PSX5Central
Playstation/Gaming Discussions => PS3 Discussion => Topic started by: IronFist on March 05, 2001, 09:10:36 PM
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I got this in my email today. It\'s about how banner ads are taking over the internet and how they are making the internet a less enjoyable place. It is pretty interesting. So if you have 10 minutes to spare, here it is:
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I was asked to address the Southeastern Louisiana
University Association of Computer Machinists this past
Thursday night. I had to say yes simply because the
name sounded so important.
This was a group of about 40 computer science students
who were hard-core PERL, JAVA, and C++
programmers. They were the cream of the programming
crop at my university. The two students who invited me
asked if I would discuss design rather than actual
programming. The group does enough of that on their
own. That seemed to make sense so I prepared an hour on
Web design.
We had a great time talking and critiquing Web sites.
Towards the end, one of the programmers told me that he
was "disgusted" with the number of banner ads on Web
pages. He proclaimed to always surf with his inline
images and JavaScript functions turned off. That way he
isn\'t bothered by all of the ads. His voice rang with the
sound of someone who has stuck a blow against the
establishment.
We talked and I made my usual "what if everyone surfed
without looking at the banner ads - the Web would be a
pay-for place" speech. He somewhat agreed and then
proclaimed, "It just bugs me that so many sites are not
only putting ads on their pages, but now have pop up
windows and applet windows and windows when you
leave. Why do they do that?"
Before I could answer, another student blurted out,
"Because you ain\'t looking, man."
Poor English aside, he\'s wholly and fully correct. We
ain\'t looking.
Oh sure, we may be looking, but we sure aren\'t clicking.
Because we\'re not clicking, advertisers are starting to
incorporate tactics that were once seen as nasty methods
used only by porn and SPAM sites.
Just this morning, I was surfing around looking for some
information about the new Aerosmith CD. At
Aerosmith.com, I was greeted with not only a pop up
window, but also an applet pop up window that forced its
way to the top of the browser pile. It had a timer
proclaiming I had only 30 seconds to act upon this
stunning deal for a free pizza.
After finding out about the CD, I split for Amazon.com to
see if I could pre-order. Bingo. There was another pop-
up window. I went to CNN. There was a pop-up
window. I left and hit Camp Chaos. There was another
pop-up window. I then left to hit Tabcrawler.com to get
the guitar chords for that Foo Fighters song at the
beginning of the TV show ED. There I was greeted with
not only a pop-up window, but also the request to set
Tabcrawler as my HOME. I had to click "no" twice to
see this page. Furthermore, every time I returned to the
homepage, I got that darn window again.
Woah! My morning surf has become annoying. I am not
only being shown banner ads, I am having them thrown
in front of my face. This would be equal to the woman at
the cosmetic counter tackling you to squirt the latest
perfume in your face.
In all honesty, I cannot remember the last time I clicked
on a banner ad. I know the sites I enter so well that I
have a serious case of banner blindness. I am part of the
reason why these pop-up windows are starting to flourish.
I am the person that must have the ads thrust in front of
my face. If it doesn\'t happen, I don\'t look. I can\'t tell
you the banner ads that appeared on the homepages, but I
can tell you the banner ads that popped up. Those I will
remember.
But so what? I remember the ad, but I certainly didn\'t
click. In fact, I cursed the ad and closed it as fast as I
could. My guess is that the vast majority of the people
reading this newsletter are doing the same.
It bothers me that advertisers are undertaking the tactics
once thought to be performed only by shysters and
cheats. It bothers me further that we\'re only seeing the
tip of the advertiser revolution that\'s about to hit.
It\'s obvious that a simple viewing of banners ads is not
enough for many advertisers any more. Those advertisers
are stepping up the method of presentation attempting to
force you to look. But, if looking wasn\'t enough before,
how will looking be enough now?
Some might suggest that simply looking is still enough to
satisfy an advertiser. The problem is that there\'s no sure
method of proving that someone looked at a banner ad
that is sitting on a page. If the ad pops up in a new
window, an advertiser can be fairly sure that the user
looked at it.
Well, maybe. The proliferation of pop-up ads and other
in-your-face tactics suggests to me that advertisers are
becoming aggressive because they want more than just
eyeballs on ads. They want increased traffic and sales
and these new tactics are giving that to them.
So...success, right? I don\'t know. If the aggressive
formats are truly successful, then more and more
advertisers are going to demand it from the sites that
display the ads. The Web will become a blur of new
windows and soon the audience will reach what\'s known
as the "threshold effect". Everyone is doing the same
aggressive tactic so no one stands out. Someone will
have to raise the stakes and do something even more
aggressive.
I understand that many programs now alter a user\'s
browser when installed. I\'ve not run into one myself, but
I\'ve read that many programs install, change the user\'s
HOME setting and disable the BACK button. (Source: Cnet News)
That\'s overly aggressive and it\'s not going to sit well
with the consumer.
This is a battle that\'s just beginning. I can see this being
the big Internet story in a couple of years. Dig this time
line...
Users, for the most part, do not like banner ads. Users do
not click on banner ads in large enough numbers so that
advertisers are satisfied. Advertisers become more and
more aggressive, forcing users to look at the ads. Users
still resist. The advertisers continue to become more and
more aggressive until a critical mass is reached. There
really isn\'t much more aggression to be implemented.
What then?
I fear that advertisers will start to see banner ads as not
effective and start to put their ad money in more
traditional media. That means lower ad revenue for the
sites that would run supported solely by advertisers. The
costs for running the sites won\'t go away anytime soon, so
the money has to come from somewhere. The users are
going to have to be charged or the site will die.
I read a great article about what sites will be the most
likely to succeed in the future. The overwhelming
answer, at least according to this author, were sites that
sell product. He believed that ad-supported sites would
have serious worries soon.
Could we be seeing the beginnings of that prophecy
coming true? Is this new found advertiser aggression
suggesting advertisers want more than page views for
their money?
If so, will the problem simply escalate until users resist
advertising to the point where advertisers don\'t see it
being worth their time and money anymore?
I hope not. I would like to keep HTML Goodies free to
you, but it isn\'t free to me. If your surfing is becoming
more and more annoying as more and more windows pop
up, think not only about how much you dislike those ads,
but also why those ads are being thrown up so often.
It might be a foreshadowing of a real problem in the
future of the Internet
--Joe Burns, Ph.D.
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What do you guys think? How are banner ads going to affect the internet? What will the internet be like in a couple years? Also, do you have any ideas of how to solve this problem?
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I hate pop ups and banners! :( :( :( die die die!!, they should make a pop up killing program!!
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popups and ads, pay for bandwidth
end of story
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I know that banner ads make web pages able to exist, but the problem is going to get worse and worse. Nobody reads banner ads, and the advertisers know this. I wonder how far advertisers will go just to make you read their ad.
There has to be a way to advertise and be noticed without being annoying. I hope somebody figures out a way to do this or the internet is just going to go down hill from here.
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Yea, who doesn\'t hate pop-ups? :/
I use them cause they pay a little, regular ads pay about almost nothing. Luckily this site is hosted for free right now... the ads would hardly cover the hosting fees, and I would not use my student loans to pay for a site and spend countless hours on it and still loose money.
The web advertising really sucks now :(
There are many people helping this site, writing reviews, posting news etc. I would like to pay all people who help out for their work, but when there\'s hardly no $ it\'s hard.
Still the ads are becoming more and more worthless and I expect tons of site go down (many has already closed) because lack of $ to pay hosting and lack of $ to pay people for working.
I really don\'t know how things will be in the future. Huge cooperative sites will survive cause they have fundings from other places than only ad revenue. The rest... well.
I expect to see more sites using subscription models and things like that so the user must pay for viewing the site. But people are used to be able to go to sites for free, so it will be very hard for those sites to get the users to pay for the site. And the cooperative sites will probably be able to keep it free....
So I think sites like this one ("fan sites") will will go down and huge cooperative sites stay. :(
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eh..dont worry man, as long as the pop ups keep this site running its fine with me ;)
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I refuse to complain about ads and popups. As MM said, they pay for bandwidth, end of story. These sites, while may seem simple in theory, are not. A server does not just charge to host the site. They also charge bandwidth and what not. Now, someone like Bjorn may want to be able to do this without ads and for the public, which is an extremely generous thought , it isn\'t really possible. I thank Bjorn a million times and over for this site and keeping it up, durin\' everything like he does. The ads or pop-ups are a small price to pay for this service. And yes, this is a service. While it may not seem like it is, but it is. It is a service provided by Bjorn and his web hosting. He makes the pages and deals with all the hassle, pays the bills, for we can stay up to date on news and talk to each other via the forums. That is a service, even if it is not "professional".
If you don\'t like the banners or ads, I suggest turning JavaScript off and what not. Then, the next time a personal-ran site (I.E, something such as PS2Central) goes away, because lack of funds to pay the bandwidth bill/ hosting, don\'t cry about it. It takes everyone all of what? Two seconds to right click an AD and select "Open In New Window". Hell, most Ads already open in a new window. By doing that, you are helping a small part to keep the site up.
And why don\'t people read the Ads? (1) Because people are lazy and have the notion that the internet should be hassle free and in general just that, free . Well, I\'m sorry, it isn\'t. If you like a website, help the owner for christ sake! People also have the notion that web-sites aren\'t that costly to run. That is dead wrong. A good web-site such as PS2central is expensive to run. And while, your one click each visit won\'t pay the bill. You can at least say you done your part and tried to help. The internet is a tool just like anything else. You tolerate commercials on the radio and TV. I suggest learning to tolerate it on the internet.
Whoever is hosting this site free for Bjorn, is extremely nice. A big thank you also to them.
;)
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Hi Bjorn.
A suggestion: have you tried using on seal and on lead
advertising? It\'s the solution for many web hosts out there; you just add a buy now button next to the game you\'re reviewein and we can buy things from your site.
Many sites out there have done some bucks with this system, like the old adm of Area Ps2. Try clicktrade.com.
P.s.
Hey Bjorn, what kind of hosting are you using? I need a service for my big site about Dvds, but I fear bandwidth.
Thank you
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well i hope thi site last a loooong time, this i an awesome site man, its the sheet!, it has the best forum around, and to see it go would kill me. but i know it will last a long time
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Fence: yea I have tried lead and sales ads. and they genereate about $0 for the site.
Was just checking out shugashack (major pc news site) and it looks like they\'re in some trouble:
http://www.shacknews.com/funk.y?thread=12677
:/
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Be quite Bjorn, you\'re making me sad! :crying:
P.S. Read your PM inbox.
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I don\'t like pop up ads but I do know they are necessary to pay for bandwith.
They only time they really bug me is when I check out *cough prOn *cough sites. (I know I have a sickness :() or warez sites (well those 2 are basically the same) cuz those things will alter your start up pace etc..
Anyway I always click the ads on this site I know you need money Björn ;)
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What they should do is check to see how long the window is open.
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Originally posted by nO-One
I don\'t like pop up ads but I do know they are necessary to pay for bandwith.
They only time they really bug me is when I check out *cough prOn *cough sites. (I know I have a sickness :() or warez sites (well those 2 are basically the same) cuz those things will alter your start up pace etc..
Anyway I always click the ads on this site I know you need money Björn ;)
uh oh ascettio... you said the W-word...
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Originally posted by Bjorn
So I think sites like this one ("fan sites") will will go down and huge cooperative sites stay. :(
That is why I\'m hoping for someone to come up with something soon before the internet crashes.
This site has been around for almost two years now, and there are thousands of people that use these forums. I don\'t know what I would do without this site.
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Yeah Interet is become very expensive these days pending what your plan is. If your a dial-up user, you have to pay for ISP AND phonebill. With the addition of this "pay-per site" system in the air, this could as well make it in the cost for having internet. I mean haven\'t we already paid too much for internet already? If you think high speed bandwidth saves money, think again. In some places, it costs nearly $50 USD to have cable OR dsl, and the flavors of it can sky rocket it easily. Yeah I think $29.99 a month for my 10mbit line is reasonable, but for the many sites I visit, and the numerous banners I click every visit and I\'m asked to pay for a site, I think its un-fair.
You can thank the big .com and E-commerce sites (yahoo, excite, etc etc) for bringing things down. Just look at the stock market now, Yahoo\'s stock (YHOO) was worth $169 per share not that long ago (7 months). Now its worth a measly $17.69 PER SHARE! Call it psyhotic, that\'s a lot of money!! Perhaps the technology industry is responsible for the downstream of the net industry, I mean just look at these companies who supply ram, CPU\'s, video cards all selling at dirt cheap prices. And its because of their ads that generate money for the sites on internet based around games, entertainment, technology.
We all know the gaming networks weren\'t going in the right direction when the susposevly huge network that hosted us for a long time, Gamfan Network, did not pay a site called SomethingAwful for 4 straight months, thus driving the controversey of suspecting GameFan wasn\'t able to pay its sites for a given reason(s). Sure enough the news came through in October when its owner, Express.com had punished GameFan for poor management and all sites were promised pay, but of course people like Bjorn never recieved 1 cent.
This isn\'t the only network that was expirencing troubles. The giant gamers.com network, established by the very successful Quake player, Dennis "Thresh" Fong, never updated its site for a long time and not paying its site. Again 1 month later a massive mail sent to its site(s) about it closing down.
Dissapointing indeed. Don\'t get Bjorn wrong, he sure isn\'t in it for the money only, he enjoys doing what he does but for a student needs some cash. I know right now he\'s working extremly hard to get school finished and finding a well paying job that hopefully will still power his very powerful sites that have owned the search engines. Because he loves running sites such as this since its such a blast having your content being viewed by thousands of visitors a day.
jm
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jeez, i have made neumerous web sites, with mostly free web host. i undersatand how hard it must be bjorn, as long as im around ill help keep the site interesting.... no matter. wat. hey but what am i thinking? this site has interesting, it has pimp. it has all the goods
if this site goes, no. it wont ! never!!!!!!