Company gets patent for way to deliver a pop up window when you leave a web site.
It was once a favorite advertising tool and then a popular last-ditch effort from internet marketers.
Yes, I’m talking about the exit pop up. When you leave a site for good, the site sends one last goodbye…one last drop of monetization…one last effort to make you do something…a pop up window.
eBay was just awarded United States Patent 8,418,078 (pdf) for “Method and system to display a pop-up window when a user leaves a website”. It’s essentially a patent on one way to deliver these pop ups.
I’m not sure if it’s the most common way of delivering exit pops, as I’m sure there are multiple ways to execute exit pop up windows.
eBay filed its patent application in 2004. It was just granted today, so this has clearly been a long effort.
Ms Domainer says
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Just what we need: another annoying pop up.
Buh, bye, ebay.
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PeterG says
Am I missing something ? Do these types of patents really offer the user any protection?
Andrew Allemann says
patents aren’t designed to offer users any protection
ChuckWagen says
Maybe they’ll patent taking a vibrant, fun online auction community and turning it into a bland, soul-less internet strip mall.
PeterG says
Andrew,
Whats the point of a patent if it doesn’t protect the applicant against infringement?
Pete
Andrew Allemann says
It protects the applicant, not the user.
PeterG says
By user I meant applicant
ok, we’re on the same page it seems