iVillage is doing the right thing.

Pop Go Those Blasted Pop-Up Ads, iVillage Decrees says the New York Times.

It’s good to see one of the original niche content sites setting a positive trend and formally moving away from pop-up ads:

Now, iVillage, a network of Web sites for women, says it is heeding its readers’ complaints and plans to eliminate most pop-up advertising by Sept. 30 on all its sites.

IVillage said a survey of its readers in March indicated that “92.5 percent of iVillage women found pop-up advertising to be the most frustrating feature of the Web.”

It seems that more and more these days, publishers’ desperation to make an ad dollar is turning them into carney hucksters, using any tactic they can to foist whatever product they have on an unsuspecting public.

Hopefully, other publishers will follow iVillage and we will see the emergence of more contextual, likable advertising online.