September 02, 2003
New lows in pop-ups

This is so slimy how can it possibly be legal? Yes, that's on my work linux box.. a little funny, really.

Posted September 02, 2003 08:42 PM in Spam sucks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.unix-girl.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/903
Comments
On September 2, 2003 09:03 PM fluffy added:

I don't really see how it's illegal, if only because there's no laws governing computer error messages.

I just went there and clicked on 'yes' to see what would happen (on my Mac running Safari, so I knew it couldn't do any actual damage) and it just redirected me to some googlebomb page. I don't see what the point is, really...

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On September 2, 2003 09:10 PM kasia added:

It's an advertisement.

In IE that pop-up looks amazingly like a windows error msg..

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On September 2, 2003 09:57 PM Peter added:

I heard tell that there's actually a lawsuit or two out there that's tackling this type of advertising.

I believe the analogy that I found most apt was that billboards are not allowed by law to make their promotions look like standard road signs. (ie. the green and white thingies)

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On September 2, 2003 10:01 PM Jeremy Zawodny added:

That *is* nasty.

What *are* those RedHat bookmarks doing on your toolbar?

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On September 2, 2003 10:03 PM kasia added:

It's work, okay? :)

What's worse, that's mozilla 1.0...

Took a new screenshot at home.. Just for you Jeremy.

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On September 2, 2003 10:57 PM fluffy added:

Right, I know what it's supposed to look like. :) But still, it's a dialog box being generated by the web browser (it just happens to be at a webpage's insistence), and doesn't appear to be advertising anything in particular, especially since someone already has to visit the webpage to trigger it, right?

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On September 3, 2003 12:45 AM kasia added:

If that popped up on my mom's pc.. she would have turned if off right away and called me for help in panic.

See, I use my mom as a scale of 'normal computer user'..

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On September 3, 2003 01:58 AM Chris added:

That sucks. These guys have no shame and a just vulturing on the stupid.
I just know I'll get woken up in the middle of the night by my father-in-law for that one.

These marketiods need to get real with this sort of advert. Do you have the URL of the advert itself by any chance?

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On September 3, 2003 11:10 AM john added:

Funny - I read your article earlier and then just now mistakenly went to http://www.mappquest.com and up popped that "Ad." Without your warning I probably would have been a little nervous.

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On September 5, 2003 07:35 PM Paul added:

Hey

I wanna see your home ss too :-)

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On September 6, 2003 11:00 PM dave added:

Hey, that's protected commercial speech. Civilization will roll over and die if that's ever made illegal.

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