It’s pretty easy to ignore reading the NZHerald (or whatever site) when this happens:
I browse in tabs, so I just close the NZHerald tab and move on. It is easier to do that then to move the mouse down to the close (X) button on the NetRatings pop in.
Net Ratings could fix this by sending those invitations out less often, being smarter about unique I/P addresses, making a much bigger “close” button, defaulting to “No” so that if I press enter the box will go away, and updating their survey to ask relevant, interesting questions.
Lance Wiggs 
Same thing on stuff just a few days ago.
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I did the same thing – get the pop up, click away.
I thought this was like a major lesson of the 90’s… why did these big websites not get the memo?
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Hotmail does this too, albeit for ads and not research. I hardly ever use Hotmail though but I really do wonder how much it might annoy regular users of the service.
I think that the better thing to do would be to have it on the top where the banner ads usually are.
I doubt that’ll actually make any dents to their rotation schedules for advertisers, plus it’s less intrusive and obstructive.
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I thought their small town news was enough to ignore their site!
I agree with pop-ups also, I do not know anyone who likes or barely appreciates them.
pop-up = pop-out for me too
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From Guy Kawasaki’s blog:
“Most people believe that’s the best place for ads. This article, called “Demystifying ‘Above the Fold'” is important to read for its contrarian approach to this belief. It states that people are often so intent on reading content may not notice any ads above the fold. Better places to insert them are at “action points” like Comments or Links.”
The article is here:
http://blog.fluidesign.com/2008/02/12/demystifying-above-the-fold/
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