The advertisements appear in a new window, when a certain link or web page is visited. The window size can range from very small, to a full screen sized. Java script is the most standard web language that is used to create these web ads. These ads are very common and are intended to either attract web related traffic, or to collect email addresses for further spam and email distributions. A lot of these ads are genuine, but quite often are used for malicious purposes.

Another type of window used is the pop-under advertisement. This is very similar to the normal pop up window; however, the action opens a new browser window underneath the currently viewed web page. Since Pop-unders ads aren’t displayed on top of the currently viewed window, most users will only find them after they have closed their browser, which makes determining the source of the ad more difficult to locate.

Legitimately speaking, these ads can be used often for web site forms. For example, if you go to a page and complete a full web site form, sites will often pop out the form completion message or the next part of the form in a new window. Another common legitimate use of these pop windows is for image displays. In example, users click on a small ‘thumbnail’ image, and the full sized photo displays in a new popped up window.

To fight against some of the problems these ads can have, there are a lot of commonly integrated pop up blocker functions in modern web browser programs. For the most part, these browser protection features do an excellent job. There are also other solutions available via anti-spyware, spam and antivirus tools. You can usually adjust the levels of popping ad protection as needed. Over the years, these programs that help ease our online experiences have done a good job of eliminating the unwanted internet ads dilemma.

All in all, anyone that uses the internet will be aware of pop up ads and their effects on the end user. To the untrained eye, an end user can get easily scammed into clicking on something that could harm their computer or files. Luckily, proper use of anti ad software and a pop up blocker, help to reduce the threat of popping ads significantly. So the next time you see an interesting ad show up on your computer, be wary of the source it has come from.