Ethan Zuckerman is a name you are probably unfamiliar with, but there is little doubt that you have interacted with his invention. Almost everyone on the planet has had to deal with Ethan’s invention. Let me explain.
In 1993, Ethan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In 1994, Ethan dropped out of graduate school and focused on what was the newest technological craze, the World Wide Web. These days, we call it the internet. Until mid-1993, there were only about 50 websites in existence, but it snowballed shortly thereafter. Within a year, the number of websites grew into the thousands. (In October 2025, there were over 1.2 billion websites worldwide, and a new website was built about every three seconds.)
In the first year of the internet boom, Ethan and a couple of his friends in Williamstown began building an internet-based company called Tripod. Their intention was to provide content and services for graduates, what Ethan described as “tools for life.” The website was popular, but it was not making enough money to cover expenses. At its peak in the mid-1990s, about 15 million people visited their website daily. Although the number of visitors was certainly impressive, few people bought anything from the company. Ethan and his partners switched from trying to sell products to trying to get customers to pay for a subscription to gain access to their content. It was not successful. They tried to sell content in an online magazine format, but that failed too. As a last resort, they turned to advertisers, just as many other popular websites had done. Finally, they were making a hefty profit.
Then, a problem arose. A major car company which he refused to name purchased an ad that was placed on numerous websites indiscriminately. Executives at the car company were surprised and angered when their company’s ad appeared at the top of a popular pornographic website. They feared that the public would think that they were promoting pornography which could have destroyed the company’s reputation. Ethan began working to find a way to continue to have advertisements for websites but in a way that they seemed somewhat disconnected from the content on the website. After a period of trial and error, Ethan invented something the world had never seen before. Within a short time, his invention became almost inescapable. It also became one of the most hated inventions in history. In 1999, Ethan and his partners sold their company, and Ethan began to regret his invention. In August 2014, Ethan apologized to the world by saying, “I’m sorry. Our intentions were good.” Once opened, Pandora’s box is not easily closed. Ethan’s invention still pops up on computer screens across the world. You see, Ethan was the inventor of pop-up ads.
Sources:
1. Janhoi McGregor, “The Man Who Invented Pop-Up Ads Says ‘I’m Sorry’,” Forbes.com, August 15, 2014, accessed November 9, 2025, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2014/08/15/the-man-who-invented-pop-up-ads-says-im-sorry/.
2. Katherine Haan, “Top Website Statistics for 2025,” Forbes.com, October 24, 2025, accessed November 9, 2025, https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201.2%20billion%20websites%20on%20the%20internet%20in%202025&text=As%20of%20October%202025%2C%20the,of%20those%20websites%20are%20active.
3. Ethan Zuckerman, “About Me,” EthanZuckerman.com, accessed November 9, 2025, https://ethanzuckerman.com/about-me/.