Internet pop-ups are seen by many Internet users to be nuisances. They slow down the “surfing” experience and sometimes even carry malicious code. Use of pop-up blockers has increased as a result of the high prevalence of this nuisance. Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla provide the most popular blockers; Google provides blocking through its toolbar while Microsoft and Mozilla provide blocking through their browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox respectively).

Here at STAT-USA, we often use pop-ups to deliver useful content to our subscribers. When a blocker is used, it unfortunately negatively impacts the functionality of our websites (www.stat-usa.gov, www.usatradeonline.gov, and www.eurotradeonline.gov). Using our sites with a pop-up blocker is possible, however.

There are two solutions to this problem. You can either add STAT-USA’s web addresses to your blocker’s whitelist (the list of unblocked sites) or you can turn off your pop-up blocker when you are accessing our sites. Below you will find directions on how to do this for the three most popular blockers along with links to their support sites.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)

Support page: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;843016

Adding STAT-USA sites to whitelist: On the Tools menu, point to Pop-up Blocker, and then click Pop-up Blocker Settings. In the Address of Web site to allow box, type in the STAT-USA web addresses found below and then click Add after each one. Click Close.

Turning off the blocker: On the Tools menu, point to Pop-up Blocker, and then click Turn off Pop-Up Blocker.

Google Toolbar

Support page: http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/topic.py?topic=116

Adding STAT-USA sites to whitelist: Visit the STAT-USA web addresses listed below and press the Popup Blocker button on the Google toolbar. The button text will change to read "Allow site popups," indicating that the Popup Blocker is disabled on the site in question.

Turning off the blocker: To completely disable the pop-up blocker, open the Toolbar Options window and clear the checkbox next to pop-up blocker in the Accessories section.

Mozilla Firefox

Support page: http://www.mozilla.org/support/

Adding STAT-USA sites to whitelist: On the Tools menu, click on Options and press the Web Features button. Press the Allowed Sites button next to Block Popup Windows In the Address of web site box, type in the STAT-USA web addresses found below and then click Allow after each one.

Turning off the blocker: On the Tools menu, click on Options and press the Web Features button. Uncheck the box next to Block Popup Windows.

STAT-USA Web Addresses: www.stat-usa.gov, www.usatradeonline.gov, www.eurotradeonline.gov, http://205.207.175.84, http://195.145.59.163