Poll: What Web ad technique is the most annoying?
Thursday October 5, 2006
- The ad takes over the screen
- The ad covers or blocks content
- The ad doesn't have an off button
- The ad pops a window above the current one
- The ad pops a window below the current one
- The ad uses sound
- The ad doesn't tell you what it's for
- The ad tries to trick you into clicking
- The ad moves on the screen
- The ad slows the loading of the page
Comments
I miss the ‘all of the above’ option
. When ads annoy they should be removed anyway. All the options describe annoying ads, so don’t use them 
.
I second the motion. I don’t look at those adds to see what they are about, I try to find the quickest way to get rid of them.
Long live Adblock
I agree, they’re all annoying. And I also wish that companies didn’t use them. But personally, if I had to say which one annoys me the most it would be when the content is covered and I can’t get it uncovered, with a close second of the ad taking over the screen (which is, I suppose, similar).
Ide say the ad that takes over the screen (and or placed allover the screen and opens when you run your mouse over it) that blocks content has an annoying sound which moves and dosnt have a off button, or in other words those pesky ’smilie ads’, useually found everywhere now days…
Any add that goes out of its way to force you to view it is annoying and invasive, that includes the popup and popover adds, the full-page “click here to continue” adds, etc. I understand that many “free” sites are maintained by these ads, but there has to be a better way? Here’s an idea: How about a preferred members service; set up a service with a small monthly/yearly fee - sites can register with this service and all “preferred” members of this service can access and view those sites with limited commercial interruptions. In turn the [registered / compliant] sites are given a portion of the remunerations as a maintenance fee that would help offset their costs. There is a fair amount of logistics and financial details to work out but it would be possible. The web sites would win since the preferred members would visit these sites over others and the preferred members would win by eliminating annoying and potentially damaging adverts. If it were to be integrated with a Google/Yahoo like service it would be even easier to use with compliant sites getting a higher ranking in searches than non-compliant sites for example.
Whatever technique(s) used by a particular ad is what annoys me most. I picked sound because the poll forced me to make one choice and sound disturbs not only me but all those within hearing range.
i dont like ads which disturb or which are very loud in nature.
when i opened this page the other day…jus next was the scrolling ASK.com ad. many of about.com have the same ad.
Of course keep the ads but seeing th space and amount if info on about.com, i feel ask.com should go easy…..
The “premium member” option won’t work in practice unless it was federated somehow. Most people have dozens if not hundreds of sites that they visit regularly. So paying for ad-free content would quickly become a full time job. If there were a central place to pay a fee once, and have coverage over all visited websites, users could reap the benefits with one low-hassle payment.
Do you think that people would be willing to pay enough to offset the ads? If people are viewing hundreds of sites, that could equal as much as $100 a month or more.
When you mistype a url, say www. allsate.com instead of www. allstate.com and you get one of those “search portals” that tries to match whatever you typed.
“Find the best books about “where do I find allsate customer service numbers?” today!
ads with sound
ads that cover content you are trying to read
ads with “discreet?” close buttons
I was on MLB.com and an ad covered the square where game time loads with channel information
it had a thin red close button on the top edge of the box ad and I didn’t see it even though I was looking for it
I was pissed. ugh. [okay to laugh]
any ads that use system-intense graphics that tend to freeze up RAM. ugh.
Ah yes, I hate most ads, but especially those ones with repetitive and annoying animations and sounds, with or without Flash!
And we should all unite to fight the bloody cybersquatters!
So, long live AdBlock and FlashBlock…
ads that pop up AFTER you have closed the page!
There is nothing worse then accidently mousing over a smilie advert and hearing a shrill laugh, high enough to perferate an ear drum. Does my head in, literally.
So on that note sound in adverts, I’d rather have any kind of pop up ad that is closable as long as it doesn’t have sound.
What about those friggin’ double underlined links that have tooltips popup when you roll over them? I like to use my wheel to scroll through a page and highlight specific text that I’m reading, but when my mouse cursor is floating on the page, minding it’s own business and happens to land on one of those links…. it drive me batty I tell ‘ya… just batty!
Not sure if anyone remembers these ones, but back a few years ago there were some (cough) adult sties that would force you to stay in them. I am pretty sure that those were the worst sites ever built and I could never figure out how they would make any money since they were so obnoxious.
I hate those new flash ads that scroll across the screen and block everything until you hit it’s pretty little X (which doesn’t always work…). Sound on your ads is also a big no-no
One of my friends’ colleagues found a hovering ad covering the whole screen, with two “accept in order to close this ad”s selections, and no Xs. Each time you refresh the page, it appeared again, she reports. Strange and a nightmare. Maybe the webmaster felt like joking, I never saw an ad like that in my life!???
Sound is annoying too. But for some reason, I just hate the you have won our hourly prize ad. And on some sites, the ad that flashes and blinks through the whole page, so you can’t read the stuff on the page! Good thing there are ad blockers as well as popup blockers!!!
I hate those ads that say you have won a prize.. I have clicked on one or two but we Canuks are never eligible.. it would be helpful if programmers and webmasters remembered that their whole audience is not from the USA…