PopUp Blocking Comparison Test

Using PopupTest.com and a couple of sites with Flash related PopUps I performed a basic comparison to see which browser would block the most types of PopUps without interfering with Good PopUps.

Test Operating System = Windows XP SP2

Results

IE+SP2 PopUp Blocker = On (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

04 - Failures


IE+SP2 PopUp Blocker = On + Google Toolbar v3.0.119.9

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

04 - Failures


IE+SP2 PopUp Blocker = Off + Google Toolbar v3.0.119.9

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
FAIL - Come and Go Test (Says it is Blocked?)
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
FAIL - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

06 - Failures


Firefox v1.0.1 (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
PASS - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
PASS - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
FAIL - phpnuke.org
FAIL - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

04 - Failures


Firefox v1.0.1 + Flashblock v1.3.0.1

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
PASS - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
PASS - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
FAIL - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

03 - Failures


Opera v8.0 Build 7522 = Block Unwanted PopUps (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
FAIL - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

05 - Failures


AvantBrowser v10.0 Build 165 (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
FAIL - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

05 - Failures


Maxthon (MyIE2) v1.2.00 Standard (Default)

FAIL - Multi-PopUp Test
FAIL - Multi-PopUp Test#2
FAIL - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
PASS - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

06 - Failures

Note: SP2's PopUp Blocker was disabled during AvantBrowser and Maxthon testing.


Conclusion

IE+SP2 and Firefox v1.0.1 Tie for their Default PopUp Blocking Ability. Firefox v1.0.1 with the FlashBlock extension edges out IE+SP2. Currently there are no Perfect PopUp Blocking Browsers.

Why Adblock is bad for the "free" Internet

Irony: Firefox Advertisement in the New York Times (2004)

I can understand and sympathize with the general distaste for pop-up advertisements. They are obstructive and annoying but I do not sympathize with the distaste of standard banner advertisements that pay for all the free content we currently enjoy.

Again the idealists fail to understand how websites pay for their monthly server and bandwidth charges. For most "free" sites their revenue is generated through advertisements. Other sites use subscription services and the rest eat the cost. The ones eating the cost have another source of revenue usually not Internet based.

Since day one, I've understood the back end reason for banner ads. They are a necessity of free content. Lets be honest any web savvy user generally ignores all ads that they choose. So pushing features such as Adblock is harmful to the Internet, as we know it.

"Adblock is a content filtering plug-in for the Mozilla and Firebird browsers. It is both more robust and more precise than the built-in image blocker." - The Adblock Project

While Adblock is nothing new in terms of ad blocking software, it is significant in that it's current hype and price (free) is making it widely recommended and used as an extension to the Firefox web browser - this is a dangerous trend.

Adblock effectively robs these free sites of their revenue. If Internet Explorer came with a feature such as Adblock, you would effectively wipe out thousands of websites, maybe more. These are the same free sites users of Adblock frequently visit. The irony is how this is self-defeating.


The Future

If features such as Adblock become commonplace you will force an unnecessary outcome - one in which free sites deliver their content in a way that only disabling Adblock will display the content. Web sites that depend on advertising as their primary source of revenue should take notice.

Firefox Unleashes Spyware

It looks like the Prophets have been found correct and the age of Firefox Spyware is upon us. While the current Java Scheme requires user intervention, this is how it started on IE. Users were given Pop-up window choices to install a "necessary" program, choosing "Yes" would install the Spyware. I can hear the cyber cries now, as Firefox followers commit mass suicide, their beloved browser infallible no more.

"In a flurry of remote downloads, numerous changes to the registry took place and a sizeable amount of IE specific installs began downloading. Amongst the assortment was DyFuCA, Internet Optimizer, ISTsvc, Kapabout, sais (180 Solutions), SideFind, Avenue Media and something called djtopr1150.exe lurking in the Temp folder."

Double Standard:
Is there a Double Standard for Internet Explorer? Of course there is. The Firefox community will quickly dismiss this sort of exploit. It will be considered not important because it requires user interaction. Yet these same exploits found in Internet Explorer have been fiercely criticized by the Firefox community and used as a reason to switch away from IE. This is also why recommending Firefox, as a Spyware solution is very dangerous. Installing and using Firefox does not clean or prevent your system from being infected with Spyware. The parasites can still exist in memory, robbing your system of resources, killing performance and causing application crashes.

Pop-ups:
The infallible Firefox is currently being plagued with Pop-under advertisements that are displayed when you minimize or close Firefox. These are related to the Flash Plug-in. It turns out that Firefox does have the ability to block these but it was disabled by default.

"Well, we shipped 1.0 with the capability to block these pop-ups and pop-unders but we didn't enable it because we were concerned about breaking legitimate uses"

This is an excuse for "We could not write it good enough to not break legitimate uses."

Pop-up Solution:
There are solutions but again this requires as much work as it does on IE.

"To block pop-ups from plugins, open your Firefox 1.0 or 1.0.1 browser, type about:config in the address field. Right-click in the resulting config page somewhere and select New -> Interger. Type privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins in the resulting dialog, hit OK, type 2 in the next dialog and you're all set."

This pref can actually take three values:

0: open allowed
1: the opened windows are treated as popups, but they're allowed to open
2: the window is a popup, block it

It should be noted this solution renders certain web pages useless and blocks user requested Flash Pop-ups. A better solution may be FlashBlock,

"an extension for the Mozilla and Firefox browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves a placeholder on the page that allows you to click to view the Flash content."

Flashblock currently blocks the following content types:

Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Shockwave
Macromedia Authorware

Conclusion:
Firefox having only been out less then a year is already being plagued with elementary style Spyware exploits and Pop-ups. This is only a sign of things to come. The Followers however should have taken note to Beware of false Prophets.

Flash deceptively bundles the Yahoo Toolbar

This is just a very bad move. The Macromedia Flash Player is now by default bundling the Yahoo Toolbar. Just when you think some things online were a sure thing, companies like Macromedia have to come mess with it.


Why?

As far as I could tell online flash content was even more dominate then Java. Why mess with a good thing? The reasoning is simple, money. Some executive had the not so bright idea to try and make more money by pushing the Yahoo Toolbar with their company's most reputable and widely downloaded product, the Flash Player.

When you check Search Engine Watch it becomes clear when you see that Yahoo at 32% is fiercely trying to gain market share away from Google's 48% dominance.

It makes sense too why I am finding the Yahoo Toolbar installed on clients machines all over the place. By default I always install the Google Toolbar and real Spyware protection not the ineffective Yahoo Toolbar that includes some form of the false positive prone Pest Patrol. This is besides the fact; no one in the technical community uses Yahoo or has used Yahoo since Google came around. Even before Google I never used Yahoo. Now the new MSN Search is more relevant then Yahoo. So when you get a search engine that people don't want to use pushed on you, it becomes aggravating if not enraging. Yahoo needs to concentrate on gaining more users by making a better search engine not resorting to deceptive marketing tactics.

There are some arguments that there is a clear option to select to not install the Yahoo Toolbar but this is completely unacceptable. The two choices blend in to the page:

1. Get Flash Player 7 with Yahoo! Toolbar FREE (Default)
2. Get Flash Player only FREE

The average user will easily miss this since the Flash Player defaults to installing the Yahoo Toolbar and people will only see the very large "Install Now" button. I honestly almost missed this the first time I saw it.


Spyware?

While the Yahoo Toolbar is in effect NOT Spyware and actually includes a simplistic form of AntiSpyware protection, it is still not wanted. In this respect people label unwanted bundled applications negatively. In this instance I cannot blame them. Macromedia needs to seriously rethink their strategy here. When I download Flash, all I want installed is Flash, period.