Yahoo and Google help you block pop-up and pop-under ads. So do AOL and EarthLink. Mozilla Firefox, the populist web browser, has a built-in pop-up ad suppresser. Not to be outdone, Microsoft offers
one in its Windows XP Service Pack 2. Google the term "pop-up blocker" and you'll encounter millions of results and hundreds -- if not thousands -- of products and services, with names like Pop-Up
Stopper, Pop Swatter, Pop This and Pop-Up Zapper. You can download them in exchange for filling out consumer surveys, participating in various data-mining schemes and targeted ad campaigns, or paying
an annual fee for tech support.
Read the whole story at Wired, March 3, 2005 »