Web Ad Burnout

turn off javascript, remove the flash plugin.
and kill most adds.

turn off image loading and kill tons of image adds.

or, just don't go back to a site that has the adds.

If you don't know what it means, Google it or take Capitalism 101.

If you don't like sites with web ads, don't view them. But they've got to pay the bills somehow. They can either charge a fee directly to the user, or they can sell ad space.

... someone's got to pay the web site's bills. The web site owners can either sell ads or charge member fees. (Or be like TR and do both.)

Regarding the efficacy of ads, you could ask the same question about ads in any medium. Television ads, newpaper ads, roadside ads put the name of the business and its product in front of consumers. Once you've seen the company name enough times you develop a sense of name recognition. That often gives people the confidence to purchase products from that business.

Lastly, I don't understand the first sentence of your post. "Google is claiming google dollar revenues selling web advertising." I'm going to guess that you mean that Google is making a lot of money from selling ad space. I am only guessing because that is not what the sentence says but it is the only thing that might make sense based on that weird string of words. I'll give you this much. It does appear to be a valid sentence. The problem is that it doesn't mean anything sensible.

That's about all you can do. And let the webmaster, or better yet, the person behind the content, know that you're not coming back.

I haven't visited dilbert.com since it became pop-up hell a couple of years ago. And I let Scott Adams know why I wasn't coming back. He sympathized, but said it was out of his hands. I still get the plain-text version of the Dilbert newsletter, but I copy and paste the content, minus the ads, before reading it.

A few voices in a sea of apathy might not be heard, but a whole bunch of voices can create a big wave that... does something... to validate this really terrible metaphor!

Yes it does seem that he meant googol dollars.

Funny thing happened. First I read his reply and looked up a word that he used, literalistic. I suspected that it wasn't really a word. Well it is. HAH!!

Same thing with googol.

Good thing I looked them up before I said anything. I managed to dodge one case of foot in mouth disease. :)

Works wonders! I sympathize for those people who use I.E. that continually get pop-up ads, even with WinXP SP2! I've been using the adblock Plus extension, as well as flashblock, and I don't get no ads, pop-up ads, or flash ads! Thank you Firefox/Firefox extension developers!

I learned two new words today because of you. Thanks. :D

First of all, of course there are many things you can do that will limit your exposure to advertisements. I don't think that's what this post wants to explore. The point is that advertisers can use ANY tactic they want to get your attention even to the point of making the website unusable. We have a right to be aggravated by that and we have a right to voice that aggravation. Unfortunately, we often don't have any communication vehicles available to voice our opinions.

One thing I do is to always take the time to try and find a link to complain. If I find it, I complain. If not, I try to avoid that site and I tell others to avoid it. Our word of mouth does have power! (...though, it's kind of like wind erosion...)

Another thing I've done is to actually write the parent company a letter. Yeah, I know, that thin thing that's usually white and has ink on it. It's very hard for a company NOT to respond to a physical letter that you mailed. While Webmasters and CIOs can keep you away from management, that secretary is usually very anxious to pass on mail that might cause his/her boss trouble if he/she didn't get it to them.

Overall, I prefer taking action over using passive advertisement avoidance techniques. While avoiding websites with bad advertising eventually has an effect, nothing can beat some good old direct company contact. If you do get a line to the offending website hosts, ask them to contact you with what they plan to do; this also makes it harder for them to ignore you.