• by Jim Meskauskas , May 6, 2004

On April 29th, the first light against the darkness since Google built a pop-up blocker in its tool bar, shone for all in the industry to see.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) issued guidelines to its membership and the publisher community at large for the governance of pop-up and pop-under ad units.

These units, which have caused so much consternation for so many, and whose very existence has alone done more to undermine the integrity of the online advertising industry (believing that we have any in the first place, and I would argue that we do), are finally being addressed with leadership and a single voice from the industry.

As the IAB stated in its press release, the Pop-Up Task Force issued voluntary guidelines and best practices in the hopes of improving the online marketplace. The industry has been asked to make comments on the recommendations they have issued and then a review will be conducted of the feedback. At the end of this process, the guidelines will become final.

The general recommendations are:

Definition: Any advertising experience that utilizes a web-browser initiated additional window to deliver an ad impression either directly above or below the existing browser experience.

Frequency: Each user should be exposed to no more than one pop-up ad for each visit to an online site.*

Labeling: Both pop-ups and pop-unders should be clearly labeled with the name of the Network / Advertiser - Publisher - Browser Type ( if applicable)

Understanding that these are preliminary recommendations, this is a good start.

We all know what a scourge pop-ups and pop-unders are on the image of the business and the experience of the audience. In the last two weeks, both Corey Treffiletti and Seana Mulcahy have mentioned in their columns that they'd been at public gatherings and upon mentioning what they did for a living, received admonishing glares following by the question, "So, you do those pop-ups?"

But as has been said by a number of industry leaders, most notably Jason Burnham of Mass Transit, the real problem with pop-ups and pop-unders is they're out-of-control ubiquity. A person can't go anywhere without being assaulted by them. This is not a symptom of their innate evil, but rather their lack of regulation, primarily the lack of frequency control.

The feelings people have for pop-ups range somewhere between managed hostility and out-right hatred. This isn't because on their face pop-ups and pop-unders are bad, but because there are simply too many of them.

Of the three primary categories of redress the IAB is seeking in regards to pop-ups and pop-unders, the issue of frequency control should rest at the zenith of their ken. Dealing with the number of pop-ups a single publisher foists upon a single user in a single session would go leagues toward making them a kinder and gentler form of advertising.

Certainly there are some who would argue to do away with them all together, but I think that is overreacting and acting without knowing very much. The advertising business knows a lot about how people use media, and where people use media, and when people use media. But we know very little about why we use media or why we relate with it the way in which we do. As the Merovingian says in "Matrix: Reloaded," "'Why' is the only real social power, without it you are powerless."

Establishing some guidelines on how pop-ups work, will help to set the stage for learning the "whys" of media use and, by association, advertising, because the business will finally have some definition to just what pop-ups are and how they operate. Now all we know is that they are everywhere and people hate them.

It is no secret that I am a harsh critic of industry initiatives I see being self-indulgent or red herrings. But this is something that has been needing action for some time and it is good to see an industry organization like the IAB move more quickly than it has in the past to address pop-ups now, before they become interactive advertising's next SPAM.