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> He says that one of the company's irksome traits is deluging its members with advertising. "You know how when you log off, you get this message, 'Please wait

by navait 8y ago

> He says that one of the company's irksome traits is deluging its members with advertising. "You know how when you log off, you get this message, 'Please wait while we update your software?'" says Cassel. "Well, they don't tell you, but what they're really doing is downloading ads to your hard drive, so that the very next time you sign on, you get hit with -- boom! -- an ad. You get ads in your mailbox and in your chat room and an ad in the status bar." When I read this article, there were these ads: * A giant top ad for Intel * Left Column: Hertz banner, fixed with scroll * Right Column: Various ads that scroll as you scroll down the page * Far right column: Animated McCafe ad, fix with scroll * Multiple ads between sections including video * Ads at the end of the article, including SalonTV * Center Sidebar: Reese's ad * Right sidebar: Ad for pharma product, video; Firefox, no adblock brand new MacBook Pro was unable to smoothly scroll this page. The more things change, the more they stay the same indeed...

elliotec 8y ago
I turned off my adblocker just because of this comment, and you weren't kidding. This is the most ads I've seen on one page in a long time.
- atesti 8y ago
  Maybe you haven't turned off your adblocker in a long time
  - GrumpyNl 8y ago
    That is so true, did also switch it off because of the comments. I'm kind of shocked. Are people really browsing the internet like that?
bartread 8y ago
This is all of course true. uBlock Origin tells me it blocked 29 requests (representing 41% of the requests made by the page). I turned off uBlock just for a laugh and the page still hasn't finished loading even though I've had time to write this whole paragraph. One can only assume that when this article originally appeared on Salon back in February 2000 there were less ads on the site... or maybe the editorial team just had an acutely developed sense of - or an inhuman tolerance for - irony.
- derefr 8y ago
  > the page still hasn't finished loading Now, why do you expect a page with video ads to ever finish loading? Once it's played the video ads it loaded with, it just moves onto the next ones. By opening the page, you're actually tuning into an all-ads-all-the-time streaming television network!
  - bartread 8y ago
    You make a very good point: using an adblocker means I'm simply not used to this. It's interesting that this occurs only for video ads though: you'll note that sites like YouTube and Vimeo don't suffer with this. (Of course the video is still loading in the background, but the page is done.)
therein 8y ago
> * A giant top ad for Intel I turned off uBlock Origin just to have a good laugh, like the other sibling comments and not only did I get a giant top ad from Intel that starts expanded and then oh-so-graciously offers you to minimize it with a broken animation, I got 2 of those right on top of each other, both expanded. Their UX designers and QA engineers must have Adblock enabled.
QasimK 8y ago
Wow, just incredible. I too turned off my adblocker just to see this. Is this really how the vast majority of people browse the internet without an adblocker?! How do they take it? It's like letting someone slap your face, repeatedly. (Well okay, not quite as bad as that.)

by navait 8y ago

elliotec 8y ago

I turned off my adblocker just because of this comment, and you weren't kidding. This is the most ads I've seen on one page in a long time.

atesti 8y ago
Maybe you haven't turned off your adblocker in a long time
- GrumpyNl 8y ago
  That is so true, did also switch it off because of the comments. I'm kind of shocked. Are people really browsing the internet like that?

bartread 8y ago

This is all of course true. uBlock Origin tells me it blocked 29 requests (representing 41% of the requests made by the page). I turned off uBlock just for a laugh and the page still hasn't finished loading even though I've had time to write this whole paragraph. One can only assume that when this article originally appeared on Salon back in February 2000 there were less ads on the site... or maybe the editorial team just had an acutely developed sense of - or an inhuman tolerance for - irony.

derefr 8y ago
> the page still hasn't finished loading Now, why do you expect a page with video ads to ever finish loading? Once it's played the video ads it loaded with, it just moves onto the next ones. By opening the page, you're actually tuning into an all-ads-all-the-time streaming television network!
- bartread 8y ago
  You make a very good point: using an adblocker means I'm simply not used to this. It's interesting that this occurs only for video ads though: you'll note that sites like YouTube and Vimeo don't suffer with this. (Of course the video is still loading in the background, but the page is done.)

therein 8y ago

> * A giant top ad for Intel I turned off uBlock Origin just to have a good laugh, like the other sibling comments and not only did I get a giant top ad from Intel that starts expanded and then oh-so-graciously offers you to minimize it with a broken animation, I got 2 of those right on top of each other, both expanded. Their UX designers and QA engineers must have Adblock enabled.

QasimK 8y ago

Wow, just incredible. I too turned off my adblocker just to see this. Is this really how the vast majority of people browse the internet without an adblocker?! How do they take it? It's like letting someone slap your face, repeatedly. (Well okay, not quite as bad as that.)