These windows can contain any HTML you want, so you can include pictures, lists, colours, or whatever.

The page I got it from, and where you can see a demo of it, is at:
http://javascript.internet.com/messages/overlib.html

I've got it to pop up some help when users move their mouse over the various links on my site. As they pass the mouse over them it pops up a box (and it looks quite good, too!)where it gives a brief description of what the link leads to.

What I'm hoping is that:

a) People will be more likely to visit a link if they know something about it. E.g. a link titled 'Articles' might get more clicks if a box appeared when the mouse hovers over the link, telling people what exciting articles they will find if they click.

b) It's a good way of packing more information onto a page. As in the above example, I can have the list of articles in the pop-up box rather than taking up space all the time.

c) Some features on my site might not be used too much by people that don't know what they are. But if they get a description and quick instructions when they hover their mouse over the forms then I'm hoping that they'll be more likely to try it out.

d) I'm also hoping that people will like the effect and it will make my site stand out a little more from the crowd!

I've only just added it to my site, though, so I'm still trying to work out the best way of doing it.

Anyway! Have a look and tell me if you think that it's a good feature!

I'd also be interested to know whether there are any drawbacks or disadvantages that you can think of.

sbanks!

Offhand, I think anything that helps your visitors is good. The only caution would be that it should cross-browser compatible ... but I tried these in both IE5 and NS4.61 and they were fine.