News and commentary from the cross-platform scripting community.
	Web Ads Are Intrusive

By Barry Frankel, bfrankel@ix.netcom.com.

I got an email from Wesley Felter wesf@mail.utexas.edu in which he said, "In newspapers, many print ads are full-page, but we've adapted by turning the page and not even seeing them." I thought about this for a while and it dawned on me why I hate Internet the advertising, it is intrusive.

I love Newspage, but they put the ads at the top of the page. Yuck! Imagine the NY Times or the Mercury selling the top of the page. Tacky. This is where they go in the low end papers.

So where should Internet ads go? Where they go in print! The right hand side or the bottom right corner.

Look at AltaVista. There is plenty of space to put an ad on the right hand side. Now make the ad a frame. The ad could stay up for multiple pages. And advertisers could buy units of presentation time.

So what is to keep users from shrinking the ad off the page? Nothing. So, Web publishers, create a reason for user not to shrink the ads. Give out ad viewing points. View 24 hours of ads and get 24 miles on your frequent flyer mileage or some other premium.

Might work, might not, hope someone trys it.

Barry