Since obviously nobody wants to view the crappy, boring ads the ad slingers come up with, we are now being forced, Clockwork Orange style, to view them. Here's some of the annoying techniques these MadMen wannabes have come up with.
1. Toothpaste Content: while trying to actually read the content you came to see, the page is forever narrowing as ad after ad after ad is slowing loading into the margins, squeezing the actual content into a thin band down the center. Annoying? Definitely. And after about 45 seconds or so, infuriating.
2. The Pageover: the most brazen of the browser hijacking techniques--it just obliterates the entire window with a full page ad, placing a neatly designed X in the upper corner as if to say, "we politely invite you to continue what we so rudely interrupted."
3. The Autoplayer: you load a page and suddenly there's a voice in your head extolling the virtues of some POS you never knew existed and, at that moment, wish never had. And then the ensuing search for the pause button to silence it. Think this is a really great way to introduce your product? Think again. This is especially annoying when restoring browser tabs and suddenly audio is playing... but from which of the 18 sites you just loaded? The hunt is on.
4. Whackanad: like an arcade game... from hell. Find the "X" on that popover ad as fast as you can and smack it. You went to see actual content, but first the game of destroying the annoying ad put there simply as a roadblock to what you want. Yes, I understand the site is getting paid for an "impression", but I bet the "expression" we're all emitting isn't what you were hoping for.
