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Why Google Gets It and the Others Don’t

Posted April 20, 2007 · Charles O

I am working from home today, and have to remotely access my computer at the client site. This involves directing my browser to the client’s “Home Office Access” login site, entering my two-factor authentication (consisting of my user name, a randomly generated token number plus a unique 4-digit identifier), and then formally logging into my computer and various applications through the Citrix Application Delivery solution, using my username and regular password. Phew.

During the authentication process, though, the Citrix application invokes several pop-up windows (all of which it immediately kills, save for one that needs to run in the background throughout the connection session), and given that my browser has both Google Toolbar and Yahoo Toolbar add-ons (which both include pop-up blockers), Citrix never succeeded in completing the authentication until I manually turned-off the pop-up blockers.

But here’s the difference between Google’s resolution of the user need and Yahoo’s. Google presents a toggle (i.e., on/off) button with two states: block pop-ups/pop-ups ok. Yahoo presents a drop down list with the following items:

• Enable Pop-Up Blocker


• Play Sound When Pop-Up Is Blocked


• Always Allow Pop-Ups From…


• Total Pop-Ups Blocked:


• Why am I still getting pop-ups?


• Pop-Up Blocker Text


• More Help

I think we can all agree that Google gets it; Yahoo doesn’t. Most users simply need to block pop-ups or allow them. Most users don’t care how many pop-ups have been blocked; most users don’t care for a sound when a pop-up is blocked; most users don’t want to be provided with a reason for why they are still getting pop-ups; most users don’t want to customize the text for pop-up blockers; most users don’t need or want more help… Most users simply want to block pop-up windows (and allow them for certain sites). In the final analysis, we can agree that most users do not even want to think about their pop-up blockers… they just want them to work.

In my case, the first time I asked Google to allow pop-ups for my client’s remote login site, Google also somehow learned from me that I’d like to always allow pop-ups for that particular site. The beauty of it is that Google’s implementation of the pop-up blocker continues to look to me like a toggle button, but in some mysterious way, Google continues to know never to block pop-ups on that site.

But guess what? Every single time I attempt to remotely login to my client-site computer, Yahoo keeps blocking the necessary pop-ups. Of course, I could select the “Always Allow Pop-Ups From…” item from Yahoo’s drop-down list, and then continue to another window to tell them which site I’d like to put on the ‘OK’ list, et cetera, et cetera … The point is that it’s just way more hassle, and more steps, options, and decisions than I care for relative to the simple task of blocking and/or allowing site pop-up windows.

The best technologies usually meet the user need without the user consciously thinking about them. Only awkward, crude technologies bring themselves to the user’s awareness of their existence.

It’s no wonder that Google continues to eat Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s lunches.

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