Stefson*dot*com

To get the article started, lets use a quote from Jacob Nielsen’s book ‘Prioritizing Web Usability’.

The most hated ad techniques:

- 98% Popups
- 94% Tries to trick you into clicking it
- 93% Covers what you are trying to see

Many users close popups as fast as possible. The fact that it’s a popup is reason enough to want it gone, and fast.

So lets get to the point as to why I quote this.

This is what happens on occasion when you visit a well know dutch newspaper website.
Annoying isn’t it? It’s amazing to see how some companies mangle their own website with advertisements like this. I believe it was established in 1886 already that using popups, popunders, floaters was a big nono.

With the advent of popup-blockers in browsers, the strategy used by ad companies had to be adjusted. So there now are techniques to create unblockable popups for websites, knows as floaters, hover ads.

But as with pop-ups (before pop-up blockers), their appeal to advertisers is simple: they get people to click, usually transporting them to the advertiser’s site. While static Web ads typically have “click through” rates of 0.5 percent of viewers, according to numerous industry studies, the rate for pop-ups and floaters is 3 percent to 5 percent, though some studies suggest that many of those clicks are attempts to get rid of the ad.

Jarvis Coffin, chief executive of Burst Media, a company that sells advertising for more than 2,000 Web sites, said that even though he is a fan of the “rich media” ads, he warns that advertisers should understand that they cannot deluge people with the technology without consequence. “Just because you can do it doesn’t make it a smart thing to do,” he said.

As for me personal, I will never click on an ad that is forced upon me in a way like this.
Call it a principle thing.

The way they jam this down your throat, just plain evil. And how? By using these dirty tricks.

1. They delay the entrance of the popover (floater).
This gives the user a short window of false safety. You get on the site, start reading, your guard is down, and BAM, there is it.

2. Supersize me.
That’s right. If you make the ad big enough it gets impossible to ignore. Good work Mr. Adman, you made me look at the ad! Grrr.

3. Make it go away!!
If you’re lucky, the evil ad will disappear after 20 seconds. If on the other hand you’re not, good luck finding the little X to close it.

No no, take it from this little user.
Floaters are the new evil of the web.