Remember when we didn't think twice about clicking pop-ups?

Back then, I'd just click to make them go away. A sneaky one once installed adware that slowed my computer to a crawl. I figured out to use task manager to stop it (and now I keep ad blockers on).

3 comments

3 Comments

brown.ben2mo ago

Back in 2005, I found a useful tool through a pop-up that helped me fix my computer. Not all pop-ups are bad; some sites need ads to stay free. Ad blockers can actually hurt small websites that rely on that income. What about the good pop-ups we might miss now?

garcia.wade1mo agoMost Upvoted

Ha, you've got a point there. I once clicked a pop-up for a 'free computer scan' and ended up with so many toolbars my browser looked like a spaceship control panel. Now I block everything out of sheer fear. I do feel bad for the small sites, but my luck with pop-ups is famously terrible. Maybe I'm missing some gems, but at least my desktop isn't cluttered with fake antivirus alerts anymore.

oscarbailey2mo ago

Remember that for every helpful pop-up, ten are trash.