From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
2002/07/23
Kevin Stecyk never sees pop-up ads online.
Mr. Stecyk couldn't stand the proliferating ad windows that appeared when he visited certain Web sites, draining his computer resources and slowing his Internet connection, or the sounds and noises that accompanied many ads and drowned out the Internet radio shows he enjoys.
So about a year ago, Mr. Stecyk, a 39-year-old financial analyst in Calgary, Alberta, started using Pop-Up Stopper, an ad-blocking software application that suppresses pop-up and pop-under ads. "It's a very effective product that does as it claims," he says, adding that very few ads get through the filter. He still sees regular banner ads, which he considers a "fair trade-off," for free content.
Fed up with navigating around legions of pop-up and pop-under advertisements, an increasing number of Web users are striking back against what they see as overly intrusive, annoying, and confusing advertising tactics by installing ad-blocking software.
Blocker Battle
But advertisers aren't sitting still. Already, new formats and strategies are cropping up to outsmart ad-blockers. Both advertisers and software companies liken the situation to an arms race, where each side is working feverishly to outmaneuver the other.
"There's a battle going on," says Matina Fresenius, chief executive of closely held Panicware (www.panicware.com), maker of Pop-UpStopper, in Seattle.
Caught in the middle are the small Web sites that rely on pop-up ads for survival. Take Leon Mergen, who runs Antrophia.com (www.antrophia.com), an online gaming site with about 30,000 registered players. Mr. Mergen relies on pop-up ads to finance the site, but after serving some in-house ads, Mr. Mergen realized that about 40% of his users were employing pop-up blockers.
He considered locking out those who used ad-blockers, but rejected that idea as "too evil," in addition to the fact that he would be losing almost half of his customers. His solution? Serve ad-blocking users a message reminding them of his hard work on the site, and that "they were playing it for free, and they were actually stealing content." Mr. Mergen has also rolled out an ad-free version of the site that users can pay to access.
Although there are no official numbers as to how many people are seeking out ad-blockers -- some guess that about 5% of the online population uses them -- word is spreading. "People are putting their foot down," says Panicware's Ms. Fresenius, noting that about five million people have downloaded Pop-Up Stopper, which is free. The company also sells a souped-up version of the software.
More than 7.7 million people have downloaded AdAware, a free ad-blocking utility, from Download.com, a software distribution site operated by CNET Networks Inc., according to the site. Nearly 100,000 people have downloaded Guard-IE, an ad-blocking application from FailSafe Technologies Inc. (www.guardwall.com), in Salt Lake City, which was released in January.
There are some variations, but most of these products work by suppressing the code that launches new windows without a user's express consent. A few companies, like Panicware and Failsafe, are working on new techniques to suppress more sophisticated ad formats.
Meanwhile, advertisers and online publishers are fighting back. They note that ad-blocking software can break interactive features on Web sites, causing more annoyance than it solves. More importantly, they say, pop-up blocking is a futile effort because the format is only one of many they have at their disposal.
"We're not panicking," says Scott Sanborn, vice president of client services for iTraffic, an online advertising agency and subsidiary of Agency.com. Inc.
Neither are larger publishers, who nonetheless rely on more intrusive formats like pop-ups to shore up revenues as the ad recession drags on. Robert Cauthorn, vice president of digital media for the San Francisco Chronicle's SF Gate site, which uses pop-ups and pop-unders, says he has heard from a few ad-blocking readers, but suspects the total number of users is "infinitesimally small."
"My suspicion is that it's the political fringe that is convinced that everything on the Internet should be free," he says, while conceding that aside from users who send e-mails admitting to blocking ads, there's "no other way to tell," how many people are suppressing his site's ads.
Mr. Sanborn also believes the total number of ad-blocking users is small, adding that he suspects that for most Internet users, ad-blockers are both too technically intimidating and too much of a hassle to bother with. "How big a deal are [pop-ups] anyway?"
The Wall Street Journal Online generally doesn't serve pop-up or pop-under ads to subscribers, but does use them on nonsubscriber areas, according to Neil Budde, publisher of the site. "This is because we believe paying subscribers won't accept such aggressive ad tactics," he says. The Online Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., doesn't track how many people use ad-blocking software because the ads are served by DoubleClick Inc.
Backlash?
When they do hear about pop-up blockers, publishers say, it is because users are having problems accessing regular site features. "I have heard a few complaints from users of pop-up blocking software that some of our interactive features are being blocked," Mr. Budde says. SF Gate's ad-blocking users often complain that certain e-mail features no longer work. "There's all sorts of unintended consequences," Mr. Cauthorn says.
Edward Olanow, an 30-year-old hedge-fund manager in New York, stopped using Pop-Up Stopper after about six months because the program was blocking some functions at his online banking site and interfering with check-out forms at some online retailers. After upgrading to a new computer, he opted not to reinstall the ad-blocking software. "Sadly, I am now forced to manually close pop-ups," he says.
Advertisers aren't just waiting around for users like Mr. Olanow to uninstall their blocking programs -- they have some tricks up their sleeves to outwit ad-blockers. Generally, most strategies designed to keep users from ignoring or avoiding an online ad also work to outsmart ad-blocking software.
Increasingly, online ads float or zoom around a Web page, deliver their message and then shut themselves down. These attention-getting ads are believed to be more effective than static banners, and they have another benefit: Because they don't spawn a separate window that can be suppressed, these ads don't usually trigger pop-up blocking software.
Sites like MarketWatch Inc. and Salon Media Group Inc. are also using so-called introductory units -- ads that play for a few seconds before the site loads and then shut down, revealing the front page of the Web site. These, too, are immune to most ad-blockers. "We love them," says Dorian Sweet, vice president and group creative director at iTraffic, who says they are good way to get a message across without annoying people.
Ads that include sounds or music are also harder for users to ignore, along with spots that offer special deals, according to Messrs. Sanborn and Sweet, who argue that strategies to keep people from clicking ads shut are just part of their broader mission to engage users and get advertisers' messages across.
Panicware's Ms. Fresenius says that Pop-Up Stopper doesn't shut down these ads -- yet -- because they more closely resemble television commercials than the annoying pop-ups her customers hate.
"What we've found is that there are certain kinds of advertising that is intrusive to users," she says. Furthermore, she said, many Panicware customers are parents who download blocking software to keep inappropriate advertising away from their children. "We try to pick and choose the types of ads that we've had the most complaints about."
But the next version of Pop-Up Stopper will likely shut down more types of ads, she says. And new products that suppress Flash ads and other interactive formats are also on the horizon. Guard-IE, from Failsafe, selectively blocks some Flash ads without infringing on the interactive features of sites, according to John Kokanis, chief executive officer and co-founder of Failsafe.
Mr. Kokanis believes that Guard-IE will be able to block whatever the advertising industry comes up with next. Because Guard-IE is integrated into Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer Web browser, it can block any type of browser-based ad, he says. "They can never really outsmart us," he says, adding that the company regularly issues updates to block new ad formats.
In the end, advertisers say, they aren't trying to outsmart users or software companies. As long as Web sites remain ad-supported, advertisers say that they will simply have to come up with a format, technology, or medium that users will accept. "If everyone blocks pop-ups, they will cease to exist and we'll move on to something else," Mr. Sanborn says.
Some Web users, like Mr. Stecyk, can't wait for that day. Even though he is a fan of Pop-Up Stopper, he says he understands that online publishers are supported primarily by ads -- he just wishes the ads could be a bit less annoying. "As long as I am not bombarded," he says, "I don't mind the advertisements."
