I find my self just closing windows with pop-ups and shutting down videos with ads preceding them, no matter how interested in the material I may be. Advertising is one thing, but it has gotten to the point to where the actual content is being blocked by the advertisement. I've clicked through to some news sites where, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to move the big grey box out of the way of what I'm trying to read. Sometimes I'll have three or more tabs open and an advert will start BLARING AT MAX VOLUME on one of them, and I can't even tell which one is making all the racket.

Full Ack.

I also dislike that stuff which used to be in a simple written tutorial somewhere on the web now comes as video tutorial. With an Ad Clip in front.

It wouldn't hurt if people reconsidered a "simpler" web again. This page here is a great example that you don't need fancy flashing overlay advertisement and constant enbedded flash video.

This is how a lot of web content can be provided for free.

Yeah I hate it too, but that's why in a nutshell. Marketing and advertising is what makes to web go round.

I´m with you.
I find it extremely annoying.

Download this:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/

Then install this addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/?src=hp-dl-mostpopular

Problem solved

I use ABP plugin for FF and never see ads; even for online videos

And that is why i dont Internet Explorer and why Firefox is gods biggest gift to mankind.

Gawd especially om pron sites! I mean man..you ever seen the amount of stuff pumpin up and down in your peripheral !! how annoying is that !? thats why i got ad block plus ! ..umm i mean.. yeh.. those ads ...nothing like trying to guage where i should place my next investment at the exchange ..and those pesky ads pop up..yeh

Yes it's very annoying to watch a 15 second ad for a 10 second video!

Yes adblock plus works very well for these, especially on youtube.

This is the point where I come in with the compulsory short speech that says, use Ad Block, but be selective where you use it. Some sites, like this one, won't be around if enough people block enough ads. We are trying like hell to get 100% away from Flash based stuff and we're taking a big hit blocking so many different ad servers because I don't like going to sites with pop-up ads, overlay ads, and all the other obstructive ways to get attention, so I don't expect you to either. If anyone gets a popup from here, let me know the address (www.whatever-it-is.com) and I'll block them.

Yes it's very annoying to watch a 15 second ad for a 10 second video!

Yes adblock plus works very well for these, especially on youtube.

Adverts and spam are capitalism, i tell you.

I feel your pain! We are slowly losing our freedom from ads.

I do not visit theater chains too often but when I do I am shocked about the number of ads before the film (previews, car ads, cosmetics). Very very sad.

I have less of a problem with ads BEFORE the movie than ads IN the movie. These days movies such as 007 and Mission Impossible are all about the camera angles that get the product shot (what kind of car they are using, laptop, cell phone..etc..) It is so distracting and pisses me off.

BeachAV8R

Truth to be told too, it seems to me hosting and content generation was never cheaper than today. Increased ads in a decreasing expensive environment sound like commercialisation of the web to me (i.e. every little bit that would have been provided as "labor of love" before now makes money in some way).

Agree with 100% of you guys... Except with xclusiv8 with is Firefox comment

The problem with these ads is that they are obtrusive, they annoy you because they block what you want to see, that's guod will not have a problem with ads.



And the ads here I think are perfect, they don't get in your way, you notice them, sometimes click on them, but they don't pop up in your face or, even worse, you don't have to be waiting for THE AD to load. That's really annoying, with the Latinamerican internet that I have, I usually have to wait to just see the video, and with ads... I hae to wait for the ads, and then for the video! Disgusting no matter how you see it.

Unfortunately so much of the old "simpler" web seems to be vanishing, or at least becoming buried deeply under the "new" web.

An easy example are the many excellent "one man" websites out there devoted to the history of a product or hobby. There was a time when those website would turn up in your search engine results. Today it seems like a related Wikipedia page is in the top results far, far too often for my satisfaction. I might have to click through pages and pages of results for sales aggregators and blog repostings before a quality page comes up. I suppose modern SEO has somewhat to do with this.

A few website owners will add themselves to a related Wikipedia entry for extra exposure. And sometimes a little "link war" can be seen in the edits. Speaks a bit to just how much traffic goes through those Wikipedia pages, however ill suited to task they may be.

Yep Adlabs, those were the kind of pages and content I was thinking of.

And it's true - there are four or five companies trying to become "the Portal" to the web. Google, Wikipedia a bit, Facebook, Bing. In fact we brought it on ourself by our overreliance on Google - can anyone today really say that the search engine results are "the best" or are they simple what we have gotten used too and what Google wants us to see? There used to be five or six big name search engines just ten years ago.

The total "ROI" approach on anything done in today's web space is not generating good quality content and user experience.

Adverts are a way to offer content for free in exchange for watching, and possibly buying a product.

You know you're in crappy pr0n land when the advertisement has better content than the site itself.

I haven't seen a video that's come from someone holding up an I-Phone to a TV showing pr0n. THAT would be bad.