Far be it from me to disparage advertising. Directly or indirectly, it has provided me something of a livelihood for most of my adult life. But there’s a place for everything, and I hate having those messages from the sponsor shoved in my face.
That is, I can read a newspaper or a magazine and examine the ads or not, as I choose. I can pay attention to TV commercials — or not, if I have something at hand to read. Radio is trickier, but I generally listen to public stations whose commercial announcements are of the mellow “This program made possible through the generous support of” variety, and thereby miss whatever dubious product or service that a talk-show host is touting.
But those are old technologies, and these days we enjoy the World Wide Web, lately with new and improved methods to annoy. Web ads used to sit off to the side. Or sometimes they were in the middle of what you were trying to read, but you could scroll past them.
Not anymore. The latest and greatest trick is to float the ad in the middle of your screen, and that’s where it stays, scroll as you might. The only way to get rid of it is to click on the “X” in the upper right corner and, often as not, another persistent message blocks your view.
One does notice these ads, though. After gaudy inducements to eat sugar-frosted corn flakes began infesting my monitor on certain sites, my resolution to stick with store-brand oatmeal, bland as it can be at breakfast time, was greatly strengthened, doubtless to the benefit of my health and well-being.
Another recent Web trick is to make messages appear when you merely run your mouse over an item. You once needed to click on a link for something to happen, but not with this new labor-saving technology. Without any conscious effort, suddenly you’ve opened a new commercial window.
Sometimes they go away on their own, but often they must be closed with a click, forcing you to pay attention so that you at least know which products to avoid.
And then there are personalized ads. About a month ago, I started looking for ways to make my working quarters less crowded. There was one computer, a headless Linux box used for file transfers and backups, that could fit into a much smaller case. After making local inquiries and coming up empty, I did some online investigation at the New Egg and Tiger Direct websites.
While browsing the next day, I saw ads from both companies, featuring small computer cases for mini-ItX boards, just what I’d been looking for.
From what I’ve learned since, this was no coincidence; they’re able to target their ads. And this method covers the political spectrum, for the ads were on both the liberal Daily Kos site and the conservative Corner run by National Review. (I try to read a variety of commentary, though I draw the line at visiting World Net Daily more than once a month.)
Granted, the sites need to pay the bills, and these targeted messages aren’t nearly as obnoxious as the floaters and mouse-overs. But I can’t get over feeling perturbed that strangers know so much about me.
In the earlier days of the Web, there was a saying: “The Internet doesn’t care whether you’re a dog.” Now, the Internet cares whether you’ve been shopping for a new computer case.
Ed Quillen (ekquillen@gmail.com) of Salida is a regular contributor to The Denver Post.
