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Internet Service Providers Fight Pop-up Ads

Aired November 08, 2002 - 13:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Internet service providers say you will soon be seeing fewer of those annoying pop-up ads on your computer. Sometimes it feels they all land on your computer at once.
CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg looks at whether the cutback is going to be real.

Is it -- Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Marty, people aren't alone in their frustrations, first off. The online advertising market has been experiencing a growing consumer backlash against these Internet pop-up ads for least a couple of years now. And some big companies finally appear to be listening. Internet service providers are logging complaints that pop-ups clutter annoy customers, clutter the desktop and otherwise break the concentration of Web surfers. Companies such as MSN and America Online, a part of CNN's parent company, AOL Time Warner, say they are cutting back on this type of advertising. AOL says that with its latest version, 8.0, no pop-ups will be posted from third parties, but they will continue to allow pop-up ads and announcements in the dozens of AOL Time Warner companies.

Now, this is where the plot thickens. If we can look at this. It's a full-page ad that ran a few days ago in "The New York Times." It is the latest campaign from EarthLink. It asks, "What can you expect now that AOL only allows pop-up ads from AOL Time Warner businesses?" As you can see here, 315 properties AOL Time Warner properties are listed. The ad reads at the bottom, "We're guessing a lot of pop-ups."

Is that true? Is that fair? We spoke to the Nielson//NetRatings people and they say it's simply too soon to tell. AOL version 8.0 just launched a few weeks ago. Citing proprietary reasons, AOL would not say what percentage of overall pop-up ads would be eliminated as part of the company's decision, saying only that the change would be, "significant." They added that it won't receive $30 million in 2003 as a result of dropping these third party pop-ups.

But happy consumers make for happy advertisers. EarthLink has been claiming all along that it does not allow any pop-ups on its service. We checked it out, and it appears that they don't. EarthLink has actually integrated prevention technology into its software that blocks pop-ups, period. MSN, the second largest Internet service provider to AOL says its new version, MSN 8, is going a bit farther than AOL, but not as far as EarthLink. MSN says that when you log on, as long as you stay on an MSN content page, you will not see any pop-ups, not even from Microsoft properties. However, on MSN, if you leave their content pages, you will see pop-ups. In other words, they don't have this prevention technology built into their service.

To give you an overview of the scope of pop-up advertisements, people think it is just everywhere. We have a few numbers here from the analysts at Nielson//NetRatings. First of all, you can see a description of what a pop-up ad is. It's opening a new browser window automatically without any input from the user. Some of them even pop under the browser so you don't see them till you close it. As well, community yellow pages and gaming sites are simply loaded with them.

Interestingly, up to this point -- up to July of this year -- there were 11.3 billion pop-up ads, but fewer than 10 percent of companies on online actually use them. And that makes up only 2 percent of the entire online advertising market. That may surprise a lot of people.

The most frequent use of pop-up ads come from companies people are probably familiar with online: X-10 digital camera, which people may have seen a lot of; Orbitz, the travel service; also Providian Financial; Cendant; and Cassava. These are just a number of the ones that are putting online pop-up ads out there.

The bottom line, according to one analyst we spoke to, is that as long as these companies pop-up ads. As long as companies continue to see them profitable, they will keep putting them out there.

SAVIDGE: Daniel, while you catch your breath, let me ask you this: Can I go out there and buy something where I don't have to leave it in the hands of the big guys, I get rid of them myself?

SIEBERG: You can, absolutely. There are programs on the market today besides the one offered by EarthLink that you can install on your computer that literally stop all pop-ups. The problem with that is there are legitimate pop-ups out there, and it stops all of them. We can name a few of them. If you want to go to a site like panicwear.com (ph), as well as adsgone.com, popupkiller.net These are just a few of the sites that are out there. The best thing to do is to do a search online for pop-up killer or pop-up blocker software. Some of it is free, some of it does cost some money, but they are very effective when it comes to stopping pop-up ads. But as I say, sometimes a little too effective if you actually want to see some of these things.

SAVIDGE: Got it. Daniel Sieberg, thanks for popping in. We appreciate it. Have a good weekend.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 8, 2002 - 13:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Internet service providers say you will soon be seeing fewer of those annoying pop-up ads on your computer. Sometimes it feels they all land on your computer at once.
CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg looks at whether the cutback is going to be real.

Is it -- Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Marty, people aren't alone in their frustrations, first off. The online advertising market has been experiencing a growing consumer backlash against these Internet pop-up ads for least a couple of years now. And some big companies finally appear to be listening. Internet service providers are logging complaints that pop-ups clutter annoy customers, clutter the desktop and otherwise break the concentration of Web surfers. Companies such as MSN and America Online, a part of CNN's parent company, AOL Time Warner, say they are cutting back on this type of advertising. AOL says that with its latest version, 8.0, no pop-ups will be posted from third parties, but they will continue to allow pop-up ads and announcements in the dozens of AOL Time Warner companies.

Now, this is where the plot thickens. If we can look at this. It's a full-page ad that ran a few days ago in "The New York Times." It is the latest campaign from EarthLink. It asks, "What can you expect now that AOL only allows pop-up ads from AOL Time Warner businesses?" As you can see here, 315 properties AOL Time Warner properties are listed. The ad reads at the bottom, "We're guessing a lot of pop-ups."

Is that true? Is that fair? We spoke to the Nielson//NetRatings people and they say it's simply too soon to tell. AOL version 8.0 just launched a few weeks ago. Citing proprietary reasons, AOL would not say what percentage of overall pop-up ads would be eliminated as part of the company's decision, saying only that the change would be, "significant." They added that it won't receive $30 million in 2003 as a result of dropping these third party pop-ups.

But happy consumers make for happy advertisers. EarthLink has been claiming all along that it does not allow any pop-ups on its service. We checked it out, and it appears that they don't. EarthLink has actually integrated prevention technology into its software that blocks pop-ups, period. MSN, the second largest Internet service provider to AOL says its new version, MSN 8, is going a bit farther than AOL, but not as far as EarthLink. MSN says that when you log on, as long as you stay on an MSN content page, you will not see any pop-ups, not even from Microsoft properties. However, on MSN, if you leave their content pages, you will see pop-ups. In other words, they don't have this prevention technology built into their service.

To give you an overview of the scope of pop-up advertisements, people think it is just everywhere. We have a few numbers here from the analysts at Nielson//NetRatings. First of all, you can see a description of what a pop-up ad is. It's opening a new browser window automatically without any input from the user. Some of them even pop under the browser so you don't see them till you close it. As well, community yellow pages and gaming sites are simply loaded with them.

Interestingly, up to this point -- up to July of this year -- there were 11.3 billion pop-up ads, but fewer than 10 percent of companies on online actually use them. And that makes up only 2 percent of the entire online advertising market. That may surprise a lot of people.

The most frequent use of pop-up ads come from companies people are probably familiar with online: X-10 digital camera, which people may have seen a lot of; Orbitz, the travel service; also Providian Financial; Cendant; and Cassava. These are just a number of the ones that are putting online pop-up ads out there.

The bottom line, according to one analyst we spoke to, is that as long as these companies pop-up ads. As long as companies continue to see them profitable, they will keep putting them out there.

SAVIDGE: Daniel, while you catch your breath, let me ask you this: Can I go out there and buy something where I don't have to leave it in the hands of the big guys, I get rid of them myself?

SIEBERG: You can, absolutely. There are programs on the market today besides the one offered by EarthLink that you can install on your computer that literally stop all pop-ups. The problem with that is there are legitimate pop-ups out there, and it stops all of them. We can name a few of them. If you want to go to a site like panicwear.com (ph), as well as adsgone.com, popupkiller.net These are just a few of the sites that are out there. The best thing to do is to do a search online for pop-up killer or pop-up blocker software. Some of it is free, some of it does cost some money, but they are very effective when it comes to stopping pop-up ads. But as I say, sometimes a little too effective if you actually want to see some of these things.

SAVIDGE: Got it. Daniel Sieberg, thanks for popping in. We appreciate it. Have a good weekend.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com