I hate the rising tide of ads but as a former (TV and web) content producer I used to rely on those to make sure I could eat. If everyone starts blocking the ads then what actually funds the creation of new good content (as opposed to bare minimum quality, heavily sponsored content that’s essentially time filling infomercial)?
One idea I thought about (and blogged http://tinyurl.com/aau2xg) a while ago was to have the ad companies support the ability to buy your way out across networks, so I could visit and site and never see a DoubleClick advert because I’m paying them $10/yr which they then split based on impressions with the publishers, or I could watch content from a site like Hulu ad free because I pay them $10/yr (or some reasonable number that enables them to operate)
I’d much prefer that option than the Blade Runner dystopia of advertising blimps feeding me buy now messages every hour of the day
I really do like your approach here. I think when you present things in a shaded manner using color(s) and no content it is clearly obvious that there is too much whitespace and advertisements. Edward Tufte would be proud.
I would totally understand if they had ads going from the upper right, flowing to the upper left and down the left side because according to most interface / eye tracking studies have shown this correlation. The ads on the right side are just pure waste since the average user would not look at it unless on the page for more than a minute.
Very nice article Jeff, I really do like your method(s) of analysis.
AdBlock is cool, but this little Utility is awesome. It uses block lists to decide which IP you do and do not want to talk to. It blocks out web trackers (like overture and technorati), advertizing sites and entrapment sites (bayTPS and media sentry who spy on music and video people download).
When its running you can see all the IPs it blocks. You will be amazed.
When you download, click on Check Updates. The web site is spotty since they get a lot of DDoS attacks by guess who. If you can’t update, wait 15 minutes and try again.
Make Money Now! says the Google Ad at the bottom of your blog post. Well the advertiser wasted his money on me! Some ad content can be interesting. I don’t listen to local radio much (BBC Radio 4, 2, 1 and CD/iPhone mainly), but it would be strange without the colour a few local ads provide.
Thing is, I hardly ever click on ads and usually filter them out mentally.
Is it any different from sports teams selling their arenas to conglomerates? The official title of many sporting competitions, that even the BBC has to use, includes the sponsor’s name. The man of the match award is even sponsored now. When I grew up a football team’s kit sponsor didn’t put their logo on the replica shirts, but now it’s not a replica shirt without the sponsor’s name. Parents even get upset when the sponsor changes and the kit they bought their child looks different.
Apart from the US tv ad model, where there is no break between programs, but then there are ads seemingly every 5 minutes (and worse, straight before the end credits and after the start credits X( ) what really started to annoy me about US tv last time I was that there was an animated logo in the corner of the screen advertising the next show. Animated network logos are bad enough, but the way Spike TV did it was just cruel. John Henson, if your show was any good, people would have watched it without you appearing in the bottom of the screen every 30 seconds. Sorry rant over. Spike TV was awesome for showing so much Trek, but I disliked the rest of its content greatly, mostly because of the trails for upcoming shows.