I don't know about any of you, but I am getting fed up with the increasing advertising we are seeing all over the internet.
It used to be we'd see a few side boxes with ads on a page. That was fine; they weren't intrusive, and they allowed you to decide if you wanted to see more about the product or service being hawked by clicking on the ad-- or not. Then about twelve years ago, advertisers discovered the power and influence the internet had over millions of households, and they decided to horn in on the action, buying ad space on just about every web page they could find. Seemingly overnight internet advertising exploded from a few unobtrusive ads to an unwelcomed permeation of advertising in every nook and cranny of the world wide web.
Over the last year or so, video commercials are increasingly present on many pages. When they first appeared, most commercials were 7-12 seconds long, and usually not tied in to the viewing of content. Lately, it seems like any game you want to play, or any video you want to watch is being preceded by a commercial of 30-60 seconds that is directly tied to the video.
Usually, when playing an online game (at least on MSN games), as levels are advanced, the player is subjected to a commercial between each level. Videos of any length aren't any better. I watched one news clip [that ended up being just 20 seconds] that had a 45 second commercial in front of it! It feels like I'm watching tv.
So what have I started doing? Well, just like tv, I mute the commercials and pay zero attention to the ads. This is the only way I feel I have any control. Before long, I don't doubt that there will be commercials in front of every click we make. That will be a sad day for a medium that had no ads anywhere when it first began. Kind of like FM radio...you know, all music, no ads. Now, listening to FM is a miserable tromp through the jungle to discover the music between the commercials.
Thank Goodness for Satellite Radio...until it too falls into the hands of advertisers.
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