> Google didn't even have Adwords back then! Google didn't, but banner ads were around back then, and they were one of the main ways of making money off the In

> Google didn't even have Adwords back then! Google didn't, but banner ads were around back then, and they were one of the main ways of making money off the Internet until the market bottomed out. DoubleClick was a pretty major player for years before Google bought them. I remember lots of websites saying they suddenly had problems affording their hosting around 2000 because their banner ads suddenly started paying them pennies when they used to provide at least enough cash to cover the server bills. And that started the trend of websites accepting more and more intrusive ads, because they made more money than banner ads. Pop-ups became popular because pop-ups made money and banner ads didn't.