I can only start this article by asking the rhetorical question - What Einstein came up with this lame brained idea? I don't fault the consumer who, on average doesn't recognize the total waste of money these products are, but with this article hope to enlighten you on why this is indeed the case.

First, for the newbie (computer speak for new computer user) who has just sat down to their new computer and never had the distaste of experiencing a popup, let's define what a popup is. When surfing (aka browsing � or looking at Internet web sites) one's travels are likely to bring you to a web page that uses a popup window. This is where you have one window that you were looking at, and now another browser window appears with another web page. This page may be a direct result of you're clicking on a picture, button, or link and may be providing valuable and wanted information.

A few examples include clicking:

• a word on a page and getting the definition of it in a popup window.
• a link and getting a video (news services use these) clip in a new window with news or a movie preview.
• a picture and getting a bigger, clearer view of it.

Unfortunately advertising companies, hackers, virus writers, and other advantage takers have taken a benign and helpful tool and made it into a weapon of mass(media) destruction.

Now you can go almost anywhere and end up with a popup. Google doesn't qualify web descriptions so even a porn site can describe itself as a cartoon site and suddenly you (or your children) are being bombarded with porn popups faster than you can close them out. Speaking of which NEVER click the X in the corner in a popup window.