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I understand that in today's competitive business environment, selling your product is important. And advertising helps to do that. Recently, though, I've noticed that more and more companies are using flashing ads. These make trying to use the website a pain in the neck, literally. I find that when confronted with either ads that flash or that move around on screen I just leave and buy whatever I want somewhere else.
Right now 2 people are spying on you...
The worst offenders include auction sites, mobile phone service providers and even train companies. There are also 'static' ads everywhere you look. Yes, I know there are ads on The Weekly Gripe but at least this is a free site. You would expect that. I find it irritating when you are trying to actually buy something or use a service that you have paid for and you get confronted with sometimes not so tasteful advertising.
My pet hate must be the tacky adverts that say something like 'Right now 2 people are spying on you' and 'Right now 2 people think you are a little ugly'. What childish drivel. The problem is though that teenagers who might already be having a bad time for whatever reason, or other vulnerable people in society could be pushed over the edge by these type of ads. They are rude and cruel and I think they should be stopped. How about an advertising standards body for websites?
... a bit miffed to see an advert for wrinkle cream right next to my photo
Also, a well-known dating site puts ads everywhere - right next to people's profiles. I had a go at online dating once and was a bit miffed to see an advert for wrinkle cream right next to my photo. Yes, I know I'm getting on a bit but still, that's a bit cheeky!
At the end of the day we can appreciate advertising may be necessary, but these businesses should really be more considerate of the visitors to their website and try to keep the ads as unobtrusive as possible and think a bit more about the user experience.
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An ideal solution= Firefox browser plus Adblock. You can also add another good "add-on" called Ghostery which blocks advertising and other crap at a server level.
With those 3 elements it really makes the web a nicer place. Fully recommend them.
I too have gone elsewhere when confronted with too many adverts; but they will probably never learn!
I hate when you try to click the little X in the top right hand corner to make the ad disappear and its always too small so you end up opening the page even larger and obscuring the page you're looking at.
I know they probably get a nice sum from the pop-up advertisers but all they reallly do is cut their nown throat as a lot of people will press the top left hand arrow to go back to google or whatever and try a new site.
Sk8kid