How Would You Change Google Chrome’s Popup Blocker?

In an earlier post, the previous owner of the site had nothing but high praise for the Google Chrome popup blocker. This praise was met with some fair criticism from some visitors, who had been experiencing frustrating limitations in the pop up system. With Chrome now at 1.0 status, does the updated system please?

One feature still missing from the popup blocker is the ability to white list a website that features pop ups that are crucial to the users. I can’t think of one reason why this might be left out intentionally, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the feature appear in a later build.

The ability to pull a popup up from the bottom has been removed, which is a good move in my opinion, because the old system was slightly confusing. I respect Google for trying to blaze a trail with a new quirk in the blocked pop ups game, but this quirk came at the expense of the user.

At its essence, the new system is really not any different from Firefox or Internet Explorer, aside from the omission of white and black listing websites, and of course the location of the notification. With all three browsers a notification is displayed, alerting you that a pop up was blocked and giving you the option to see the popup. Chrome adds a number, though I’ve seen it to be inaccurate from time to time. Also, the title of the popup is displayed, allowing you to get some information about what the popup might be, without actually opening it. This, too, I’ve seen to be buggy. There’s a lot of variation on the web, and the Chrome team may need to adjust the notification system to best represent the blocked popup.

A prime example is ESPN.com. When visiting the site, I’m alerted that there are two blocked popups. This is wrong. There is only one. Also, when I click the text in the “faux title bar” I’m told that the title of the popup is simply “-”. Not very useful.

Another gripe I have with the popup blocker is its location. I don’t like it at the bottom, and I don’t expect it will remain there very long. This may again be a case of Chrome trying to differentiate its similar features with Firefox, since Firefox puts the notification above. Unfortunately for Chrome, I’ve watched people using Chrome not even notice that the popup blocker was triggered. Of course, this is a double edged sword because you don’t want your notification annoying users, but you also don’t want them to be completely unaware. I’m no user interface designer, so I don’t have the solution. I am a user, and the location of the popup blocking notification is hurting Chrome’s chances of really catching on.

What do you think?