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Back then, the majority of amateur websites used to have ads due to being hosted on one of the ad supported platforms (e.g Geocities [1], Angelfire [2], Tripod.

Back then, the majority of amateur websites used to have ads due to being hosted on one of the ad supported platforms (e.g Geocities [1], Angelfire [2], Tripod.com, etc.). Even major web portals had flashy ads at the very top of their home page [3][4][5][6]. Remember at 800x600 resolutions, those ads took a good chunk of the screen. Download portals (where most people got their software) were routinely serving adware/spyware with little risk of backlash [7]. I could go on and on... (thanks for bringing back memories by the way!) I'm not saying you're completely wrong but you seem to remember the past through rose colored glasses. [1] http://www.cnet.com/news/geocitizens-fume-over-watermark/ http://www.cnet.com/news/geocitizens-fume-over-watermark/ [2] http://web.archive.org/web/19990208003328/http://angelfire.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/19990208003328/http://angelfire.c... [3] http://web.archive.org/web/19990208014605/http://www.lycos.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/19990208014605/http://www.lycos.c... [4] http://web.archive.org/web/20000229043301/http://www.altavista.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20000229043301/http://www.altavis... [5] http://web.archive.org/web/20031012062202/http://yahoo.com http://web.archive.org/web/20031012062202/http://yahoo.com [6] http://web.archive.org/web/20010402054709/http://www.msn.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20010402054709/http://www.msn.com... [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claria_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claria_Corporation

jacquesm 11y ago
- full screen pop-ups obscuring the entire article - popups that obscure the article after you start reading and scroll down - campaigns that follow you everywhere - advertising in the middle of the text you're reading, in the same font as the article - entire articles written simply to be able to place a product or an ad (advertorials) - pages on which 50% or more is taken over by ads and on and on. Really the web of 2000 was so much more innocent in this respect. Those 640x480 ads were relatively easy to ignore, usually above the fold and maybe a skyscraper along the side but that was about it. Irritating, sure. But nothing compared to being hounded by ads for a specific product because you once googled a particular term or that feeling halfway through reading something that it is simply an un-declared ad. Btw, I host a copy of geocities today and it is entirely ad free :)

jacquesm 11y ago

- full screen pop-ups obscuring the entire article - popups that obscure the article after you start reading and scroll down - campaigns that follow you everywhere - advertising in the middle of the text you're reading, in the same font as the article - entire articles written simply to be able to place a product or an ad (advertorials) - pages on which 50% or more is taken over by ads and on and on. Really the web of 2000 was so much more innocent in this respect. Those 640x480 ads were relatively easy to ignore, usually above the fold and maybe a skyscraper along the side but that was about it. Irritating, sure. But nothing compared to being hounded by ads for a specific product because you once googled a particular term or that feeling halfway through reading something that it is simply an un-declared ad. Btw, I host a copy of geocities today and it is entirely ad free :)