Thanks for providing this feedback. We're not able to make it a pop-up but we should be able to make it open in a new tab. I'll investigate the technical side of making this change and let you know the outcome. 

@LouB - Pulling this one back up.  Did you ever figure out if you could fix this?  At least having it default to a new tab would be helpful.  

@anchskier Thanks for checking back. We've not found a way to deliver this differently than the standard experience but we still have it on our list.

I sometimes right click the notification bell and use the options there to open it in a new tab in a web browser or browse my notifications from My Profile page with the widget at the top. This will still allow you to keep your notifications page open in a new tab and continue browsing the site from the tab you're in. Not exactly how you suggested but at the very least allows you to keep those notification open and switch back and forth as notifications arrive.