Those mosquito-like "pop-up" and "pop-under" Web advertisements could be headed for rapid extinction after Microsoft Corp. decided to phase them out across its MSN Internet units around the globe by summer. The software giant said on Friday internal research showed customers were growing increasingly dissatisfied with the seemingly ubiquitous offers that appear in new windows when certain MSN Web sites are accessed.
As a result, the company will no longer sell such ad formats to advertisers. The ban goes into effect shortly for MSN's media properties in the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and Belgium, extending to all territories in the coming months, the firm said. MSN in the U.S. began the practice at the end of 2003. MSN, which describes itself as the world's most popular Web portals with 350 million global visitors, is the latest Internet firm to ban the much-maligned advertising format. Time Warner's Internet unit, AOL, began blocking the ads from its US portal last year.
News source: Reuters
As a result, the company will no longer sell such ad formats to advertisers. The ban goes into effect shortly for MSN's media properties in the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and Belgium, extending to all territories in the coming months, the firm said. MSN in the U.S. began the practice at the end of 2003. MSN, which describes itself as the world's most popular Web portals with 350 million global visitors, is the latest Internet firm to ban the much-maligned advertising format. Time Warner's Internet unit, AOL, began blocking the ads from its US portal last year.
PeopleSoft argues that an Oracle-PeopleSoft combination would leave too few competitors in the market for broad suites of software designed to automate accounting, human resources and manufacturing for the world's largest corporations. It claims prices would rise as a result. Oracle counters that the business applications market has too many rivals, including the formidable competitor Microsoft, which entered the market a couple of years ago.
Justice Department officials were not immediately available for comment.

'Bout damn time.
They're simply no longer going to have pop-ups on MSN or any associated web pages.
What a stupid comment.Have u read the article or what?.
They are going to phase out the pop up ads from their websites.I don't see why they can't do that.
And for those fools talking about popup blocking,this article is not about popup blocking in IE.It is about the complete removal of popup ads from their websites.
By the way,IMO Opera has the best popup blocking than any other browser since it has the "Open requested popup windows" option.So u need not add any websites to any white or black list.
Pot, Kettle, Black..
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