Advertisements on Web Pages

[Tim May]

Just a note about what's happening with Web advertising.

Went to a site, www.imdb.com, to check something about a film. Up popped 
a doubleclick.net ad. In front of the main page, obscuring it. I clicked 
the close box. Up popped a _different_ ad. I clicked the close box. Yep, 
up popped a third ad box.  I closed it. I think it stopped at this point.

Of course, the usual ads were filling the right third of the screen 
(Amazon ads for DVDs, books, etc.). And the top part of the screen had 
an annoying Java-enabled ad with a blinking  package and the message 
"Claim your FREE PRIZE!" and another one screaming "Find a loan for me!" 
Part of the rest of the screen was IMDB hyping itself, offering special 
accounts, etc. Still, I figured that having 40% of my screen area left 
for actual _content_ was part of the deal.

But as soon as I clicked on the details I wanted, the boxes obscuring 
the content appeared _again_. Again, I closed the box, again up popped a 
new one, and so on.

Perhaps we are in the End Times. Surely this advertising model cannot 
last long.

Maybe this is how remailers will have to finance operations.


(There are better models, of course.)


--Tim May