In 2003, during the golden age of pop-up ads, the advertising research firm Dynamic Logic asked hundreds of people about over-content advertisements: ads that pop up from a Web page, lurk behind it or hover translucently over it like tiny digital storm clouds. Nearly a third of respondents said that such advertisements were “never appropriate.”

This year, Dynamic Logic posed the same question to 933 people, and found the percentage of Americans who objected strongly to such ads had fallen by 11 percentage points.

“Perhaps those ads are more entertaining or relevant to consumers than they were,” said Michelle Eule, the managing director of Dynamic Logic.

Nonetheless, there has been no increase in the median number of such ads that consumers are willing to put up with: in 2003 it was two an hour, and this year it was still two an hour. “Consumers aren’t saying they’re completely opening up arms to this format,” Ms. Eule said, “but they’ve become more accepting.”

Tags: advertisements, advertising research, consumers, digital storm, dynamic logic, eule, managing director, median number, percentage points, pop up ads, respondents, storm clouds, web page