How to Allow Certain Pop Ups With Google Chrome

Many of us have been conditioned to block pop-ups in our web browsers. I do this because most of them are intrusive and hinder me from reading. The problem is sometimes you need pop-ups as they are part of the site. This happened to me when I was going through an online course. Fortunately, Google has a way to selectively allow pop-ups in these cases.

The problem started when I went to take an online test on javascript. This course has both a written component and an online test area. Sure enough, when I went to the test area, I saw the error below.

Warning about pop-ups being disabled

Since I don’t use pop-up blockers, I figured there were two possibilities for this alert.

• The Ghostery extension blocked the popups.
• It was my Google Chrome settings.

I quickly ruled out Ghostery, which left my Chrome settings. As it turns out, blocking pop-ups is a recommended setting in Chrome.

How to Check Your Google Chrome Content Settings

1. Type chrome://settings/content in Chrome’s address bar. This flag is a shortcut.
2. The Content settings dialog will open.
3. Scroll down till you see Pop-ups.

Chrome’s Content Settings section

As you can see, the initial selections are either Allow or Do not allow. While I could change my option to the other radio button, I wanted something in-between. I wanted to allow popups for the lesson site – asmarterwaytolearn.com. That’s where Manage exceptions comes into play.

Method 1: Managing the Exceptions with Browser Icon

There are actually 2 ways to manage the exceptions, but one is a subtle hint. If I had looked over to the far right on my address bar, I would’ve seen my screen briefly flash a message. It also left a clue. Notice the new icon next to my star Bookmark icon.

Browser hint for blocked pop-up

If I click this icon, I get another dialog with 3 options.

Quick Pop-up options for domain

• I can click to allow this domain
• I can keep my default option
• I can Manage pop-up blocking.

Clicking option 1 would’ve allowed me to continue with my online course. Interestingly, Chrome is smart enough to know that I was using an Incognito session. This option will only apply when I use that option. Chrome also applied :80 to the end which I’m guessing represents the port number.

Chrome separates out Incognito sessions

Method 2: Creating Pop-up Exceptions

1. In your browser type chrome://settings/contentExceptions#popups
2. You should see the Pop-up exceptions panel that looks similar to the following.

Adding a domain and behavior

3. Note the [*.] before the example domain. This wildcard pattern would allow any subdomain on the site to also work. I tend to include it.
4. Click within the Hostname pattern text box (A) and type the domain you want to allow. The [*.]example.com will disappear. You can also type an IP address.

Entering the exception

5. Set your Behavior (B) to Allow.
6. Click the Done button at the bottom.
7. Open a new browser tab and test the domain you entered.

Once an item is entered, you can either remove it by clicking the X next to the entry or changing the Behavior from Allow to Block.

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