Google kills pop ups

By Steve Malone

Posted on 1 Jul 2003 at 11:23

Google has released the beta of Toolbar 2.0, the popular add-in for Internet Explorer.

The addition of a pop-up killer is bound to be popular with users and is another nail in the coffin of this particular type of ad. Although it doesn't seem to work 100 per cent of the time, it successfully removes most ads. As a precaution, the toolbar informs you that it is about to block the ad and gives you the option of allowing popups from certain sites. This is because some sites - such as banking and ecommerce sites - use pop-ups to undertake transactions.

Autoform filling is another new feature which includes filling in your credit card number. The credit card number itself is kept encrypted on your own hard disk rather than Google's servers and the number is theoretically password protected. All the same, many users will need some convincing that this feature won't spew out the credit card number everytime some spam site asks for it nicely.

The 'blog this' feature is the first fruits of Google's acquisition of Pyra Labs back in February - which included the

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