Question: I overheard another banker say they thought it was a bad idea to use pop-up boxes on a bank Web site. I don't understand why it could be a problem. Could you shed some light on this?
Answer: Pop-up boxes can be an effective tool for drawing the attention of a Web surfer. We use a few of them on BankersOnline. You'll notice one talking about free shipping if you go to the BOL Banker Store, for example. Or if you're a first time visitor to the site, a pop-up box asks if you would like to view a special Flash orientation.
There are two reasons you might want to rethink using pop-up boxes on your institution's Web site. The first is that overuse of pop-ups can prove annoying. There are some sites on the Internet that launch an endless stream of pop-ups. I'm sure you've visited sites like that. Before you know it, you have more browser windows open than you can count.
Of course, most financial institutions would never dream of inundating surfers with a barrage of pop-ups, but the fact that other sites have done so means that clever programmers have found a way to surf in peace by implementing programs that kill pop-ups.
Browse in Peace - instructions for configuring older (4.x and below) versions of browsers to not display pop-up boxes
If you have crucial information presently displayed in a pop-up box, you need to consider the very real possibility that some visitors to your site may never see it because they may employ a pop-up killer. For example, some banks use pop-up boxes to alert a visitor to the fact that the link they just clicked will take them off the bank's Web site to a site operated and owned by a third party over whom the bank has no control. If the customer doesn't see that disclaimer, you haven't observed the precautions you should be taken in your Weblinking.
An easy alternative is to simply have the link take the visitor to a whole new HTML page. From it, they can be transported automatically (using the simple Meta Refresh code) to the next page.
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