July 22, 2002, 1:13 PM ET
Keeping popup blockers in mind
The Wall Street Journal has a story about the fierce "arms race" between advertisers and companies that make popup-ad-blocking software, where "each side is working feverishly to outmaneuver the other."
A problem, the article notes, is that popup-blocking software, like Pop-Up Stopper, often has negative side-effects. Mainly, if you disable JavaScript popup ad windows, you'll also disable any other site functionality that relies on JavaScript popups and does not provide an alternate, non-JavaScript link. This problem affects not only users of popup-blocking software, but those who've turned off JavaScript manually, as well. A few examples of inaccessible content at time of this writing:
- The "Play video" links in MSNBC articles
- The "On Assignment" link on washingtonpost.com's Camera Works
- The "War on Terror" video reports on sptimes.com
- Online polls on dallasnews.com and CNN.com
- Photo galleries on boston.com
- Video clips on cbsnews.com and abcnews.com
With JavaScript turned off, a user can't access any of those features. And news sites usually provide no explanation of why a link or feature won't work without JavaScript. (One exception: sacbee.com provides a nice message to JavaScript-disabled browsers explaining some of the site's features require scripting.)
There's an easy way to make your pages accessible to non-JavaScript browsers and users of popup-blocking software: Use the NOSCRIPT tag, and code your popup links appropriately.
Post a comment:
Comments on this entry are closed.
Don't see any comments? That's because my Web hosting provider has made a server upgrade that broke the commenting feature on this site. I'm working to restore that; please check back later.