Reviews for Popupblocker
Popupblocker by Joofthan
Review by Firefox user 13536436
Rated 4 out of 5
by Firefox user 13536436, 7 years agoI've tried 5 popup blockers since Mozilla forced this update on us and my old one stopped working. This is the only one I've tried that actually works and has so far blocked 100% of popups on video sites absolutely rife with dodgy popups.
However it is unfortunately a little... too effective and will disable your ability to right click to open new tabs or windows unless you whitelist those sites or click allow after trying to open it - neither of which are overly practical for normal browsing habits. So it definitely needs to be improved to be able to tell the difference between deliberate user actions and automated popups. I've ended up setting it to allow all new tabs but block all new windows since most popups are new windows anyway and I rarely right click and open in new window instead of new tab.
It's a bit of a compromise but it works. Frankly I'm amazed that Mozilla would force an update disabling out of date addons and still not include a popup blocker that actually works as a base feature of the browser. The very first popup I saw on a video site after updating Firefox and losing my old blocker was obvious malware disguised as a Firefox update with a page that could not be closed due to dialog popups and it is easy to see how people could be caught out by something like that. This add on makes the internet safe and usable once again...
EDIT: I've just noticed that with 'Block new windows' checked I can't even open a new instance of Firefox from a desktop icon without temporarily disabling the blocker. With it turned off nothing is blocked even when set to 'smart'. I don't know what smart is supposed to do - as mostly it will allow me to open new tabs with middle mouse or right click menu but every now and then it will prevent me doing so forcing me to turn it off. Really needs some improving.
However it is unfortunately a little... too effective and will disable your ability to right click to open new tabs or windows unless you whitelist those sites or click allow after trying to open it - neither of which are overly practical for normal browsing habits. So it definitely needs to be improved to be able to tell the difference between deliberate user actions and automated popups. I've ended up setting it to allow all new tabs but block all new windows since most popups are new windows anyway and I rarely right click and open in new window instead of new tab.
It's a bit of a compromise but it works. Frankly I'm amazed that Mozilla would force an update disabling out of date addons and still not include a popup blocker that actually works as a base feature of the browser. The very first popup I saw on a video site after updating Firefox and losing my old blocker was obvious malware disguised as a Firefox update with a page that could not be closed due to dialog popups and it is easy to see how people could be caught out by something like that. This add on makes the internet safe and usable once again...
EDIT: I've just noticed that with 'Block new windows' checked I can't even open a new instance of Firefox from a desktop icon without temporarily disabling the blocker. With it turned off nothing is blocked even when set to 'smart'. I don't know what smart is supposed to do - as mostly it will allow me to open new tabs with middle mouse or right click menu but every now and then it will prevent me doing so forcing me to turn it off. Really needs some improving.