05/15/2003

Eileen Faxas/11 News

You can try to ignore the ads on web pages. But there's no ignoring those pop up ads. You're forced to pay attention. And just as sure as advertisers crank them out, programmers are churning out programs designed to keep them down.

These days there are pop-ups that pull banners across your computer screen, drop boxes in from out of the blue, and disguise themselves as fake sticky notes.

Also Online

Tooto Technologies.com PanicWare.com PopUpCop.com

So the 11 News Defenders tested three programs that promise to control the advertising onslaught.

"Pop Up Stopper" is free from "Panicware." It did a great job of killing off standard pop-ups. It let's you know when its done its job with amusing sounds that you can turn off. But "Pop Up Stopper" was ineffective against other kinds of ads.

"Pop Up Cop" at the web site by the same name controlled nearly everything. But the $19.95 program also eliminated portions of web pages at the same time, leaving odd blank spaces.

The best seemed to be "Zero Pop Up" from tooto-dot-com. The $25 program handled everything we threw at it, including those really aggravating self-spawning windows. You know. When you close one pop up only to have two more take its place.

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Advertisers risk irritating you because studies show you're 50 percent more likely to notice pop-ups than regular ads.