Yahoo! UK & Ireland today announces the launch of a free pop-up blocker as part of its new downloadable Companion Toolbar. This free tool will give Yahoo! UK & Ireland's up to 15 million users the choice to stop unwanted pop-up advertisements appearing on their screens.

Although, Yahoo! UK & Ireland has not run commercial advertising on pop-ups on its network for over a year, it is now offering the service to its Companion users so they can block any online pop-ups ads elsewhere on the web. Yahoo! is committed to delivering advertisers' objectives by tailoring creative solutions that engage the user rather than disrupting their experience and by introducing the pop-up blocker it is improving the user experience to ensure that the most creative and engaging ad campaigns are properly absorbed. The new Pop-up Blocker is just one aspect of Yahoo!'s important focus on the user experience, including its leading anti-spam and anti-virus tools within Mail.

Dominic Trigg, director of European Ad Operations, Yahoo! Europe, said, "The presence of pop-up advertising on the internet has historically been viewed as a nuisance by many internet users, an intrusive measure that disrupts the flow of internet browsing and as such, is detrimental to any brand that is attempting to reach its audience in this way.

"With internet advertising at a tipping point and many more big brands advertising online, brand synergy is fundamental and consumer engagement with the brand is key. Advertisers don't want to be associated with disruptive and alienating methods. In 2003 we attracted 62 of the top 100 advertisers using online as an effective tool for their branding campaigns proving that leading advertisers now place heavy importance on selecting and targeting the correct audience."

Among the industry-leading tools, Yahoo! Companion Pop-up Blocker enables users to:
· Block unwanted pop-ups
· View recently blocked pop-up windows
· Keep a tally on how many pop-ups have been blocked

In addition, the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar allows users to search from anywhere on the Web. With it, users can:

· Search the web instantly
· Save bookmarks online to be accessed from any computer
· Search directly for Yahoo! products
· Search the Yahoo! Address Book
· Search and highlight terms within a site
· Automatically be notified when you receive new mail in your Yahoo! Mail account

Downloading Yahoo! Companion Toolbar is fast, free and easy:
yahoo.co.uk/companion

And to find out more take the Yahoo! Companion tour:
yahoo.co.uk/companiontour

Editors' Notes:

Third Party Stats

- Consumers with ad-blocking software are mostly heavy online users, many of whom have broadband.
- Ad-blockers are typically male, high-income, technology optimists; about 25% of this group prefer e-mail and a third of those actually buy products marketed through e-mail.

Source: van Tongeren, T. and Favier, J. (2003) Hurt by ad-blocking? Try e-mail marketing. Forrester Research, 14 August 2003


- 1/3 of Internet users feel that pop-ups and floating ads should never be used even to support free Web content.
- 2/3 of those surveyed agreed that some over-content ads were appropriate to sustain free Web content. Two ads per hour were regarded as acceptable.
- 70% said that there were too many over-content ads appearing.
- 58% were annoyed they had to close them.
- Over half were irritated that the ads were blocking content they were viewing.
- Compared to more traditional forms of advertising, 80% felt negative towards telemarketing and 2/3 did not like non-opt-in email ads.
- About 25% were positive towards Web ads.
- Banners and skyscraper online-ads were the most popular form of online advertising.

Source: dynamiclogic.com (2004) One-third of Internet users opposed to intrusive ads. New Media Age, 25 March 2004, p.12.

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