!!!CONGRATULATIONS!1!

I believe that the image to the right should speak for itself when it comes to this topic.

There are few forms of e-vertising more annoying, deceptive, and invasive than a pop-up. They come in all shapes and sizes, with plenty of bells ad whistles to attract you attention. Sometimes bright confetti fills the box with a big sign that says, congratulations you've won (blank). For others they try to trick you with fake windows warnings (note the fake 'x' close box). Or they could just bombard you with some load obnoxious computerized voice that drowns out your music with its monotone offers.

Regardless of the method all pop-ups work is the same way. They wait, generally on a delayed timer until you have been on the site for several seconds, then when you are just about to make your decision of what you want to read or click with pop-up springs forth, like a leopard from the underbrush, and intervenes. The particularly invasive ones will appear over the list of links, or a large block of text, hoping you might click it accidentally. For greater detail on exactly how they are placed look here. This comany does an excellent job of explaining why and how their pop-ups will boost your business.

But the real question is not how, but why. Why in the world would companies use something that is so outrageously annoying. The simple answer, because it works. Studies have shown that despite what people might think pop-ups, and the close cousin pop-unders, are dirt cheap in comparison to most other, conventional, advertising and generate an enormous amount of traffic. With 13 times the daily clicks of most banner ads, I guess that means there must be someone out there who clicks on these things.