History Fan said:
Asking for opinions....which pop-up blocker does a better job, the
one included with IE 6 SP2, or the Google Toolbar? I suppose I could
leave both running at the same time, but that might cause a conflict.
Currently I'm using the IE 6 SP2 pop-up blocker, and have been a tad
annoyed with the number of pop-up ads appearing.
So why not Google on "popup test" and check yourself? Disable the
Google Toolbar (or its popup function), enable the IE SP2 popup blocker,
and test. Then disable the IE SP2 popup blocker, enable the Google
Toolbar popup blocker, and retest. Which one blocked more popup tests?
I use PopUpCop (which isn't free and only works with IE) which blocks
them all and is far more highly configurable. It won't block
CSS-emulated popups or clickable images (popups that are content within
the web page that are designed to look like separate popups but really
are not popups) unless you configure its irritation level (it comes with
3 but you can configure them and add more) to block scripts, images, or
otherwise up the irritation threshold. Just because a popup test site
says it is a popup doesn't make it true. They'll present techniques
that are used to *emulate* popups but which are not really popups. For
example, visit
www.tek-tips.com and you will see what looks like a
drop-down popup - but it is NOT a popup. It is content present within
THAT page that you navigated to yourself. Neither the IE SP2 popup
blocker or Google's Toolbar popup blocker will block this emulated popup
(delete their cookie between tests since it is used to detect when you
visit and only presents the popup once per day). You will block the
emulated popup within PopUpCop if its current irritation level is
configured to block scripts (but then you can configure IE to block
scripts, too, but you don't get the convenience of a slider to switch
between irritation levels like you do in PopUpCop).
