I hate popup blockers and find them quite annoying; but then who doesn’t? And although it is hard to find users who are “okay” with popups, some sites continue to use them ignoring the basic usability and conversion principles. But of course, that shouldn’t seem too strange since experts in the industry are recommending that ecommerce sites continue the popup practice. We came across a “recognized leading expert in web site usability and ecommerce marketing strategies” who gives the following advice to ecommerce sites that are trying to get more information about site visitors. Our expert recommends:

aggressive in collecting e-mail addresses, especially if it intends to eventually cease using direct mail as a touchpoint. For instance, it could use pop-up screens to capture the e-mail addresses of forum participants and of people who abandon searches or shopping carts

Okay, so this was not suppose to be a rant but I believe that designers who use popups to capture visitor information or alert him or her to special offers do so because they cannot figure out a good way of capturing their visitor’s attention.

Some sites are a lot worse than others. I was visiting doshdosh, when I made the mistake of clicking on a banner ad Maki had on the side. The link took me to adwords profits program. After spending few seconds checking out the site, I lost interest and decided to navigate away from it. But the guys at adwordsprofits had a different opinion:

There is a special deal they can offer.

I was not interested so I tried to close out of the popup.

No way. Things are not going to be that easy. Another one appeared. It is the actual chat window.

This time, I got a $10 discount right away.

I am not interested. Let me try to close out of this.

Ha! And I thought I could just click out and get away that easy. No, nope, no way…The third popup appeared.

The text said, press OK to continue. I assume that means to leave the site you need to click the OK button.

So I tried yet again.

But maybe I was not sure. The 4^th popup appeared again asking me if I was sure I want to close the chat window.

Only when I clicked on this 4^th popup, was allowed to exit the site.

Yes, the land of popup hell.

But adwordsprofits are not alone. Large, successful companies seem to still think that popups are okay to use. Verizon for example, uses a popup window to ask me if I want to chat with a sales associate.

I know that some people are okay with popup chat window such as this one, but guess what: I am not! Am I not considered part of their target market?

How about you? Do you mind popup windows that offer assistance from sales associates?