Media: Web pop-up timeline

1. Media timeline:
Pop-up ads

2. What are pop-ups?
A web pop-up is a graphical user interface (GUI)
display area.
Pop-ups are usually identified in a few features. The
main one being their nature of ‘popping up’ when the
viewer didn’t actively open the window/page
themselves.
These adverts most often try to get
their audience into filling out some
questions about themselves,
whether that be their name or
e-mail address.

3. Pop-ups, how about pop-
unders
The pop-up actually has a different
variation of itself most often
referred to as a pop-under ad.
These ads vary from the common
pop-up in the way that they appear
on the screen of the user. Whereas
pop-ups appear instantly on the
front of the users screen, the pop-
under uses another code script that
causes it to appear behind the users
open pages.
These are used to avoid the intrusive nature of the pop-up and
remain unseen by the user until they are done with the webpage
they originally wanted to open, making it more likely for the user to
view the ad without immediately closing the pop-up as they have
already finished with what they wanted to view in the beginning.

4. What is the purpose of a
pop-up?
The reason behind someone creating a
pop-up can vary from trying to inform
its audience about something to selling
them a product.
The most common being of course the
purpose of selling a product or service.
This can also range from offering
subscriptions to a service, selling a
product directly or offering a discount
on a product if the user performs some
sort of action first, such as filling out a
form with their personal information.
‘Pop-up offering a discount to the websites user’

5. Original purpose of the
FIRST pop-up
The first pop-up created by Ethan Zuckerman, was created
as an alternative to the method which was used for
showing ads at the time. The original way that
advertisements were presented on the websites were by
simply integrating them into the layout of the site. Patrons
of the websites complained about the misplacement of
their advertisements so Zuckerman created a new code to
launch them in a separate window.

6. Dark side of pop-ups…
With the anonymity offered
by operating on the internet,
pop-ups have had a negative
stigma around their
involvement with viruses and
malicious downloads being
imbedded into them by their
creators.
These pop-ups are usually made
to be very obvious and made to
stand out. This would be
obvious to someone who has
spent time on the internet and
can easily see that this is a
malicious pop-up and they’ll
know not to click anywhere on
the ad and to inspect the delete
button just in case.

7. Dark side of pop-ups…
However, this genre of pop-ups
target audience isn’t the
accountant or IT manager who
would have resources on their
devices the pop-ups creator would
want to target, the pop-ups target
audience is unfortunately the
elderly and young children. These
two audience groups are the most
likely to fall prey to these sorts of
attacks as they haven’t yet had
enough experience with the
internet and are more likely to be
gullible to these sorts of malicious
behaviours.
Quote from “theconversation”
“It is estimated that £5-10 billion
is lost annually by victims of
scams, with the average age of a
victim being 75.”
http://theconversation.com/how-loneliness-in-
older-people-makes-them-more-vulnerable-to-
financial-scammers-73483

8. Web pop-ups
Pop-up ads originated on the
Tripod.com webpage hosting site in
the mid 1990s. Ethan Zuckerman
claims he wrote the code to launch
advertisements in separate windows
as a response to complaints of
displaced banner ads. He later
admitted that he wasn’t the original
creator behind the idea of pop-ups.
Zuckerman later apologized for the
unforeseen nuisance pop-up ads had
evolved into.
It seems that the original
purpose of pop-ups was
indeed to advertise and
sell, obviously. The
invention of the pop-up
stems for the mid 90’s,
when dial up internet was
still the norm and the
internet was still young
and reserved to a much
smaller audience.

9. Early stages of pop-ups
The 90’s
On March 29th 1996, BT launched its first
mass market internet service “BT Internet.
To help advertise their new service, BT
decided to use a pop-up advert to spread
the word of their new high speed internet
service.
It seems that the design of web pop-ups
hasn’t seen a major change when
compared to something like TV adverts.
The pop-up uses its two main colours, red
and green, to clash as they are their
complementary colours.

10. Later stages of web pop-ups
The 00’s
With access to the internet being an
everyday occurrence at this time, with
people relying on the internet for work,
communication and leisure, the general
distaste and infamous nature of pop-ups
also followed in its footsteps. People were
beginning to get tired of the constant pop-
ups they would interact while on the web.
This prompted the invention of ‘ad blocker’
software’s. These would allow users to go
about their normal activities without the
obstruction of pop-ups or any of their more
malicious variations.
The first major browser to incorporate ad blocker tools was Opera. In 2004,
Microsoft released Windows XP SP2, which added pop-up blocking to Internet
Explorer. These tools allow for the blocking of pop-ups as the user enters the site
and doesn’t block advertisements while the user is on the site, allowing for the
site and the advertisers to still benefit from their adverts.

11. Later stages of web pop-ups
The 00’s
A large part of the pop-up ads in the 2000’s was revolved around new technology
such as Apples iPod and iPhone. The mass popularity of Apple’s products created a
platform for individuals to use the popularity to benefit from consumers hunger for
the product. Pop-ups offering free products and lotteries were massively common
on the web in the 2000’s, of course being fake.
When looking at a pop-up from the early
2000’s (2001) the layout and design the
intent behind can clearly be seen. The
pop-up aims to be as flashy as possible
to first maintain the attention of their
target audience.

12. Later stages of web pop-ups
The 2010’s
Pop-ups have changed in their design and
layout to keep up with the evolution of
technology so their adverts can appear
believable and effective. The design of this
pop-up (2015) for a iPhone 6 S is much
different from those in the early 2000’s.
The design follows the style of an actual
Apple advert, with the product displayed
from both sides and the slick silver
background. The pop-ups developed to be
able to be more effective in their
objective.

13. Later stages of web pop-ups
The 2010’s
Modern smaller sites very commonly use a certain style of pop-ups. When you
first enter the site a pop-up would greet the user with a suggestion for the users
details or to subscribe to the site to maintain long term interest and users.
Pop-ups like this are aiming to not be intrusive on its viewer as they want them to
feel welcomed onto the site. The use of green both on the website and the pop-up
try to further their nature of money around the site. As the pop-up is for a website
that specialises in finances, the green colour scheme appeals to the viewers
subconscious which will see the bright green background and “Subscribe” button
and will be more likely to see the site as reliable.

14. Conclusion
The design of pop-ups has changed
through out its short time span due to
outside factors. The improvements in
technology and capabilities that
creators have has allowed for pop-ups
to have possibilities in design and
functionality. Where pop-ups were first
used to just take an advertisement
already on the site and transport it into
an external window, has now become
into a medium to greet site visitors,
function as a platform for mischievous
activities and is still used for its original
purpose of showing advertisements.