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.