Reading my news on The Sydney Morning Herald website, I get mildly annoyed by those ads that jump out and obscure the content. They are already highly animated to draw your attention, but at least they usually have an X button to close them. But today's ad for GIO's car insurance breaks new ground. Not only does it jump out but its 'close' button jumps around and is invisible most of the time, so you are drawn into a computer-game style shooting match instead of reading the news.
I don't even own a car. GET OUT OF MY FACE!
Result: I hate GIO. And the SMH.
I know it's problematic making money from web ads but I think this tactic damages everyone. If it keeps up I will simply turn elsewhere for my news.
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ReplyDeleteWhat ads?
But I do agree that the SMH ads are really confronting.
Same with BusinessSpectator which recently introdced Front page-Few Paras-Full story to increase ads viewed.
Assume that as the Internet becomes mature, click rates on ads fall forcing websites to make them more intrusive. Hence Mr Murdoch trying to move to paywall for his news sites.