Monday, December 17, 2001

You know, I just don't "get" internet advertising...

I never had a problem with good old banner ads, sponsorships, or even the newer Flash-based ads you see nowadays on a lot of news sites (the ones that the text wraps around). Serving up a website costs money. Duh. If ads help pay the bills, that's a Good Thing. I've even clicked on some and occasionally bought a product.

What I don't get, though, is how and why the ads are becoming even more and more annoying now. I will never buy anything from a pop-up or pop-under ad. Period. I might click on it, but only be accident when I'm trying to make it go away. And the new generation of Flash ads that wipe the screen and make you wait for them? I've started avoiding sites that use them as best as I can.

The thing is, among all my friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and family, I know nobody who thinks any different. Do advertisers even realize that they're just pissing people off? And when this latest wave of ads fails, will they go back to the old school, or will sites just fold?

Finally, does _anyone_ ever buy a product from a spam pitch? I didn't think so. I'm not exactly a net.celeb, but I have been around for a while, and on the web and usenet for a decade or so. So my e-mail address is out there, and well-harvested - I must get around 20 or so spams a day, and those are just the ones that aren't knocked out at the server by my spam recipes. Arrgh. It's even worse at work - I had to blackhole pm0.net completely because their users abuse it so much.

Grumble.

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