To pop-up or pop-out

[garcia]

Popups. That is the question now.

Surfers don't like them--but--they will click them (crazy isn't it). Sponsers love them because exit traffic is a piece of the pie (3% to 7% if you believe what you read). Link lists and some TGPs dislike them because they pull traffic from their sites.

Microsoft, and others, are working to do away with them altogether. The 'others' arn't that big of a concern but whatever Microsoft tries to do they eventually end up accomplishing. There is even some talk of loosely grouping popups into the spam catagory which would bring them under federal regulation.

So what do we do?

The two lines of thought on the subject reflect the radical difference in 'webmaster attitudes'. Some swear that losing popups will cost them so much that they may not survive while others stand by the belief that signups will actually increase without popups because the surfers will be more at ease. Depending on the actual sites involved both sides have a case.

Is there a middle ground that will make the paysites, the webmasters, the surfers, and the govt happy? It would have to be something that is radically different from what we have now.

So far the only suggestion I have heard that makes any sense is to limit the popups to one only and make it easy to close. (This, of course, would make NOBODY happy which is why it makes sense.)

It would be nice to see the adult industry come up with it's own solution to this issue before Microsoft and the govt force one on us.

Anybody have any ideas?

[Evil Chris]

For now exit windows are still valuable and profitable.
My guess is that they eventually will go the way of the dinosaur, but there will always be something else replacing them that will be equally or more profitable.