Do Internet Ads Bug You? Do You Do Anything About it?

If they bother you that much, Phoe, you need to disable javascript ... I think.

Craven or Monger or Murray can verify that and how to do it.

(I voted 'they don't bother me'.)

Like you, I ride a mule (Win98) and don't use the Google tool bar. I'll be upgrading my OS shortly as I would rather spend a couple hundred than a couple thousand at this point. Pop Up Stopper ( www.panicware.com ) blocks everything pop-up related. I have to disable it (it's in my systray) if I want to even open a legitimate second window, which doesn't bother me to do either.

Oh God , I cant deal with choices. I dont like the pop-ups at inconvenient times, like when Im doing research on some work related topic. They tend to never stop and some of them will not let you out.
On the other hand , I do find out about neat things that , youve gotta be a guy to appreciate. i bought one of these radio controlled helicopters and me and F Jr terrorize the cats with it. GREAT FUN.

Most of the ads are just like billboards on a freeway, you learn to speed up and ignore them after awhile. My ISP supposedly offered a firewall feature. I never saw any rfeal difference in decreased frequency of Pop-ups.
My question is , what is the % return on this stuff? I assume pop ups are really cheap to install and they are inferentially driven by the puter. Outside of any really wacky toys,my eye just rejects anything that is popistic and , for some featured ads, who would be dumb enough to loan money or do some other serious act on the information provided by a pop up ad.

Also, I do alot of counter mainstream things on my e-mail puter. I use a browser that is almost at war with MS, so much source fed junk just doesnt seem to be as big a problem with my browser.

PDiddie- I don't know much about Javascript, but wouldn't doing that remove all the cute stuff....................like the smilies and avatars on A2K?

I am in the same position as you I use Win98SE, and I am very close to buying a whole new setup. I don't want to throw out a lot of money now for programs, that I might not need with my new computer.

If they are horrid and aggressive, I dislike them.

Ads that just sit there, though - like the ones here - do not bother me at all. If I like the site - as is the case here and on some other sites - and if the ad interests me - I click on them. I HAVE found some fabulous things through them!

Sometimes I click even when I do not like the site, if the ad is very interesting.

I have discovered some great sites this way.

Ads are the only way to have great content on the Internet that is free. The alternative is that we would have to pay to use Google, Yahoo or Able2Know.

Pop-ups are annoying, but I have no problems with the usally tasteful, sometimes interesting ads like the one on your left there.

I have occasionally clicked through ads that catch my fancy.

My marketing class points out that the purpose of a good ad campaign is to increase brand recognition (not to drive sales directly). In that some internet ads are very effective.

Is there anyone here who doesn't know what you can do with an X-10?

I just block popups (with Guidescope) but otherwise it doesn't matter to me. Like e_brown says, that's how the 'Net's paid for. Otherwise, there would be all sorts of usage fees. Hosting ain't cheap.

Yep.

Each new level bothers me for a while and then I tune it out. (That's why they keep making new levels.) Like, the ones that move... the ones that flash... the transparent ones that wander around the screen (which A2K doesn't have), etc. The Onion has some really annoying ones. But I just tune 'em out.

Thanks ebrown, in fact A2K will soon permanently ban computers who block the ads. It's considered leeching and is disconsiderate.

Every time you visit a page you are costing the site money. Blocking their revenue is wrong. If you do not like the ads do not visit the site.

When ad blocking becomes prevalent you will see the end of free con tent and services like A2K will become subscription based.

The leechers should simply stop visiting the sites, not try to use the site's money AND block their revenue.

I've long been studying automated software to block those people from all of my sites. I have no respect for leechers.

I just ignore ads. I will sometimes zap an annoying specific pop-up, but usually I just leave 'em be.

I will very occasionally click on an ad, but usually I just look for what I want, when I want it. Kind of like real life. I acknowledge the existence of flyers, like to browse some, but don't really examine them unless I have a specific shopping goal.

I find the emoticons to the side of reply window more distracting than most ads. The blushing face in particular can hold my attention for minutes some days.

The regular adds I ignore, it is the pop ups that bother me. As Farmerman pointed out some of them "capture" your screen and several have caused my computer to crash.

Oh, as an aside I block popups but do not return to the site.

I have no problem with blocking the illegitimates either. Many of the people giving ads a bad name are breaching their contracts with advertisers by using multiple ads, deceptive ads and other illegal methods.

I have no problem with denying them their revenue.

Don't get many pop-ups and I ignore ads on sites in general so they don't bother me too much. Although, I've found pop-ups to be much alike to buses...nothing and then tons all at once

I don't mind ads all that much. Only when the ads are so much that I can't even find the content I was searching for. I've actually been on some sites so with so many ads, I didn't know where the content was.

Anyway, I use Ultimate Popup Killer. But, I have to turn off my volume because they thought it would be cute if it made a shooting sound every time it stopped a popup. You can get it on cnet Download.com.

Craven- I hear where you are coming from, and I can respect that. I can live with static ads. It's the ones that flash and zoom, and do all sorts of stuff to distract the reader.

I particular abhor the one that moves to the top middle of your screen, and you can't remove it- It covers up some of the material that you are reading. In many cases, I end up never reading the page, but just click it off, in disgust.

It is possible that part of the difficulty that I have with the ads, is because of an inner ear problem. I have gotten wildly ill at the movies, from films that have a lot of movement, like "Twister", and "Titanic".

I hate those ads too, I do not visit sites that have any "floating" ads.

My criteria is that any ad that obscures content for even one second is too intrusive. For me that's popups, dhtml floaters and expanding banners.

If a site uses them on me I close the window and do not return.