The 5 Most Annoying Types of Internet Advertisements

Advertising on the internet is unavoidable. It is the lifeblood of the majority of sites on the web. With the amount of time companies have had to perfect the art of online advertising, however, I don’t think it is unreasonable to say that they haven’t done their homework. Many advertisements have seemingly the opposite affect the advertiser is looking for, causing a negative reaction from the person viewing the ad. With that in mind, I’ve made a list of the most annoying types of online advertisements with the hope that maybe at least one company will rethink their approach:

5) Linked text : While not the most annoying in terms of looks, they are the easiest to click accidentally. Often, they also have nothing to do with the article that you may be reading. Random words are chosen that bring you to products unrelated to a subject that is most likely of interest to the reader. With a little tweaking, this type of advertising could redeem itself.

4) Expanding Banners: These ads would be fine, except that they are positioned in places that you are extremely likely to put your mouse over accidentally. This, of course, is by design, but is frustrating as the user of the website. When I move my mouse down from the address bar, the last thing I want to do is take a somewhat bearable banner ad and make it half the size of my browser window. Too add more aggravation, many of these expanded banners are very difficult to close once expanded.

3) Ads in the middle of the screen: Similar to the expanding banner in that it usually takes up an unnecessarily large portion of the screen, these ads differ for one major reason. These ads cannot be avoided, they come up automatically. Nearly always, they are frustratingly difficult to close. They hide a small X in one corner of the ad and generally color it is such a way that it is more difficult to spot than a Navy Seal.

2) Talking Banners : Don’t get me wrong, I love free IPods and Wiis. I also enjoy swatting buzzing flies. I just don’t think a web browser is the place for such things. The last thing I want is any audible interruption when I am trying to rock out to Aqua. Nothing makes me hit my back button faster than one of these ads. I simply can’t comprehend that anyone would be inspired to click one of these things (and for those of you that do, PLEASE STOP).

1) Pop up ads: While these have almost become irrelevant with today’s browsers, every once in a while, one manages to sneak through. In the days of the dial up modem, loading four pop ups on every site crippled your browsing speed. The only thing I clicked on these ads was the giant X in the top right corner, usually before the image even loaded. Even with pop up blockers, they manage to annoy me. I can’t tell you the number of times I have clicked the wrong link when my screen slides down to notify me that it has blocked all the pop ads that attempted to load.

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tagged as ads done right, Advertising, annoying, pop-up, revenue