There’s a rather unwelcome trend I’ve seen across a lot of sites recently. Actually, it’s nothing new, but it’s being implemented in a slightly different way:

Let’s be honest here: These are pop–up adverts. I’m guessing they get through the normal pop up blockers because they’re not served up by some external ad server and they don’t open in a new browser window.

The darkened background may look a bit more trendy than a slew of new flashing windows, but they get in the way of what I’m trying to do, which is what pop-ups do. When I clicked on the link to your story I was expecting to see… your story! Instead you shoved me over and rubbed my face in something about your Twitter and Facebook accounts. And then I had to close this irrelevance. How rude. I like your politics, Political Scrapbook, but this makes me not like you.

Traditionally, this nonsense comes from clueless, outmoded marketing departments. What always surprises me is that no-one asks some obvious questions before deciding that a pop–up would be a good idea: Does anyone here actually appreciate having their browsing experience hijacked? Has anyone here actually done what a pop–up asked you to do?

The answer to both questions is ‘no’. Nobody likes pop–ups, so why inflict them on other people?

If you’re after Facebook and Twitter followers it’s very easy to draw your reader’s attention to links to your accounts. But you can’t make people follow you. In fact, I’m willing to bet that if Political Scrapbook ditched the pop–ups they’d get more followers; after all, one of the most common reactions to being mugged online is to close the offending window altogether.