Good point on the modal popup windows! That could be a whole part of the article.
alert() was, after all, a standard way to notify the user about something (overused, yes). Then we switched to pop-in alerts.
Accessibility-wise, I think it is a big loss. The appearance is no more standard, focus management and navigability suck, its semantics are lost, and you cannot block it any more ("prevent this page from opening more pop-ups").
Most of the time the content of a pop-in will be as irrelevant as the past pop-up's, but with full HTML available: welcome colours, pictures and videos!
alert() was, after all, a standard way to notify the user about something (overused, yes). Then we switched to pop-in alerts. Accessibility-wise, I think it is a big loss. The appearance is no more standard, focus management and navigability suck, its semantics are lost, and you cannot block it any more ("prevent this page from opening more pop-ups").
Most of the time the content of a pop-in will be as irrelevant as the past pop-up's, but with full HTML available: welcome colours, pictures and videos!