Shanti’s Dispatches

Not that it’s unordinary, but I was just assaulted with a popup traffic-stats booster.

I really don’t have a huge problem with popups; the educated users will block them. (this time Firefox let me down)

The problem is with non-sales-based sites using popups to boost their impression records. If you’re selling a product (like, say, wireless video recorders — i.e. the ubiquitous X10.com ads of the early 2000s), then you’re totally in the “semi-legit” zone when you use popup advertising to drive viewers to your site.

When you’re just some random content site, and using popups to boost your Alexa / Compete.com / Quantcast / Hitwise / etc. ranking, then that definitely falls on the side of shady.

I wouldn’t even bother posting this, but it was a local RoR-powered devshop that powers these sites behind the popup that I just saw.

You can bookmark this, digg this or check the cosmos