Ok BigBadDave, Wullie, you guys are misunderstanding me...
In no way did I say that you shouldn't use popups...if you read all of my posts, you'll see that I was only stating my opinions from the users P.O.V. and not the designers...
Some sites do use popups verry wisely...to display definitions, command helps, tidbits, etc...but the majority of the sites out there use popups for popup ads, popup polls, etc., functionality that users get annoyed (once again, USERS) and have no bearing on the actual functionality of the site itself...i'm thinking from both P.O.V. here, not just the designers...
BigbadDave, in no where did I say you shouldn't use popups, you just jumped to the conclusion that if I reccomended a good popup stopper, I was giving a hidden message to designers to not use popups...
You just can't look at a few select sites and say that based on these sites popups are good/bad...
Popups are good in certain situations: like a bank site, college site, orginazational site...but to use popups like the way iwon.com or msnbc.com or aol.com uses is verry annoying...if I didn't have the popup stopper I would be closing windows everytime I clicked on a link... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...