thing that I have installed on this computer that made it behave like that.

But it just goes to show how different browsers, pop up software, etc, can make pop up scripts behave differently or not at all, and how important it is to use a well crafted and tested script for PU windows!

And that's why I'm still looking for any and all tips, advice, script examples, strategies, etc. to help me write this darned script to be as useful and well functioning in as many browsers etc as possible.

Please lend me your experience and help! Thanks!