The goal of the popup blocker is to reduce abuse, but it's not perfect. I have no idea whether anyone has seriously considered a design change before, but if you put on your programmer hat for a moment, what would the new policy be? Would you completely bar use of window.open() unless the user created an exception for the site, regardless of how Firefox thinks that script command was triggered?

You can search for and file new requests for enhancement in the bug tracking system:

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Popups are allowed on a key press or click event because it is assumed that the popup opening is something that the user needed. It also to help the user by eliminating annoying popup blocker notifications on things that the user has activated.

The people who answer questions here, for the most part, are other Firefox users volunteering their time (like me), not Mozilla employees or Firefox developers.

If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link. (You'll need to be on the latest version of Firefox to submit feedback). Your feedback gets collected at http://input.mozilla.org/, where a team of people read it and gather data about the most common issues.

You can also file a bug report on Bugzilla.

The Firefox pop-up blocker only works with pop-ups generated via JavaScript that runs automatically on a page and not pop-ups that comes as a possible side effect from code that is executed when you click a link or button.

Thanks to john99, jscher2000, Wesley Branton, and cor-el for their replies and reminding me that developmental issues (aka bugs) are best addressed elsewhere. I'll follow up there.

Allow me to address the justifications offered for this 'exception'. First, to characterize the current possible abuse as 'not perfect' is a gross understatement. Allowing the unlimited creation of new windows is exactly what 'Block Pop-Up' should be limiting, regardless of which type of code, html or java, initiates the creation.

And with my 'programer's hat' on, the only justifiable use of the window.open() command would be on the initial link for a new page (the equivalent of Right Clicking a link, and selecting 'Open Link in New Tab/Window'). Any use within a page would be blocked. In other words, in the midst of displaying one page, it would NOT be able to create a new window. Only when initiating a new page, that page could open one new window (leaving the existing page unchanged). Or 1 Click creates 1 Page.

To Wesley, the statement 'it is assumed that the popup opening is something that the user needed' is inaccurate. By allowing indiscriminate use of the window.open() command is only what the page creator wants, NOT what the User needs. (We should avoid the discussion of Need vs Want, it is a long one.) A 'User' does not 'need' 2 or 3, or the worst cases 10 or 15 new tabs/windows from a single Click.

Please remember, if you are no satisfied with the performance of the default Firefox popup blocker, you can find popup blockers from our add-ons website.

Wesley, do you understand how it sounds when you have to recommend an add-on to fix a basic function of the browser? What would you say if you bought a car and they told you if you would like the brakes to work after repeated stops, you have to change the pads to semi-metallics?

I can understand why your frustration with this feature of Firefox.
I'm sure that there are people both for and against what you are saying.

The Firefox community is full of people that are changing the way that Firefox works, by creating free add-ons.
As you said above, the popup blocker is only basic and many other users have built both script and relaxed versions of popup blockers.

I just don't know what to tell you.
I'm not a Firefox developer, nor are most people of these forums.
I'm here to help people solve issues with Firefox.
Unfortunately, this isn't an issue that I can help you with because there is nothing technically wrong. There is nothing that I can do.

If you wish to send a message to the Firefox developers, so that they can consider your idea, please contact them from this link.

We do have users whose work requires them to allow more than the default maximum number of pop-up windows a page can display ask how they can do that (change preference: dom.popup_maximum). You might be surprised what a common design pattern that was in the pre-Ajax/pre-overlay days. An application I designed (about 10 years ago, I think) using pop-ups for confirmations and "please wait" is still in use here. When you were coding for IE5.5, you had to do what you had to do.

Speaking of preferences, what do you think about modifying the list here:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste popup and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the dom.popup_allowed_events preference to delete unwanted events from the list and see whether that helps with the sites giving you problems.

Default list: change click dblclick mouseup reset submit touchend