I Google Chrome

Pop-Up blockers are a standard feature of the modern web browser. It almost makes you wonder why pop-up advertisements even still exist. But they do, so someone must still be making money from them.

The only problem is, that sometimes technology makes mistakes, and sites with legitimate pop-up windows get blocked. The hassle is then, how do I get to this window. As far as I am aware, all the major browsers do provide a mechanism for viewing these windows, but all are not created equal. Internet Explorer 7 requires you to ‘Temporarily Allow Pop-Ups’, after which the page will be reloaded, along with any pop-ups. Reloading the page is often not desired and sometimes not possible (think bank or shopping transactions).

Firefox has a better method, giving an Options button, and letting you chose individual windows to allow. Click the page title and the window will appear. Or, one click can close the yellow information bar instantly.

Chrome takes a novel approach, which is certainly not perfect, but provides another option. With some refinement, I think it would become my preferred method.

When Chrome blocks a pop-up, it shows a blue bar at the bottom of the screen, labelled ‘Blocked Pop-up’. Continue working and leave the site, the blue bars disappear. Click the x to make them disappear immediately. Or, if you want to see the window, click and drag the blue bar, and instantly your window appears. The width of the blue bar also represents the size of the window, which may give you a clue as to whether it is the pop-up window you are looking for.

The system is certainly not perfect. The blue bar is very big and distracting. It could be smaller, perhaps slightly transparent, and generally less conspicous. Multiple pop-ups also tend to be layered on top of each other, such that it is impossible to tell how many windows are there. That is not so much of a problem, but it leads to the next problem – there’s no way of closing all the blue bars at once.

Just a little more polish, and I think it’ll be fantastic!